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Inters 1 - Back into the factory
by chris 
Having had an extra weeks leave compared to everyone else due to my broken wrist I returned to RMAS refreshed and ready to hit the ground running. I rocked up on Saturday afternoon to get my room squared away and find all my kit from the halls of study before it became a massive cluster on Sunday when the 250 strong company descended up one room to find their kit. Back in on Sunday to start trying to make my room my own as this was mine for the next 6 months, providing I didn’t get back termed! The room tidying and sorting lasted about 4 hours which was then followed by another 5 of just ironing the clothes that had just been thrown in a box and left to crease for a month! First things first Monday morning it was straight back to the MRS for a check up with the doctor’s to see what I was fit to carry out whilst I still had the cast on my arm. I got the amber light to continue but only with light duties meaning no phys and a minimal participation in the first exercise on Wednesday, Royal Return. I missed the initial fitness test carried out on the Monday and having managed to push myself into the 300 club on my previous attempt I was keen to get stuck in and try and improve but the obvious constraints meant I had to stand and watch al my counterparts getting stuck in; not a nice feeling but one I was about to have to get used to for the exercise.
Royal return was a basic refresh/shake-out exercise to get everyone back into thinking green and back into thinking how to close in and destroy the enemy. For the exercise I was observing with the aim of trying to help my peers by watching the advances to contact and giving debrief points when prompted by the platoon commander. In reflection it was also beneficial to myself, although it didn’t really feel like it at the time, as it allowed me to get a completely different aspect into how officer cadets attack a certain problem and where the frequent problems kept occurring. Back in late Wednesday night we then prepped all our kit for early doors thursday morning as we were off to the ranges to start zeroing our rifles and in the background get hands on the pistol and riot control weapon. All of which I had to stand on the periphery and watch.
Friday was followed by a round robin on various stands of information for the next exercise, First/Worst encounter. The main emphasis on this exercise is defensive ops, and as such we have to dig a number of stage 3 trenches. Due to injury unfortunately I wont be participating in the digging but in the company CP, which even though will be far less physically demanding I am jealous that every one else will be going through this exercise together and I will be in the biff team, which no matter what you are doing always feels like people are looking at you and thinking your faking it to get out of the hard work; even though I have a cast on my hand.
We had a nice day out on the Tuesday to Chrivenham which is the defence academy for the British army. It was basically a day away from RMAS and we got shown some old armour and tanks and then some gucci future weapons that had the MOD not been broke might be in service by the time I retire. We also got to crawl around some logistics wagons and artillery guns. 24 Platoon managed to get 18 people inside the cab of one lorry. I record that we kept for the day.
The weekend started with a few lectures then onto sports afternoon, although with my spas hand this somewhat limited my participation in the triathlon club! From lunch time on the saturday through to 0100 sunday morning we were to decorate our lines. This meant creating and mounting literally 100's of posters, pictures and anything else we could think of to make them look our own as Monday morning we had a college commanders inspection. With this inspection he was also inspecting a select few bedrooms which meant these had to be squared away but also personalised to look our own. So with this in mind myself and my far shorter and lesser haired mate headed out to woking to go and buy some personality! This ranged from printing off a number of photos from the hard-drive having spent the best part of an hour trying to find the ones which would, at least try, to make me look like i had a personality! £40 later i know owned 25 photos, a poster of Rocky another of Megan Fox and a union jack flag cup the size of my head my room resembled something that could pass as having been personalised! Sunday was oculars to chapel so again every person within RMAS files into the chapel sings their heart out for 45 minutes then heads off for tea and biscuits! Sunday eve was filled with some last minute decoration of the lines, ironing, drinking cups of tea and moaning about being back at sandhurst!≤br≥≤br≥
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Royal return was a basic refresh/shake-out exercise to get everyone back into thinking green and back into thinking how to close in and destroy the enemy. For the exercise I was observing with the aim of trying to help my peers by watching the advances to contact and giving debrief points when prompted by the platoon commander. In reflection it was also beneficial to myself, although it didn’t really feel like it at the time, as it allowed me to get a completely different aspect into how officer cadets attack a certain problem and where the frequent problems kept occurring. Back in late Wednesday night we then prepped all our kit for early doors thursday morning as we were off to the ranges to start zeroing our rifles and in the background get hands on the pistol and riot control weapon. All of which I had to stand on the periphery and watch.
Friday was followed by a round robin on various stands of information for the next exercise, First/Worst encounter. The main emphasis on this exercise is defensive ops, and as such we have to dig a number of stage 3 trenches. Due to injury unfortunately I wont be participating in the digging but in the company CP, which even though will be far less physically demanding I am jealous that every one else will be going through this exercise together and I will be in the biff team, which no matter what you are doing always feels like people are looking at you and thinking your faking it to get out of the hard work; even though I have a cast on my hand.
We had a nice day out on the Tuesday to Chrivenham which is the defence academy for the British army. It was basically a day away from RMAS and we got shown some old armour and tanks and then some gucci future weapons that had the MOD not been broke might be in service by the time I retire. We also got to crawl around some logistics wagons and artillery guns. 24 Platoon managed to get 18 people inside the cab of one lorry. I record that we kept for the day.
The weekend started with a few lectures then onto sports afternoon, although with my spas hand this somewhat limited my participation in the triathlon club! From lunch time on the saturday through to 0100 sunday morning we were to decorate our lines. This meant creating and mounting literally 100's of posters, pictures and anything else we could think of to make them look our own as Monday morning we had a college commanders inspection. With this inspection he was also inspecting a select few bedrooms which meant these had to be squared away but also personalised to look our own. So with this in mind myself and my far shorter and lesser haired mate headed out to woking to go and buy some personality! This ranged from printing off a number of photos from the hard-drive having spent the best part of an hour trying to find the ones which would, at least try, to make me look like i had a personality! £40 later i know owned 25 photos, a poster of Rocky another of Megan Fox and a union jack flag cup the size of my head my room resembled something that could pass as having been personalised! Sunday was oculars to chapel so again every person within RMAS files into the chapel sings their heart out for 45 minutes then heads off for tea and biscuits! Sunday eve was filled with some last minute decoration of the lines, ironing, drinking cups of tea and moaning about being back at sandhurst!≤br≥≤br≥
09/21/10 07:37:54 am,