Page 32 - RADC Bulletin 2021

Commissioning
Capt E Bell and Capt A Gurung
After their foundation year, OCdt Bell and OCdt Gurung entered Sandhurst on the 26th September 2020 for 10 weeks to commence officer training with 120 other cadets. In recent years, the course has changed from being the Professionally Qualified Officers (PQOs) Course to Commissioning Course Short (CCS).
The course is now undertaken by both reservists, gap years and PQOs, and has a modular structure, allowing for reservists to complete modules over a period of time rather than back to back as the PQOs do.
Each module is 2 weeks long, the reservists complete modules A to D and the PQOs have to complete an additional module - A to E. The course allowed us
to meet people from all walks of life. The youngest was 18 years old and the oldest was 50 years old. We had a professional Ironwoman athlete, a firefighter, paramedic, engineers and a geography professor amongst us! Most remained to complete modules A to D but some did modules A and B to return later for the latter elements.
“The course was unlike others because of COVID-19 and we had no idea what the next nine weeks had in store for us. Social distancing was maintained for the first two weeks of the course and then our platoon was established as a bubble.
The first morning started at 0600. A
very loud and out of tune rendition of the national anthem blazed the corridors. This was followed up with drinking a litre of water as quickly as possible and finally, we were ready to get started.
Initially, the mountain of things to learn seemed impossible, but within days we were mastering hospital corners and the drills. The first two weeks were an overload of all the basic military skills, such as weapons handling and navigation. The lessons filled
11 hours of the day, after which it was time to return to the lines to get ready for daily room inspections and to memorise names and mnemonics.
Soon, we were fully indoctrinated
and ironing at 0300 seemed perfectly normal. The module culminated in tests in everything we had learnt. All the hard work paid off when we all passed. The drill test was passed by a very thin line compared to the others - a very dubious ‘change step’ that sent the platoon into chaos.
We started as a bunch of strangers
from all walks of life, from infantry soldiers to lawyers; but after two weeks we had somehow become a team, confident in our military skills.
Module B started with our first platoon bubble trip out onto Barossa. Absolutely clueless about how to live in the field, we set off for a two-day introduction. There were lessons on everything from camouflage to duties of a sentry. It was wet and cold – as would be the theme of our time on Barossa.
We set up our first harbour area at night and some very inefficient bashas were
seen. At first light, we were seen sleeping with our feet sticking out of shelters and
our kit spread across the camp – much to the dismay of our DS. Shouts of “stand to” led to utter chaos and were followed by a punishment run. After only one night in the field, we arrived back to camp very broken and wondering how we were going to do an
exercise four times longer.
Back in barracks, we turned our attention
to signals, the combat estimate, and orders. Initially, our plans all involved firing a Javelin at every single enemy position, but eventually we managed to wrap our heads around the seven questions.
Now it was time to head back out on exercise, this time for three days, and we were determined to learn from the first experience. Unlike last time we weren’t here to have lessons, but to begin our campaign against the enemy we would fight for the next five weeks – the Donovians.
We spent long days out practicing section and platoon attacks in the pouring rain. With
30 RADC BULLETIN 2021
ACHIEVEMENTS