Page 89 - Wish Stream Year of 2016

tion on a line stuck to the corridor oor, belting out the national anthem, and then downing a litre of water every day before the sun had even risen: that was the start of it. Each day began the same for every single person. We did everything together, at the same time, as a group. Everyone dressed the same. Everyone’s room was laid out identically. These were all external in uences designed to level the playing eld, designed to remove all those typical appearance-based things upon which we subconsciously form ste- reotypes. Soldiers, businessmen, gardeners, and students alike, all suddenly took on a new identity of “Of cer Cadet,” some more reluc- tantly than others. I nd it hard to imagine any other walk of life where such a rich tapestry of people could ever be found side by side in such arduous, and often surreal, circumstances. For example, I had never expected to nd myself berating a Prince at 0200hrs in the morning because he wasn’t dusting the skirting boards thoroughly enough!
That said, the people we were before walking up the Old College steps, ironing board clutched anxiously in hand, were never truly erased from our identities. Everyone in 25 Platoon brought something different to the table, and this is where the team truly began to weave itself together. Those coming from ‘grown-up
25 Platoon after the Week Five drill test
The fact that everyone was (and still is) so dif- ferent was, at the beginning, a source of fric- tion within the platoon, and to an extent, it still is. Throwing together twenty-seven future lead- ers of men and women is always going to lead to character clashes and strong opinions. Yes, some of us might have got off on the wrong foot with each other. Yet after ve weeks of spend- ing every waking moment together, and getting
to know each other in ways we will probably never know our civilian friends, we all learnt that rst impres- sions are so very often incorrect. The clashes of dominant characters sub- sided as everyone learnt to get along with each other, because it’s a tough enough struggle here without strug- gling amongst ourselves. Slowly, somewhere amongst the shared hardships of Ex Self Reliance, some- where amongst the craziness room inspections, impossible timings, and being marched up and down the
square, all these unique individuals bonded into a genuine team. On Day One, 25 Platoon was but a label placed upon us by Sandhurst. Now, 25 Platoon forms part of who we are, and no doubt will continue to do so for many years yet to come.
jobs’ helped us to keep things in
perspective when the Sandhurst
bubble threatened to became too
suffocating. Those with previous
military experience quickly formed
the core of the Platoon, with many
OCdts leaning on them for help
and advice. We learnt very quickly
that if we were ever going to get
out the other end of Weeks One
to Five with our sanity intact, we
had to help each other, and utilise
all these different skills that every-
one brought with them. One factor that certainly pulled the platoon together is that everyone was good at something, however small. There is the OCdt who is good at digging, the one who is good at bulling boots, the one who is good at navigation, or, in my case, good at folding cloth- ing into a perfect A4-sized rectangle! The list goes on. 25 Platoon functions so well because everyone has managed to nd their ‘niche.’
Throwing together twenty-seven future leaders of men and women is always going to lead to character clashes and strong opinions.
SANDHURST 87