Thought I'd post my experiences here for the lads going in the future.
OK I set off on the Friday morning from Newcastle and after a few hours on the train listening to a very very drunk cockney woman singing Beatles songs I arrived at Colchester.
Promptly picked up in a minibus by 2 members of the recruiting team, we were taken into the accomadation, issued a helmet, waterbottle, pair of overalls and a brown paper bag with biscuits, pop and a sausage roll in. This was our tea!
So after looking at the careers boards and flicking through pegasus magazine, it was an early night for me! Although some of the lads sat playing on the playstation till well after 11!
6am and we were politely (!) asked to get out of bed, overalls boots etc on, lined up in the corridor for breakfast. Breakfast was in a very quiet 2para guardroom, with a few 3para blokes in there, and the food was quite nice too.
Back at the accom we were lined up into 3 ranks whilst waiting for the sergeant (who was a good laugh and was NOTHING like youd expect) arrived. It was all looking good until a bloke from 2para appeared and shouted "PRESS UP POSITION DOWN!"......"STAND UP!"...."NOT QUICK ENOUGH PRESS UP POSITION DOWN!".....Then preceded by sprinting round one of the buldings, those lucky enough to be the last 4 done it again. Us left over had to do pressups till they came back! We done it again twice and the last 4 repeated it whilst we held the pressup halfway position! Our first beasting!
We made our way across to Abbey Fields where we jogged the 1.5miles in 13 mins (fartlek style) then our best effort. The highlight of it so far was the lad who had been gobbing off saying he had already passed selection being sick then not coming in till 13 mins!
We moved on from there back for a careers brief, whilst driving through the gates, most people were looking at the two armed paras on guard until thesergeant started ;laughing at a young lass in barefeet carrying her shoes...short skirt....she just walked past the guards out onto the street.....looks like one para got his oats that night!
After the careers brief anda few weapons lessons. we had scoff then some command tasks which werent too bad, just getting from one mat to another over a 6ft fence without touching it etc. then after a series of beastings for failing we went onto the assault course..........i certainly didnt have the energy for this! After a few team games where the emphasis was "it pays to be a winner in this regiment" we were taken through the assault course then completed it twice. I was f@#k. More scoff then back to the acomm for some kip!
Sunday morning was great....6am woken up, given 20 minutes to sort rooms and pack, get ready for gym work before breakfast! Done the whole pressups, situps, pullups, shuttle test in 7para RHA's gym then back to 2para guardroom for some bacon sausage and egg! We wound down the morning with a memory game and a lesson on parachutesand bergens.....this is when the staff really came into their own...the 2para bloke who had beasted us quite a lot started smiling and having a laugh, the bloke from 1 para who was running the course started having a laugh with us and telling us about his experiences and having a dig at "craphats", and this other bloke from 3para gave the 2 jocks who arrived with a scottish flag round there neck a good shoutin at!
The sergeant told us some very interesting stories about his time in sierra leone, iraq and afghanistan......he was one of those in charge when they rescued the royal irish from the west side boys....having read the shit about it on here it was nice to hear about it from the horses mouth! He also had a good dig about "craphats" and all that!
Overall a very good weekend.............roll on selection!
Share This Page:
Insight Course Diary #437
Good account there mate! Sounds very much like what I went through back in november. Made a log about it myself when I got back so I would remember it in the future. Ill go through a few extra bits that I did which you may not have done. They may include them in someone elses intake...
Friday - Arrival
Not alot different here, apart from we did not have a Playstation or anything. I was on a train from Darlington, travelling via Newcastle. Packed full of lads from the Navy coming back from leave.
Saturday
We were split into groups and we had to carry out several different team tasks, to be completed within a certain amount of time. In the briefings we were showing the different weaspons used, and also one lad from each group was the "dummy" model for the Parachute, Bergen and reserve, with weapon to show what a fully kitted Para would look like before a jump. Other breifings included Pay and Conditions, fitness requirements, and so on.
The hardest part of that day was probably the Assault Course. After a beasting of a warm up, was all went through each and every obsticle one at a time to show us what we needed to do. After we had covered and each completed the obsticle, we then had to sprint back to the start, line up in 3 groups, and lay flat on the floor in readiness to start. I think the small wall was about 6ft high. It was a peice of piss to get over first time but after completing the first half of the course, it seemed the most impossible task in the world. You can imagine what it was like to do the 10ft Wall lateron in the assault course. Over obsticles included tunnels, log steps, balanch wall, balance high blanks, ropes, running-jump ditches, walls, netts, etc, along with a long sprint back to the start afterwards.
