Page 105 - Mercian Eagle 2013

run, this honour belonged to Pte Chaplin from the Rifles (completed 21 weeks training with the Marines before deciding to go for commision by firstly gaining a degree in Archaeology) at 8.25 mins. I set my sights on having him in the last two miles best effort of the fully loaded 8 mile TAB after our two days in the field. We started off strong after completing the first 6 miles forging ahead of the rest of the platoon conquering the Catterick hills one by one (some so steep they have been fondly named), only to take a wrong turn which after back tracking forced us to the rear of the platoon, needless to say there were a few expletives! Chaplin dug deep and made his way quickly to front of the platoon again with no hesitation, I started to cramp up in my hip and calf. Mentally I had to dig deep for my own self pride and physically I literally dug deep into my pocket to find 8–10 Haribo’s fused from my body heat together with an old tissue, which I couldn’t remember what it had been used for already!! Never the less I threw them down my neck in a vain attempt to get some glycogen back into my legs, it worked, and I clawed my way back to within 13 seconds of Chaplin. I was
gutted, given another half mile he would have been mine but the Haribo did save the day. Chaplin went on to win Best Recruit. We celebrated with a few sherbets in our tankers during our passing out evening,
the course creates great camaraderie and lasting friendships.
one of the biggest surprises and honours yet to come from the course which came in the way of being awarded ‘Soldier’s Solider’ voted by all the lads on the course. I didn’t regard myself as being better than any other man, infact I probably knew less than most of the platoon, but I set out to do my best
in every challenge set and attempted to lead by example by being a team player. The lads recognised this and
I was chuffed to bits, I guess taking extra chocolate to share in the field helped too!!
I will make no bones about it, this course is
hard, any man that makes it to the end and passes out should feel a sense of pride and this only increases awareness and respect for the regulars and for what they do day
in and day out, at home and overseas. I am now ready for the next step of working closely with my own company, attending more training weekends in preparation
to put it all to good use and get a tour underneath my belt.
The accumulation
of all our training was
optimised by the
grand finale of bayonet
training. Cpl Curry, Cpl
Tailor, Cpl Arnold all
melted us and quickly,
turned us into pretzels.
Any part of our feeble
civilian bodies had been
turned into potential
soldiers. Our dulcet tones constantly repeating the words ‘kill, kill, kill’ adding the chant of ‘cold, hard, steel’ which answered the question what is a bayonet made of? Crawling through foot high nettles and re-applying cam in large muddy puddles seemed like the norm by this time. My
time at Catterick was nothing short of spectacular, with highs and lows, that had answered all my previous questions. With
The accumulation of all our training was optimised by the grand finale of bayonet training.
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THE MERCIAN EAGLE
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