How to Make a Royal Marines Officer: Part 2

anyone attracted by the glamour of the Royal Marines confined all he wants a bit on the Brecon Beacons any february afternoon these young officers and the fifth of the twelve months of training can't speak too highly of the glamour no such things waterproof clothing guns these things exist everything that's done dry so very pleasant for exertion they do heat up in a couple of hours but a dry pair of socks which is severely good news in this condition but that are you carrying little packages under your pump get a good skier they've been in about half an hour and you know they're still done but they're drying off I can feel they're drying off already and bothered to go into what's down there we've got some hot stuff okay I got a pair of gloves down there he tends to get me down a bit I do think that home warm things things like that I just quite found how'd you switch off but switching off it's not a popular concept in the Marines switching off is what civilians do now what worries me at this stage is that your personal first of all your personal standards of patrolling and skills have fallen off the plot as far as I'm concerned you must get a grip of your personal skills you're patrolling skills your individual skills because if you don't when you're a troop commander the standards you reflects will very rapidly be reflected for better or worse than the blokes you come on let me put it civilian ship in short it's a nasty habit that has to be relaxed yes they have as you say vestigial traces of the civilian still in them which i think is perhaps a bit disappointing at this stage I think they really will affect their transformation over the course of the next 10 to 14 weeks which leads them up to their commando course in their green beret they'll criticize me for this but to me at the moment it is it is a job it's not a way of life I haven't become a military person I think I've said before there at the weekends I'm a civilian I will be a civilian I'm my own person and they're not going to create a military stereotype out of me and I'm not be going to going to become just a soldier I'm gonna be me first and then we'll see what huh for his three days on a bleak mountainside Peter Cameron a Cambridge graduate has brought an appropriate book well offical hard torrents by Charles Dickens Suresh the training is remorseless when it's not marching or the mountains it's the lecture room glasnost is not high on the curriculum here they meet the enemy who go well good afternoon gentlemen essentially the object of our intellectual attentions this afternoon is this chap the Soviet soldier and the way in which he thinks on this picture here we see a senior sergeant kissing the Soviet flag and the caption reads they remain faithful to the heroic traditions of our army and of our people it's Afghan army which protects Afghanistan not Soviet we do we conduct protection means protect socialism in socialism is a you know an inevitable course it is progressive social structure and by wealth of Lenin by limbs webs of business by wealth of Marxism socialism is an international inevitability it is like exciting experience when it rains on Saturday you should just lie back and enjoy it find the physical a most difficult part about about the whole course especially with a commander training coming up the training decision to drain your body all the time it's 11 p.m. after another exhausting day Jim Trotman craves nothing more than sleep but there's still homework to be done what eventually will he dream about um home outside life really once don't you get under your arm you do Vey then it's a it's a different world that's her until the alarm goes off at quarter past 6:00 again mainly I'm so tired I just wake up I hit this editor pillow next thing I know quarter past 6:00 and I'll forego again right shut up is the fourth listen my turn to talk if you don't mind well we're going to do today now that you have completed part of your tactical training is just do a small pause and consider what you've learned so far and try and generate a new spirit for the rest of your tactical training and what I'm trying to refer to now is a generation from knowledge pure knowledge which is what we've been teaching up to now to the application of a bit of individual flair each officer takes his turn commanding extremely realistic exercises the section come on let's go round who likes them in there Alex first thing to do okay is to get all the second commanders and tell them exactly where you want to put them there you'll save a lot of shouting mr. Jack the tanks fighters live explosives and real CS gas gas for you to do want you to reorg your section from 12:00 to 4:00 o'clock yeah okay look trouble well done come and get me strain us on me right 94 millimeter when you twelve o'clock on the road coming at anchor and Road slightest sign of the road yeah good yo yo she's face up the road yes I've got it about trench saga start getting around these blokes checking their rocks get all the cash ammo space off them start there on the one I'm very pleased with the way it went and I'll take the dsr - I enjoyed it best but the exercise so far for me it's like I love it it's