Page 71 - RADC Bulletin 2022

For the tooth, two swords
Capt S Kandhari & Capt M Wnuk
Lawyers, pilots, ethical hackers and most importantly dentists, you name it, CCS 223’s cadre had it. Despite coming from so many different fields and backgrounds, one thing was sure – we were all excited to begin our 10-week all-inclusive “holiday” at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
We all arrived with vague impressions of what lay ahead: drill, steep learning curves, and polishing boots until questionable hours in the morning. Here, a myriad of new skills had to be learnt within an unfamiliar and challenging environment. Much like the when a child learns to walk in early life, we were all unceremoniously dragged back to being toddlers, leopard crawling in the mud.
Our first real test in Module (Mod) Alpha was the navigation exercise in Barossa. If success is measured by a lack of lost cadets, you could consider it a resounding win, however, a large part of that success should be attributed to the genius who decided to split Barossa up by a power line. Otherwise, there was the usual fare of people disappearing into bogs, blaming the DS for inaccurate grids, and endless bragging by those who managed to find the nav-marker in the hidden sinkhole.
Mod Alpha then culminated with our
first exercise: AKEHURST EDGE. If there was one collective learning point from our platoons in those two days, it was that there was nothing worse in the army than putting wet kit back on. Safe to say we cleared out the waterproofing equipment in the Naafi after that.
Enter Mod Bravo, and we were introduced to every OCdt’s best friend – the combat estimate. Very soon Mod A felt but a distant memory, where our only worries were
burning every loose thread and making sure our bin liners were shiny enough for room inspections. Thankfully though by the 4187427th time the estimate was explained to us we soon realised the tactic of “assault, suppress, reserve” would work in every situation against the ZAB enemy, much like how “apply oil liberally” is the answer to every question in the weapon handling test.
The last week of Mod B then climaxed with our final exercise: Operation BROWNING STORM. Here, learning to summon and channel focussed aggression
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