NAVY NEWS, AUGUST 2009 13
Gritting in progress
PERHAPS it was the heat, or
obstacle and assault courses. marks off which sailor has been allocated to
perhaps it was the fact that
“The morning’s about physical courage,” a particular task.
things were starting to unravel,
says Lt Andy Anderson, overseeing the All well and good – and not entirely
exercise. “The afternoon is a mental unlike how this is done for real.
but Jamie Neeson’s face was challenge.” The fuel team cannot pick up the barrels
getting redder and his voice was
It is, one might add, a very physical mental by the handles (not bloodymindedness
growing ever more hoarse.
challenge – particularly in the broiling heat on the part of the exercise organisers, but
“What’s going on lads?” he bawls. “Get
of the warmest day of the year. because in real life the drums would be too
those casualties into the tent now.”
The new test revolves around fi nding heavy to carry).
Except that the tent’s half built, the radio
a landing site for a helicopter from HMS A few minutes later, a couple of lads are
mast is lying on the ground incomplete,
Ocean which is ferrying confi dential scurrying across a fi eld with a barrel slung
there are some classifi ed documents
documents ashore. A makeshift radio mast between a makeshift wooden cross, all
must be erected, a clearing located, then held together by a few lengths of rope. It’s
scattered somewhere in the terrain and
secured before the helo is safely guided in. amazing what random objects you can fi nd
there’s a helicopter on fi re.
“We’re trying to replicate the sort of just lying around…
Oh, and none of the people trying to
things you fi nd in the aftermath of the The radio mast proves rather more
sort it all out have been matelots more than
tsunami or the fl oods to the UK to some challenging. After much toil, a group of
eight weeks…
degree,” CPO Marshall explains. sailors have just about got it cracked, again
But it’s this test, the Final Military
“It’s demanding, it’s physical, but the courtesy of some wooden poles and a bit of
Exercise, which will determine whether they
guys get stuck in. They’re up for it.” rope…
return to the ‘comfy’ world of civvy street or
Do not expect anything like the ‘fi reworks’ … “Everyone on me,” yells Recruit
continue wearing those No.4s.
of the disaster exercises at Bull Point Neeson. “Helo’s gone down…”
As the name implies, this the last hurdle of
which every ship’s company going through The mast team umm and arr. Should
the nine-week basic entry training course.
Operational Sea Training. they continue putting it up or rally around
And it’s just been overhauled – one of
There are no crying babies trapped in their leader?
numerous changes rippling through the
collapsed buildings, no fi res, no cars which “Don’t just stand there – get on with it.”
upper and lower decks over the past couple
have plunged into a swollen river (there Rally around their leader it is…
of years: more adventurous training, a
is, however, an old Wessex, plus a battered There is no right and wrong – “We
harder line from instructors at FOST, and
Metro missing a wheel… although the actually want the guys to make mistakes and
now a tougher fi nal challenge for ratings at
latter’s got nothing to do with the exercise). to learn from them,” says CPO Marshall –
Raleigh.
And certainly don’t expect anything as but the FME is a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ test based on
It’s all designed to give sailors, in the
polished as a Bull Point ‘distex’ – there’s how the trainees apply themselves.
RN word du jour, ‘grit’. ‘Toughness’,
no commander or lieutenant commander “As long as you have enthusiasm,
‘steadfastness’, ‘resolve’ are equally apt, or
directing things, no trained ship’s company determination, character, attitude, that’s
even ‘balls’.
to call upon (some of whom, no doubt, have what matters,” explains WO1 Joe Royle.
Because it takes balls to organise a rescue
done disaster relief for real). There was nothing like this when he joined
mission. It certainly takes balls to organise
No, there are just 30 or so pretty raw the RN in 1978 – a spot of fi re-fi ghting and
a rescue mission after less than two months
recruits who only two months before damage control were the challenges at the
in the RN.
were civvies doing their best to cope with end of a six-week training programme.
New entry trainees have always had to
seemingly insurmountable problems. “This is a lot more realistic than the old
undergo a fi nal test, but the emphasis has
There’s nothing in this fi nal exercise exercise, it’s a lot grittier, the sort of thing
been very much on physical fi tness rather
which the recruits haven’t seen before you can expect to do for real.”
than something which requires brain, during their brief naval careers – it’s just
Those who fail do get another crack at it
brawn, and a bit of pluck. that they’ve not seen it all in one afternoon.
next week, but if they don’t make the grade
“It used to be called Wacky Wednesday,” Recruit Neeson has been plucked out of then their fl edgling RN careers will be over.
says CPO Tex Marshall, one of the chaps his class at random to serve as CO. And at As a new element of the basic entry
behind the new exercise. “They’ve not come fi rst things are going well for the commander. course, the exercise will need a bit of
up with a name for this yet.” He details half a dozen colleagues to build a tweaking (it’s only been running since late
Perhaps Whacked-out Wednesday might mast, another half dozen to locate and mark June), but so far organisers are encouraged
supplant it. By the time afternoon comes out a landing ground, some more to fetch by the initial feedback.
around, the young sailors have already barrels of fuel. “The guys who have successfully gone ● I think this one’s past resuscitation... A recruit tries to revive Fred, the RN’s
done exercises in the pool, carried a loaded “Every ten minutes send someone back through it say they felt a real sense of most error-prone matelot during the Final Military Exercise at Raleigh
stretcher through Raleigh and overcome the to report,” he orders, while a classmate achievement,” says Lt Anderson. Picture: LA(Phot) Dave Hillhouse, FRPU West
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