great really did that put me on such a high or even brilliant right today we're going to greet 5 9 8 6 8 - good old mine thank you others the course has become too much one of them is Colin young who enlisted straight from the school career in which he wasn't used to coming second opting out requires courage - he's to join a company called WH Smith came to in December and the Marines said to me that I wasn't good enough I need to improve a lot to get up to the grade that they're required so during January are hundred percent gotten into January I finished an exercise and said what we still every think you're there so sat down and thought about it rung up a lot of friends social parents and decided eventually that it was gonna be in a career I wanted to do well at my career so I've done one at school whom what I did what I enjoyed so changed direction was needed so I went to sea captain not left em double stone at time no it took a week's leave think about it in the end the week has decided to leave the Marines resign I think about a year off and Gundams all gone around the world looked after myself for a year and lived away from home it'll be much better and for just too much better chance nothing upon for the course physically I want too bad I mean exhaust will fit anyway when I went in and I got on ok with that it was or the management side but in fact with people who are better than me which had never been in a situation that before previous I mean at school I saw like the best at sport and then problem whatsoever and summative situation release or fitter than me and better mentally than me and better grades ailable whatever and what problems there do you think even though the five and half months has helped you in your new career oh yeah yeah I mean a lot grew from being a school kid to an idol in those six not six months whatever it was definitely yeah some young men come before me and request to resign and the core is very sad about it and bushes they would stay in other cases some young men come before me and request to resign and I think there's a mutual understanding that that is probably a wise course of decision and in a few cases we asked a young man to leave because we don't believe that he would be suitable and some of them join having been through the potential offices course the Admiralty interview board uh and visits where they become more aware of what the core is about but they join and they get into it and they find that really this life is not for them this military life is not for them and that is totally understandable and there are many people for whom the military life just does not suit there's good reason to pay close attention to these exercises in peaceful Devon lanes six months from now some will be doing it for real in Northern Ireland right where you just come from glad you live we're gonna live a live in x2 and you just driven for extra just now yes right gentlemen if you can drive along there where you got someone to give another vehicle a chance to pass in the left now please now you've really got to have a good thing if I shoot this bloke or if I attempt to shoot him this is all your worlds daggers caught of his stopping a vehicle if it doesn't want to stop I mean is it somebody's just not gonna stop for the sake of it or is it to terrorists we spend a lot of our time here really teaching you the discipline application of extreme violence which is basically what we do and it's strange then to come to a package like this counterrevolutionary water well we actually have to say to you switch that off as that's not the game in this case more force was used and there is absolutely no doubt that that situation would have ended up in a court of law and the person responsible what undoubtedly have received some form of punishment in a civil court that incident demanding instant decision provokes them to consider their work ethic killing people giving a bit more thought certainly since I've been in training but I think oh I have to do really if there's a troop commander one day not might be a decision that you regret afterwards but responsibilities to the men and the job what I dread is is after to the situation you know I have actually taken somebody's life you know and you you know you automatically think of whoever it may be whether it be I'm Soviets or whatever you know you think there's somebody's somebody Sanders now most weekends are free but for a very good reason they don't leap into sports cars and - up to London for a night in Annabelle's you sleep for six or seven hours like a log and then you wake up tired again you gotta go you know and I mean you wake up ah you know ring joined your eyes and everything it's an effort to lift yourself off the bed and you get up and get going again likes to run down a bit so their bodies are not working as I should do is they're not repairing as well and getting all [ __ ] and everything going getting septic this is with the webbing burns on your back then they just are healing up a torch this chelev a hideous women ones you want to see them I could ask for the skin off from milking putting here from Pioneer there are they obviously get worse than that there are books much worse but a