20 NAVY NEWS, DECEMBER 2011 It never ra


Doing it in heavy, cold rain does not make it any more


appealing. And even when the downpour


relents, a car crash which reveals an illegal weapon just adds to the workload.


But the workforce in this case is three dozen Royal Marines officers in the final stages of their training, so all sorts of mayhem is tackled and sorted with an air of quiet, calm professionalism which bodes well


for future bootneck


operations. To get to this stage requires a unique blend of abilities, from strategic nous to sheer bloody-minded endurance (the commando tests really sort the men from the boys). Just over 60 likely lads – including a handful of overseas candidates – joined the 60-week course in late summer 2010, and as they enter the final straight (the


course finishes early this


month) 36 were still standing, not a bad return for a course which can experience up to 60 per cent attrition.


And the expectation is that, barring injury, all would succeed –


SCOURING a village for a group of suspected insurgents is not an easy task.


A wide-ranging exercise in the South-West provides the final tick in the box for trainee Royal Marines officers. Mike Gray sees them rise to the challenge


it is rare for a trainee to get this far then fall by the wayside, although one failed to reach the standards required at this stage last year. In order to get to what is


effectively a confirmation exercise (though woe betide anyone who does not treat it with total respect and commitment) the prospective officers will have done everything the Commando recruits have to do, and a good deal more. And whereas the recruits face the dreaded commando tests at the end of their training, these chaps took the same test this summer, leaving time at the end of the course to continue to develop as officers.


This 11-day exercise has two distinct parts. The first, over three days, sees


the young officers (YOs) set up a forward operating base (FOB) in the village of Lympstone, close to the Commando Training Centre RM (CTCRM). They know there is something in the air (apart from the rain), because there are believed to be insurgents active in the area. Having set up base


in the village’s Scout hut, kindly handed


over to the CTCRM team by the 1st Lympstone Sea Scouts, the fledgling officers must then organise and carry out patrols in the sure knowledge that something or someone will liven things up sooner or later.


opportunity to lead and to act as part of the team – a team which has been forged from a disparate intake. Maj Alex Maclay, on exchange from the Royal Anglian Regiment, is a training officer with the YO programme.


course in a trickle,” he said. “People realise that this career


“They tend to drop out of the


isn’t for them, and there are also injuries – backs, breaks and so on. It is an arduous course... “Membership of the course is made up of a number of groups. “There are those joining with no military experience,


joining with experience of the Royal Marines Reserves,


the Officer Training Corps, the Territorial Army.


some or


have been in the Corps and who have taken their commission. “We have four of those guys


“Then there are the guys who


who have done recruit training, maybe done a few years with their unit and decided to apply for a commission. “The first few weeks of the YO’s


course is easier for them, but the rest catch up.


“By this stage you cannot tell who is who.


recruits have


“Around 40 per cent of the qualifications


The students get the


l Trainee Royal Marines officers patrol the village of Lympstone and investigate a road traffic accident during one of the final exercises on their 60-week course at the Commando Training Centre


Pictures (and headline): PO(Phot) Sean Clee, thrice RN Photographer of the Year


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