Sierra Leone Recce

come out from the bush we asking you to come and surrend because we don't want you to suffer in the jungle your wives will become Widow come and surrender asking you to if you didn't know better you might think this is a scene from Sierra Leon's bloody Civil War One gang of soldiers taunting another group to come out of the Bush and fight we are waiting for you waiting for you if you say want a fight we'll fight to the last bullets but the soldiers they are trying to provoke are too disciplined to respond instead under the guidance of British mentors they are planning a coordinated attack for the next warning your mission is to destroy all enemy on objective four in order to defeat P forces within a they are part of the month-long Advanced infantry reconnaissance course they spent the last week tracking and attacking an enemy force that is withdrawing through the jungle for a lot of them this is their their natural environment living in the jungle um so you know they they're good at supplementing their food with local Wildlife I had uh I had frog stew this morning um for for breakfast which is interesting so they are robust and they are they are very very keen to learn this is one of the toughest courses in the Army those who graduate have a good shot at joining the country's Elite Force reconnaissance unit so no wants to drop out before it's all over you might you need antibiotics and you might need IV antibiotics you know from a drop in your in your vein cuz it's quite it's quite a bad infection this Soldier only came forward when the pain in his hand grew too great to endure another Soldier cut his leg open nearly two weeks ago he tried to treat it himself by crushing an aspirin tablet and packing it into the wound because they have serious infections both sold will now be evacuated to hospital and miss the final attack they don't want to go because they fear they'll fail the course War officer Stokes tells them they have no choice your safety and your health is is the thing that counts right now right you've done enough on the course now to tell us with you Pastor failed yeah gentlemen our mission our mission is to destroy all enemy on objective four in order to defeat P forces within AOL just before last Light the soldiers receive orders for tomorrow morning's attack on the enemy's position even after 4 weeks of training there's still room for improvement like navigating with a map and Compass or delivering highly detailed orders that's it's the detail we they go they go it's they've got the they've got the the um the process but it's the detail one of the big problems we have in our in our army is we all converge on the on the enemy position and we Bunch up with the seran and strange enough they spread out and they Bypass or they they don't attack the position um as much as we'd like them to do so so i' I'd like tomorrow to see them actually assult through the position and fight through in their in their units and their pairs come surrender now that kill all today this is the final battle GE GE [Music] you the final attack is over but now they have to get out of the Jungle and there are still a few surprises the soldiers have one more challenge to face that's a th000 m stretcher carry and the finish line is right behind me [Music] after seven days in the bush the hardest part of the course is finally over I mean it's it is you know hugely rewarding job to see young soldiers young officers who have very little um in terms of equipment from you know backgrounds that we can hardly imagine but are still still hugely keen and hugely professional and think of themselves as professional soldiers right Fight Hard Die well and anything that we can do to to enhance that is hugely rewarding you know you really do feel as though you're you're making a difference weapons pointing into the ground in front of you to the ground magazine I've trained bot Swan Kenyans and I think purely for a money basis and the country is poor I think these are some of the best soldiers in Africa I'm at's British and Canadian advisor won't be here forever um we need to let them take the Reigns and do it themselves because if we don't move on soon they'll never be able to it themselves well on the next time this course runs Major Moses Gordon will be in charge I have small present for you but please ensure that you just take a pint a pint of your choice on that note thanks very [Applause] much of the 50 soldiers who started this course a month ago 42 have passed they'll now form the nucleus for several new Battalion reconnaissance platoons for Army news and Sierra Leon liutenant Colonel Mike Vernon

Channel: Michael Vernon

Views: 3,757,440

Keywords: Sierra, Leone, Recce, IMATT, Freetown, RSLAF

Id: 5xlT6OVIw28

Length: 7min 8sec (428 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 26 2011