constant rubbing you know and just Morris burn this one is always found fishing quite to what relaxing certainly the end of the week you're ready for a break so it's good to get away from those a regular crowd to do something different it seems a bit ironic really and we slog our guts out most of the time on Dartmoor way through bogs and go forward streams and things and then he's exactly what I come and do at the weekends as well so I still quite like Dartmoor I mean many ways I'm pretty much unemployable is your average office type working and I think making the people in the batch are and I find many of the lectures now very mundane and rather something but it was what I'm saying here do you ever think about what is going to happen very shortly you could be joining a commando unit going to Northern Ireland yeah yes I do actually I think like maybe a lot of people don't but sir I think about quite a lot a lot what sort of lines um along the lines of just we wonder how you'd cope in that situation with nobody knows just what they're gonna do the first time they really run into some trouble nobody knows what's gonna happen how they gonna cope what they men are gonna think of them after it and maybe they'll get the sack and movie gets shot or yakyaz evac'd or whatever slowly the metamorphosis from civilian to soldier is taking place how do their own friends regard them that sometimes they treat with a bit of war sometimes a bit of suspicion because you're in the forces and sometime because you're in an organisation which represents those are the Queen country whatever there's sometimes thing hmm you know is he still okay as we're joining for Queen and country was not a prominent reason for me I wanted to join them because I enjoyed outdoor life and I wanted to have the responsibility it does come into it Queen and country but it wasn't my prominent reason so I never really get derided or laughed out for it in fact a couple of my friends sort of wish they'd done the same thing in a way I think I don't mean they treat me differently I probably treat them a little bit more differently they well they take me the same way but I I look at them and it it's probably very pompous for you you automatically you thinking oh well you know they've not done what I've done for many this is the turning points out there the civilians the civvies but you on our roll Murray my girlfriend said he I once went to see her and I was talking about the series and she she hit me say well I'm one um but we do we walk around and if you see someone with pink hair and when but he sippy it's a same sort of standard they put on you because you're so much feel so much cleaner because you need your Dobby two or three times a day at times and you wash your shirts each night etc you just feel cleaner in a way than everyone else around you I feel I've changed I've grown up a lot having coming straight from school mixing with these guys who some of them six years older than me I've had to go out fast and I think I've got a little bit more confidence as well um and I've had I've had to use that confidence to bridge all the problems that I've hurdle for all the little walls there are to climb before you get there in the end the crucial commando tests are about to start Peter Ainsworth who won no marks for arriving on the course in an RAF Bomber Jacket as a severe ankle sprain I'm sure with enough strapping isn't enough then painkillers I'll get through drag it through some height stand by the commando tests quite simply are what separate the civilian from the marine five weeks of an endurance course at Tarzan assault course speed marching and a 30 mile yacht all carrying 35 pounds against the clock very good well done gentlemen one of the better nine mile speed March as I've seen over batch well done indeed Ainsworth vibrates with pain after the speed March another man having come this far the signs it's no longer worth it he quits and walks from the raw Marines forever tarz an assault course is simply the last place you need to discover a fear of heights Jim Morris did just that so they sent him here come on don't overstretch don't overstretch cozy cozy and you yourself told you don't leave toasty that's it all the way cozy don't overstretch don't overstretch sir just keep that going you all right don't throw you up and down also be twenty freshman amenity look enjoy yeah oh did I or you his I write say what you did was a good effort you did 11:45 you get a rerun on Saturday all right that 15 seconds sugar okay sir okay so you've got across there you've got across the chasm right you've got over what was your problem alright that is your first run you know that so you can't complain on a limb for the car all right you know you've got 15 seconds to knock off and you can do it stuff right okay so fall over there sir one week of nightmares ayat II later Morris run again he beat the qualifying time by remarkable 30 seconds okay done this morning good effort well welcome to the thirty mile a brief your last test of the commando course thirty miles across the moor from Oak Hampton down to a place called cross Fuzzy's which is near buck falsely the whole thing to be completed in seven hours by thirty miles and seven