Royal Engineer Training

[MisterB]

Hello there,

I'm looking at joining the Royal Engineers as a Driver and have heard that RE Drivers (along with other jobs in the RE) are eligible to attempt P Company training and Commando training.

Say, for example, I passed P Company/Commando training would I then be an RE Driver with P Company/Commando training or would I be classed as a Para/Commando?

Also, would the Commando training be the 32week training undertaken by Royal Marine Commando Recruits, and would the P Company training be that what prospective Para's would have to pass?



Please excuse my naivety



MisterB

[davo141]

The commando course in question is a shortened version, there are several 'beat up' courses, these include basic infranty skills and other for the extra phys needed to pass. The course its self, i believe is 8? weeks long and include absailing and cliff assaults, amphibious assaults by day and night aswel as a hell of a lot of yomping, all criteria tests have to be passed before the acctually commando tests can be taken, these inlcude a 8mile yomp, 12 mile yomp, bottom field pass out and 6 mile speed march. Final ex is just previous to the tests, this includes hundreads of miles of yomping and troop attacks against villages, forests and other enemy posistions. Next are the commando tests, 9 mile speed march, endurance course and shoot, Tarzan assault course and the 30 mile march over dartmoor. Upon completion you will be known as an Army Commando and will wear the dagger on your left sleeve aswel as 'Army Commando' Flashes on you rig on operations. Upon completion you will be drafted to 24 Commando Royal Engineers.

Was on an enemy detail for the AACC at the beginning of the year, and much to many Army commandos belief they simply werent as good as the Nod troop that followed them up, They left alsorts in the harbour posistion ranging from ponchos and bivvy bags to berets mugs and knifes, the nods left nothing??

It is not the same course Royal Marines Commandos, Ours is 32 Weeks.

I assume when you pass the All Arms P Coy you will be known as a Para Trained Engineer Not A Para, although im sure muppets who've done p coy call them selves 'Paras'.

Why join RE to be a driver? they have many trades many of which are more exciting than driving at 2mile an hour in Afghan waiting to drive over a mine? If its driving you want how about the RLC?

Either way, All the Best

[MisterB]

Davo thanks for your reply, it's cleared a few things up for me.

I was initialy planning on joining the Infantry, but after speaking to a few military and ex-military men I realised that while most of them have different opinions on the Army, all of them advised against the infantry on the grounds that I wont learn any trades/qualifications useful to me if/when I leave the Army.

There are lots of roles within the REME and RE that interest me but with my best academic qualification being a D in English I wouldnt get the jobs, So driver stood out to me as I'll get my LGV, HGV, Hazardous Goods License, hopefuly if all goes to plan I can leave the RE once I'm qualified and enroll for a more 'soldiering' role.

[davo141]

If you join Her Majestys Royal Marines you can do the infantry side and then later on specialise in Assault Engineer (Same role as 24 Cdo RE's But Bootnecks and still soldier), VM's branch if your instrested in Mechanics like the REME, you also get all your vehicle licenses and Hazadous Materials, If you later want to just drive join the Drivers Branch!

If you get bored you can always revert back to a more soldiering job, which in the corps is called General Duties, You do this once out of training for at least a year unless you opt for a trade. Once you achieve a decent annual report mark, you can go for Physical trianing instructor, Platoon Weapons, Drill instructor, Mountain Leader, Recce Operator, SBS and many more where soldiering is part and parcel of the job and are often section commanders in the troops.

RM is like one little army alllll bye its self! just better

[Greenronnie]

RM is like one little army alllll bye its self! just better

Yeah, you have the option of surrendering when you come under contact!!

Ref your original question. As Davo pointed out rightly, doing a wings course doesn't give you the right to call yourself a Para, you'd be a Para trained Engineer. Not that there's anything wrong with that, all the Airborne Engineers I've met have been sound blokes.

You'd do a beat up (ie preperation) course, then the all arms P Company course (three weeks in length), followed by a parachute course. However, if you're that bothered about being a Para/Marine, just go the whole hog mate.

[davo141]

Just a quickie (theres a misused word!) for you Para lads, what SQ's are available to Para's within the Regiment?

I dont blame them for surrendering, been stuck on a small inflatable with matlots and wrens would make anybody think the Irans are nice people with good personalities, specially when they approached all cuddly like they did

[sportbilly42]

If it’s your long-term ambition to be either ‘para or commando’ then it’s probably a good idea to give it a shot from the very outset and start getting yourself prepared for the physical and mental side of things straight away. Aim high…… You can always lower your sights if you don’t manage to meet the requirements to get in as a coloured beret wearer. Courses are always available once you’re in to make you ‘employable’ when you leave the forces ........and that could include the driving quals you mention (you don’t have to be ‘either/or’)

Nothing to prevent you trying for the para/commando courses again later on if you fail first time, but once you’ve completed basic training and have been absorbed into a regular unit you may find it a problem or a pain to get released so that you’re able to attend an All Arms Course.

