Friday 30 October 2009

The fun

The first thing I did as a flight sergeant was begin a new course. Advanced Field Training was created at out squadron to promote and refine leadership and teamwork skills through fitness, drill and fieldcraft. The idea was to bring future NCOs forward and prepare the rest of us for the Junior Leader course or military basic training.

It was hard. 20 stared the course, 4 passed and 1 made it through to the end but had to retake it in the second year. We began with solid fitness sessions that pushed us to our limits, and a good kicking if we didn't push hard enough. Eventually those of us that made it through started further field training (laced with more fitness). We were taught tactics, battle drills, building clearances, everything and anything we could possibly need in the field but that the corps would never really teach us.

Phase 3 included the biggest naughty. We used 'airsoft' to furthur our training. Being able to engage in semi-realistic scenarios and get used to moving with and looking after a weapon in the field was a major part of what we'd aimed for. The final part was a night exercise on a local farm using all of our skills to recce an enemy and later attack them. 4 of us vs 9 of them. Whilst not technically a complete success, we did complete out main objective and survive so we won. After that was a simple fitness test and written exam and the 4 of us had passed the first AFT course.

Matt and Sait ended up as my Sergeants and together we ran the squadron well. We brought the Wing Field Day and Drill teams up and reached 4th in the year before I left. The band began to move back up to where it was years before and we became more and more recognised for our squadrons abilities. Sadly neither of us ever went on the JL course (we never got paperwork in time) but we did run the AFT course for another 2 years. It was never quite the same as the first one though.

I could go on all day with stories of Matt, Sait and I on exercise or during the course but I won't bore anyone wIth all of it. Though if anyones that interested I might start a whole other blog about it.

Then at 19 I left the corps to go to uni. I'd reached as far as I probably could go without getting CWO (which I'd been told I wouldn't get because the Wing Co pretty much didn't like me) so there was nothing really left for me to acheive. I'd got staff cadet, a gliding scholarship, heaps of band, drill and fieldcraft stuff and I decided to take some time off from it all to concentrate on my studies.

That's enough for today, more next week.

Sunday 25 October 2009

Change of focus


With 6 weeks until my PRTC I feel I should quickly finish this off so I can continue blogging about the process rather than the past. I hate trying to recall things as it is.

There's nothing really to say about my time as an ATC corporal, nothing exciting happened and it was only 3 months before the powers that be gave me another stripe to wear. I don't think I was ready at the time but I got into the role before long.

During my time as a sergeant my focus shifted from the blues side of things and band to fieldcraft. It all started with my first Easter camp. It was my first real experiance of full on fieldcraft and as a SNCO I was expected to show a good example and lead. I ended up in a bit of trouble at times and got stuck with a few extra duties. It's also where I first became good friends with Matt.

Although he was the same age as me, Matt was still a gobby cadet and I spent the week keeping him out of trouble (and getting him into a bit more at times). We bonded well over the week and have since become best mates. More like brothers at times.

The rest of my two years as SGT was spent building my skills, my future NCO team and getting into trouble with the staff for various reasons. I loved my rank dearly at the time, there was a CWO and FLT SGT above me so they made all the big decisions and I had CPLs below me to do my bidding. Two of those CPLs were Matt and Sait.

I was a SGT for 2 years before my CWO and FLT SGT left and I was promoted again. I had a lot under my belt at this point. Several Easter camps, a summer camp, leading the Wing Field Day team and drill team and all the band stuff on top of that. This time I was ready for that promotion, I'd been moulded and grown by the staff and held back until I was exactly where they wanted me to be.

Flight Sergeant was where the real fun began