158 Troop Chronicles – Week 4

158 Troop Chronicles – Week 4

After two weeks leave and the knowledge that we no longer had the cushion of home comforts, we may have been forgiven for being slightly worried about returning to training at CTCRM.  After hearing the numerous rumours regarding the ‘Lympstone blues’, we had convinced ourselves that it would be fine.  These feelings were almost immediately banished as we met up with the rest of the Troop at Exeter St David’s train station.  The knowledge that we are all in this together is incredibly comforting.  A relatively straight forward night of admin followed.

The morning came round and we had missed it like a hole-in-the-head and, after a quick shower, the ironing of bed sheets commenced before our room inspection.  We had put a lot of effort into our room and managed to achieve a scrape pass from Cpl White.  The first lesson of the day was a lesson by the Physio.  We moved onto weapons training next.  We were then warmly welcomed back by the PTIs, some of the lads were worried they had been over-indulgent over the Christmas break and whilst the training session was hard we put in a lot of effort and I think this was recognised by Cpl Hedley.

Tuesday came and the Troop were buzzing for our first real soldiering lesson.  We loaded up the lorry, drew our weapons and headed off to the Training Teams playground – Woodbury Common.  We were treated to the delights of cooking and cleaning in the field and the one of the worst things ever – wet and dry.  This is where you take off your wet clothes and change into you dry clothes to sleep in… and then when you go onto sentry, you put your wet clothes back on!  Just before we started the march back to camp we were given another lesson in timekeeping.

The march back was very difficult, and one of the lowest points so far in training; most felt very weak and close to passing out.  Determined to make up for our downfalls, we began to clean and deservice our kit and equipment.  This was a long, difficult and very messy task which took up most of the night.

When Thursday came round the famous Mud Run was written in black and white on our training programme.  After a long day with two hard sessions of phys and a number of lectures we moved back to the accommodation awaiting a further session of phys… in the mud.  We got back and it was a huge relief to find out the mud run was cancelled but it was utterly soul destroying as the reason the Training Team cancelled the run was because they did not think we could deal with the administration.  Unfortunately we were late back to the accommodation again and had to crack a room change – another time consuming exercise.

We finished the week with another kit muster to make sure we were up to standard.  Unfortunately some silly mistakes cost us some of our shore leave.  We conducted some drill later in the morning and then some more phys where we learnt to ‘make fast’ on the ropes.  A movement where you grip the rope with your legs and remove your arms from the rope.

Sunday came and as the last day of the week we had a decent amount of shore leave.

As a Troop, we have good points and bad points.  We have to realise we must be in the right place at the right time, with the right equipment.  We have to start to impress the training team, this will make our lives easier.  When we do pull it together, it shows because morale is boosted and we produce results.  On a personal level, I feel my administration is getting better however there is still a massive room for improvement – there always will be.  I have my eyes set on the Green Beret, and I will do whatever it takes to get it.