hours carrying one-third of a hundred weight [ __ ] get shooters on three monitors every was a bit nervous don't anybody slept if you well last night it was really hot in the accommodation it's gonna be everybody's combined effort stacks of fun fun some lunch actioning be walking over and there's a certain violence only nice to cut the time yesterday my ankle and then he'll be strapped up so I can't actually move it very well just seen it hopefully it'll hold down I don't really have ever walked I was let alone run 30 miles and nervous nothing anyone is a what if what if what are you prepared to do in order to to get through this you're the only man here who looks like you've done 30 miles before he starts that's right well I'm always this ugly yeah I didn't get any sleep last night it's good Nostrum okay I don't feel too bad overall popping out your ankle that's by the boy you're looking forward to the Domus of course I've waited for this moment for a very long time mr. Koester says you're looking forward to it so much you got ten seconds to go father Gill you break2 the table let's get some of these foods down the next raisinet so get it down sip it sure is little bit Rocky run out papers for those who make it in time their weights the green berry a symbol of graduation into one of the world's most renowned fighting evils it's no macho stunt in the Falklands War this man Brigadier Andrew whited marched for five commando the entire length of West Oakland each man carrying 120 pounds when they got there they had a battle to fight Ainsworth hobbles on in the weight of that tradition they've got a problem because they've met him a navigational error on the first leg which slowed them down they're also carrying a guy who we knew is injured so they are pretty pressed I mean they were running for four hours 21 and they really need to complete the next leg in about the next 35 minutes if they have a fighting chance of getting in what happened quite simple they go around again we have to do a rerun top of your water bottles over there on the left to get the pies down you it's important to eat the whole of the pie mr. Phillips it may slow you down thank you all right get yourself a street whistling but wet over here cheaters on the Left there's the orange in the water in the center what I'm intending to do now is to actually speak to the instructor probably pull back the one guy who's who no fault of his own isn't he's injured to give the others at least a fighting chance of getting in I mean they can still do it but they're gonna have to work down hard but Ainsworth refuses to be pulled out such as the team spirit now that his colleagues wouldn't drop him anyway well done rolled up okay well done man that's terrific hold on guys one time guys good effort good effort okay so drop your camera is rolled on one section here aged me 20 years you by his father they have to show well done where are you men one man walling kazoo song like villain young being a young troop commander now green outs on your head leading Moran men fifth thirty of them pretty good super something to wrench was all about selling it guts determination effort but they really pulled it out with eggs in there yes surprise us all that's Lisak beat me on about a few wired offseason mother the enemy the enemy is o'clock well hello yes we got another symbol good call - Samia right okay well no don't back out shampoos full onslaught that's a bike path idiot and the verdict is it's worth it you guys passed it yeah well it's nice fishing in an expert you see that heaviness buzzards everything yeah yeah yeah we got doing it skylock today lap ring hardest thing I've ever done in my life yes okay Lac not bad I saw still compose at the end of 30 miles Andrew Colson on the man who said he'd crawl it on hands and knees if necessary has missed the deadline by just 10 minutes okay so let's take him straight in the gate give him some water give him a get a hot way down so we go thankfully the following week Coulson did a remarkable thing he ran the 30 miles again won his green berry and resigned from the Marines the very next day just you know sit for a second or two in the show so what else do they do now trust enter attention from a very little they look left on the award of the Green Berets to y/o September 1987 second lieutenant Ainsworth second lieutenant who's my loss that's it pains worse literally staggering performance means that of the 29 men who started the course ten months ago nineteen have passed the yumping maybe over for a while but the learning goes on the Marines now put to sea with the Royal Navy HMS intrepid is a kind of floating fortress that can transport 400 men tanks arms and equipment to any part of the world we've been able to welcome you to a real fighting arm of the raw Marines hms intrepid don't enjoy glass with us it's our pleasure to have you here and hope you're having a nice break and whatever it is you're supposed to be doing tomorrow we'll try to arrange rain and snow for you in the meantime enjoy quite passage down the west coast and have a beer nice to see you intrepid is nomid training ship it first proved its value in a new form of strategic warfare in the Falklands campaign in