As for ‘RE Driver’ as a specific trade, I would avoid it like the plague if I were you IMHO…. Be careful what you wish for! You could very realistically end up being a glorified chauffeur for the CO of your Regt for a few years. Constantly cleaning the car, ......and carting him and his missus around to do’s in the evenings/weekends is FEKIN TORTURE!!. Driving in your best clobber so he can attend cocktail parties, ‘picking things up for the house as you have nothing to do’… unbelievable what SOME CO’s get their drivers to do. When I was at Div HQ in Germany (and it’s only 10 years back so probably hasn’t changed THAT much), the CRA’s driver could regularly be seen weeding his boss’s front garden !! …..in barrack dress trousers, tie and bulled boots ffs (mind you, he was Royal Artillery.. standards!! ).

As a Cpl I stood in for the CRE’s driver at Division in Germany for a few weeks ….Never again!! .........Nearly killed them both as I had to take them on a 3hour trip to a sister unit for a German Beating of the Retreat, hang around for hours, then drive back with them both pi$$ed and zonked out on the back seat…. “Turn the radio off! …And turn the heating UP!!” !!!…….. I think I slept the last 50 miles of it…

If you wanted to be an RE DIVER then you have to be physically fit and be able to pop your ears underwater……

If you wanted to be an RE DRIVER then all you need is a fat arse..

A proper Engineer ….with driving ambitions ……should be considering driving one of these babies…








or at a push an M3 Rig….

[MisterB]

So its possible for me to join the Marines or Paras and go on to train as something more specific, ie. Driving etc?

I thought once your a Marine or a Para your just a sort of elite infantry who's used purely in combat, but it seems I'm wrong.

I'm looking to join the Armed Forces ASAP as I need a quick career change, and I dont think that im fit enough to apply for the RM's or the Paras as of yet, I've only just started training but my 1.5M time is 12:50 which is, as your aware, far off the time id need to enroll for either regiment. Maybe its worth me waiting until early '09 and getting my fitness levels up before I decide for definite?

Sportbilly, I thought as an RE Driver thats the sort of vehicles I'd get a chance of driving, thats one of the reasons that I was going to opt for the RE over the RLC.

[Doc]

24 Cdo Regt (59) or 9 Sqn RE (para) dont drive stuff like that in their respective units.

If you join 24 commando you can apply for recce troop in which if selected you will have to pass pcoy and jump training. Lots of 9 Sqn and 24 lads cross over and earn both ad quals.

[flighty]

Davo 141

YOU ARE THE MAN!!

Clearly, because you have ridiculed every lad that did P-Coy. You must be the dog's bollocks!

Muppets? Muppets, my arse!! My lad did it and I know how bloody hard he worked to do it.

[sportbilly42]

24 Cdo Regt (59) or 9 Sqn RE (para) dont drive stuff like that in their respective units.

bleugh!!
Think it'll take a while for the '24 Cdo Engr Regt' handle to stick and the 59 Cdo tag to fade.....
To me, 24 Regt is RLC ..... which admittedly has a connection to RE units in that the Posties (Postal and Courier) have been re-badged from RE to RLC ......

[Alfa]

Clearly, because you have ridiculed every lad that did P-Coy. You must be the dog's bollocks!

Muppets? Muppets, my arse!! My lad did it and I know how bloody hard he worked to do it.

I believe davo141 was talking about guys that have pass All Arms P Coy trying to pass themselves off as Paratroopers, I don't think he was slagging off anyone who's passed P Coy.

[davo141]

Reference to flightywrighty. A Para to me is somebody whom is within the Parachute Regiment, having passed there equivilent to our recruit training and is serving or served in 1,2,3 or 4 Para.

Anyone from other corps, regiments, units or what ever else who has completed P coy and the jumps course at briza are jump (para if you will) trained but are not 'Paras'.

Yet ive come across many, many people who claim to be paras but are actually just jump trained and passed p coy.

And yes you are right it is indeed very very hard work, like almost any job, if not all jobs! it does indeed take a certain individual with certain attributes to pass P coy, more so than most courses.

But if your son, or who ever you where talking about refered to himself as a Para but was not in the acctual Parachute Regiment then i would, as i have previously disagree with him whole heartedly.

And, although been a bootneck i would admit the Para Reg blokes ive met and worked with are top class and some of the best soldiers i have worked with! there section drills and skills where up there with anything ive seen.

And as for ridculing EVERY single person that has ever done P Coy i beg to differ massivly! Clearly you had no idea what i was on about, be well everyone is entitled to an opinon.

Roger out.

[MisterB]

24 Cdo Regt (59) or 9 Sqn RE (para) dont drive stuff like that in their respective units.

If you join 24 commando you can apply for recce troop in which if selected you will have to pass pcoy and jump training. Lots of 9 Sqn and 24 lads cross over and earn both ad quals.

Ah I see, so as an RE Driver I would drive those type of vehicles but if once I passed the P-coy training I'd be attatched to 9Sqn who are airbourn meaning the range of vehicles I'd driver would be whittled down?

Thanks for the help lads, I've got a greater understanding of how things work now.

[Greenronnie]

Mate, if I were you I'd probably just give up on the idea on even attempting P Coy or the Commando Course, if 12.50 is the best you can offer for a BFT. Obviously your fitness will improve once you join the army, but that is way below even the most basic of fitness standards that will be required.