Page 25 - The Wish Stream Year of 2020 Crest

The Exercise makes Officer Cadets, walk- ing up the steps of Old College on Ironing Board Sunday and Major Generals in Head- quarters, quiver in anticipation and memory alike. Exercise SLIM’S STAND has changed lit- tle over the years and to this day still sets the benchmark for sleep deprivation and overall rag order that those on the Commissioning Course will experience during their time at the Royal Mili- tary Academy Sandhurst.
For Commissioning Course 201, deployment was designated for the evening of Saturday the 4th of July. The novel timing allowed the best part of a full day of preparations and rehearsals, but most importantly sleep. At 2000hrs that evening, Officer Cadets, that had been restricted to con- fines of Camp for all too long, left the white pearly gates of the RMAS and headed to the open hospitable plains of Stanta Training Area. Much to our frustration, following the remarkable suc- cesses 1 Sandhurst Rifles had against Zabzimek forces in the Junior Term, the enemy had now reorganised, miraculously acquired the capability of chemical warfare and was on the attack.
With all the potential options a modern, capable and innovative military force has open to it, there was only one that would simultaneously thwart the enemy’s advance and satisfy the needs of the directing staff. The answer could be seen in the shovels and pickaxes slung to our Bergans: Digging, digging and more digging. On arrival to our defensive position, Waterloo Company’s 2IC set about placing 7, 8 and 9 Platoons in left flank, right flank and reserve positions respec- tively, and assigned positions for fireteam and
OCdt Langford
command trenches. What followed was 36 hours of one-shovel-after-the-other as we dug down to our necks and constructed dwellings reminiscing to those on the western front.
Exhausted, bedraggled and bewildered were all words we lacked at the time to verbally com- municate as digging was replaced with the erec- tion of entanglement defensives, minefields and standing patrols. On completion of our Company STAP (Surveillance Target Acquisition Plan), momentum soon shifted to incorporating Offen-
Exercise SLIM’S STAND
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