their role as specialist amphibious infantry the young officers now have to master a whole new range of dangerous toys helicopters landing craft and the high speed rigid Raiders what they're attacking for the moment are some deserted islands in the Hebrides the unique idea of officers training alongside their men creates a strong bond between the leader and the lid an officer corps built on the class system would not be appreciated I get this impression but the type of off so the cores repeating null is quite different from even sever eight years ago but um they're not looking for the grill the right qualities leadership a determination courage fitness unselfishness all of the real qualities a leader rather than maybe someone who's come from the right school speak to the right accent and now that they're getting guys who really on the place but you wouldn't think would be wrong reads officer sometimes the best guys the recruits the Marines of the VC can identify them and go forward anyway as they head off for the next stage of their careers they now have to sustain that rapport without undermining discipline here's John Ross taking his first ever inspection hey gang feeling okay yes sir good it's the first time I've done it and I'm not so sure the standards but which I should set my say my ferocity for um the level of the level of dirt how angry you meant to get for one piece of fluff funny though right hi sir good good I had this sort of paranoid thinking that maybe I'm not quite perfect you know I think I've got somebody fluff on me and they gonna look at me anything you just have to overcome that and go for it ring you look at a guy and if he's up to the quite standard then you let him know that you know and if he's a above it you know say well done good turnout and the next guy who may well be below and you given the same sort of treatment Balkin so delegate you can't learn authority from a book it comes from experience and the raw Marines have a theatrical way of teaching it cool sir I am Pio one two three four five Mike Corporal boomer so hold it a minute culpable not just standard a meter further back from my desk exact start all over again and keep the noise down okay sir I am Pio one two three four five Mike sergeant wrong I never be a sergeant this rate will aye sir corporal bull ma where I go cool all right what have you come to see me about right so it's about these three six five eight what if I stand Issa thank you right so I just want attention Sally understand at ease when that is required okay okay answer if I really wanted to be right so it's about this report what's that loud and exuberant supposed to mean victory fall open on that page did sir learn and exuberance it's noisy first let me scribes the manner within which you've just come into my office keen sir that's the trouble there you straight-out training your right knee NATO they teach you down Officer Training Wing these days I'm qualified to write that not only that the company commander is qualified to read it and uh endorse it which he has done so how can you only Willie Windham endorsed it so if you enrich it with II know break down there sir but he was luckily off sir I'm ruining my career sir I mean there you in what preview you at the moment I've got another ten years real yes it serves to be ruined okay do you understand well no so I don't at all you're in serious to frightening me sir sergeant he's pregnant me get up to hit me sir it's that Stanley I saw right thin me out go on get me out the office just because I'm getting to my next point people get outside I'm gonna go well that's very nice oh boy / play / active I mean obviously cool and song Ballmer is in the wrong profession but I mean it still does illustrate a number a number of points right the first what's the first thing in that sort of an interview they control who's getting to me I'd rather just show take control got to hold the upper hand obviously its end of term and limb stop the young officers prepare for the summer ball still doing the donkey work themselves while awaiting their final reports ten months ago Jim Trotman was apprehensive about ever making it I was worried how how I would react under pressure when pressure was placed on me especially in the field that's an that's where the wrong reads job is in the field not so much on the breakaway nowadays and I was worried about my ability to how a depowered cope with a field basically I would cope with the orders associated leadership misplace so what I'd like to do is read you your report ok chocolates consistent before was in part to training established him as one of the top men in the batch affable sincere and with some humility drachmas greatest asset is his personality I'm different really I work with the military way and when you go back into civilian life you don't really feel part of it my mother said to me that she said she can see me how your nose problems adjusting back that's why I need you I'm for a short service the only criticism one could offer is that occasionally he might be taken advantage of the contest for the sword of honor was fierce and he missed it by a whisker an excellent year for this able young man in some way she turned to look down