Page 77 - The Wish Stream Year of 2020 Crest

place. We attended the military funeral at the RMAS cemetery, a very sobering occasion.
As time went by, we amalgamated into a very close-knit group and were, by Sandhurst stand- ards, rebellious. We were driven to training areas in three tonner Bedford trucks and used to sing a ‘peace song’ that was popular at the time. It was “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”. We were in the middle of this, returning from an Exercise on Chobham Common, when our truck stopped in Sunningdale and a furious captain
small motorboats to the eastern side of the estu- ary. They indicated a ramp which they said was the exit from the beach. We marched off and our leading bodies fell about six feet off the end. (It was a ramp for the loading of trucks).
Modern Health & Safety rules would certainly not have permitted us to be loose cargo in the back of three tonners. There were wooden seats down each side, but some people sat on the edge of the truck sides with their feet on the seats. We
learnt that another Cadet had been seriously injured (a ripped kidney) by doing this, and we became more cautious. Another favoured position was simply to lie on the floor and try to go to sleep.
I mentioned singing. One of the Senior Cadets organised for Gaza Coy to be entered into the Acad-
emy Glee Club competition. He had us rehears- ing “Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree” for weeks. We were unplaced.
The ‘confidence course’. This was a scaffolding trainasium near the assault course. I could do all the tests on this, bar one. This involved jump- ing off one narrow plank about 20 feet off the ground onto another plank about 4 feet lower and about 3 feet away from the first plank. To
(a cavalry officer with a double-
barrelled name) gave us a monu-
mental bollocking, much to the
amusement of local shoppers.
The same captain annoyed us on
an escape and evasion exercise
on Dartmoor, when he brought
a truck to pick us up and then
promptly had it ‘break down’ (he
had pulled the choke right out and so flooded the engine). He told us to dismount and continue on foot. Naturally, as soon as we were a hun- dred yards away the truck started up and disap- peared. Our reaction to this was to dig out our carefully hidden cash and to hire a bus. We were one of the first Platoons to make it, uncaptured, to the final RV. Earlier on the same exercise we were trucked to the Royal Naval College at Dart- mouth where their Cadets took us, by night, in
He had us rehearsing “Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree” for weeks. We were unplaced.
HISTORICAL 75