On the Saturday night the staff took us too the NAAFI which turned out to be closed!!! In the end we went for a quick visit to the SPAR shop, followed by spending the rest of the night watching TV and videos untill about 1am - I retired for the night about 11ish.
Sunday
Probably the most interesting day. Woke up, got a briefing in the corridor and told to get into sports gear and coveralls. Went to gym and did pressups, situps, pullups, MSFT, and a bit of running about and beastings. All this wasnt that easy as you may be used too as you had no energy before breakfast!
After returning to the Barracks for returning out kit, we got on the mini busses, and our next events were...
- Survival Training & Kit
- Fire Lighting
- Shelter Building
- Tracking & Observation Skills
- Blind-folded Ropes Course - not the most favourite part of the day. We had to put on goggles, painted over do you cudnt see. The paint was still wet so when we took them off afterwards we all had paint rings around our eyes. The course was going through woodland holding onto a rope, and getting over, under and through different obsticles. One included balancing over a log over a ditch with water in it. Closer to the finish, we had to crawl under alot of logs through about half a foot of boggy mud - LOVIN IT!!!
After that it was back to barracks to scrub out mud covered boots with the toilet brushes, a final clean up, and final breifings where we were also issued with a card to take to our careers office. After the amount of the mud we left on the floor of the barracks block id be suprised if they did the blind ropes course again
Then we were taken to train station, no more said!!!
***Alot of detail is missing from this account as it is all covered in Stephens version above. This is just the extra that we did on my course.
Friday - Arrival
Not alot different here, apart from we did not have a Playstation or anything. I was on a train from Darlington, travelling via Newcastle. Packed full of lads from the Navy coming back from leave.
Saturday
We were split into groups and we had to carry out several different team tasks, to be completed within a certain amount of time. In the briefings we were showing the different weaspons used, and also one lad from each group was the "dummy" model for the Parachute, Bergen and reserve, with weapon to show what a fully kitted Para would look like before a jump. Other breifings included Pay and Conditions, fitness requirements, and so on.
The hardest part of that day was probably the Assault Course. After a beasting of a warm up, was all went through each and every obsticle one at a time to show us what we needed to do. After we had covered and each completed the obsticle, we then had to sprint back to the start, line up in 3 groups, and lay flat on the floor in readiness to start. I think the small wall was about 6ft high. It was a peice of piss to get over first time but after completing the first half of the course, it seemed the most impossible task in the world. You can imagine what it was like to do the 10ft Wall lateron in the assault course. Over obsticles included tunnels, log steps, balanch wall, balance high blanks, ropes, running-jump ditches, walls, netts, etc, along with a long sprint back to the start afterwards.
On the Saturday night the staff took us too the NAAFI which turned out to be closed!!! In the end we went for a quick visit to the SPAR shop, followed by spending the rest of the night watching TV and videos untill about 1am - I retired for the night about 11ish.
Sunday
Probably the most interesting day. Woke up, got a briefing in the corridor and told to get into sports gear and coveralls. Went to gym and did pressups, situps, pullups, MSFT, and a bit of running about and beastings. All this wasnt that easy as you may be used too as you had no energy before breakfast!
After returning to the Barracks for returning out kit, we got on the mini busses, and our next events were...
- Survival Training & Kit
- Fire Lighting
- Shelter Building
- Tracking & Observation Skills
- Blind-folded Ropes Course - not the most favourite part of the day. We had to put on goggles, painted over do you cudnt see. The paint was still wet so when we took them off afterwards we all had paint rings around our eyes. The course was going through woodland holding onto a rope, and getting over, under and through different obsticles. One included balancing over a log over a ditch with water in it. Closer to the finish, we had to crawl under alot of logs through about half a foot of boggy mud - LOVIN IT!!!
After that it was back to barracks to scrub out mud covered boots with the toilet brushes, a final clean up, and final breifings where we were also issued with a card to take to our careers office. After the amount of the mud we left on the floor of the barracks block id be suprised if they did the blind ropes course again
Then we were taken to train station, no more said!!!***Alot of detail is missing from this account as it is all covered in Stephens version above. This is just the extra that we did on my course.
-
wannabe_bootneck
- Member
- Posts: 555
- Joined: Sun 01 Feb, 2004 5:23 pm
- Location: Nottingham, england
-
wannabe_bootneck
- Member
- Posts: 555
- Joined: Sun 01 Feb, 2004 5:23 pm
- Location: Nottingham, england
-
Brooksy140
- Member
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Tue 13 Feb, 2007 11:49 pm
- Location: Conisbrough