upon people in civilian life because they've not done what you've done and I tried to stop myself from doing that because that's wrong in some ways I do find myself comparing I mean I don't know a place with lots of other people parties or whatever nightclubs used to be a great one at Christmas first Christmas sleep you go home anything look nah Benjy yeah see these and then you think my hang on hang on um I'm the odd one out here it's not them it's me it's me I'm different what am I thinking like that and I didn't used to think like that and I did at Christmas so what I did between the summer and Christmas is join the Marines it's been an unusual education compounded of fear indignity fatigue and unrelenting pressure let's produce 19 examples of precisely what the raw Marines intended to produce officers with brains courage resilience and endurance battles are not fought to unionize they've even learned how to wash their socks and the man who taught them that sergeant major Williams returns for their passing out parade the wrath of God is now a paragon of civility it's horrible I remember I went one batch I marched off there was not to this collar area soldier oh so major not least through it I gotta like got that wrong that's not it invitations okay to ruin dad you see you come by Lenexa are you going I'm not sure but okay I just have yourself a little bit worried about your technique of your work Sam Brown's looking gleaming mr. Weiser yes smashing yeah what is one of us thanks Craig I mean that's a serial numbers to Mitch's when you first came here you know and I know I did that you'd be here today you've obviously come through the end done very well and it's not because your dad's a colonel oh I know that you know that and I'm sure every other all right so will he likes very much we're going for five good best elections all right Leslie prosecutor is very much I don't really think so much of God Queen and country and even personal challenge and things like that it's let's get the hell out of here I was one of the homeless weekend like I just looked through my bookshelf at home and I came across the the POC recruiting magazine and I read through it all the things that is said about y ou training it was rubbish yeah I just I I was reading through it and it brought back the feelings I had before I joined not really knowing what was gonna happen and it glamorized the whole thing and that is one thing that training is not don't come here trying to clock up all the sort of great Scout badges like thinking I'm I must be a great canoeist I've got to be captain of the first 15 at rugby I've got to be an all-singing all-dancing you know lead from the front sporty that sort of individual it comes across a little bit too harshly I think you've got to come here with an open mind and you've got to be able to keep that mind open while you're here that's the important thing you can play the hard slightly detached sort of ah facility obviously like image and lean on a little bit of unapproachable 'ti so that you know the obviously that the message won't come through to you that the troop isn't all whoever isn't isn't isn't performing as well as it should and I hope I never let that happen you've got to keep in touch with the blokes they're very important and if you're not in touch with them then you know haven't helped you on the day of the race I'm patriotic but uh I'm not doing the job for that reason you know I'm Dean Ian firm as I said leading people really we're not all right wing thugs as people make out especially I think people do try and encourage us to be in to think about the things we're doing sometimes you have to do things with you wrong in the eyes of many but you do it because you joined up and that's where you're supposed to do I perhaps have a slightly childish I suppose our idea of heroism and this sort of thing nice but uh and I think I'll also get some sort of kick out of it at least we surf like some sort of pervert but uh I think again it goes back to the leading bit leading guys in action it's the worst possible situation you can ever lead anyone in and to be good at it we personally make me feel in my own mind that I've done a pretty good job and I've done something which is much harder than what a lot of other people do I just hope it stops raining just about you the Sword of Honour is presented by left hand and General Sir Martin Garrett command down General of the Royal Marines so the young officer bat of September 1987 is fallen in in three racks it's open order and await your inspection Hey the sort of honor awarded by the Admiralty board and presented by Wilkinson Sword to the most outstanding young officer of his batch acting lieutenant van der Horst I dented myself think I'm far and away the best I think I'm one of the best in the batch but I think it could have gone another way thank you very much Oh you you

Channel: Royal Marines

Views: 380,263

Rating: 4.8570199 out of 5

Keywords: How, to, Make, Royal, Marine, Marines, Officer, Commando, Commandos, Green, Beret, Berets, Military, Royal Navy (Armed Force), Royal Marines (Armed Force)

Id: ime0t2I_eKE

Length: 49min 27sec (2967 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 13 2012