This week was our first taste of drill and we would take part as the most junior class of a passing out parade on the friday afternoon. We got to sit in the crowd on the last passing out parade it was beautiful weather but after a while we just sat there squirting water at each other and flicking spiders around. (no discipline yet!) I will never forget the first time in my life i heard the Royal Marines band fire up , it sent shivers down my spine, now was the first time i was beginning to feel part of it all. The drill lessons where the first time we all had to work together as one element. We started off looking like idiots on the parade ground and tick-tocking around to the daleks blasting out hearts of oak. It must have been funny to watch us learning to march properly it just looked as if we where having a ski competition.
Fitness was next on the agenda and we had our first PT lesson at the gym and got ourselves used to the clubswingers (PT staff). i remember when we did circuits we would run around and do press ups for what seemed like an hour only to be told this was the warm up ! i was already breathing out of my arse and we hadn't even started ! I quickly learnt that if you do give it 100% then the PTIs are happy, there's no use going down that gym with a half-assed attitude otherwise you may as well leave the navy as they wont want you there. We needed to be all bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:30 am everyday !
The beep test and shuttle runs where fun. Although the bleep test required a pass of a certain level (i think its about 10.8 but don't quote me on that i will find out) a lot of people where stopping on the bare minimum to pass the bleep test and weren't putting in all their effort. Press-ups where our reward .
I also learned that if you don't work as a team then life wont be easy at Raleigh, If one person screws up then you all pay for it so everyone soon starts working together.
Back at the mess we had all been assigned our cleaning stations working with the senior class in our division - fisgard 07s what a bunch of legends !
My cleaning station was out in the corridor outside the mess. Although people would leave boot polish marks all over the floor it wouldn't take long to clean and i was happy with my cleaning station - hoover the mats, scrub the deck, annoy the lads on duty in the heads, dust off the shelves, talk to silmon about home , wait for the pipe to tell us that the duty chief/PO would be coming around to inspect our handiwork, when he came around we had to report what we had done as ready for inspection for the duty staff to look at and check the standard was good enough. Cleaning stations was always a good laugh as well and i will always remember standing to attention in the corridor while chief stood in front of my oppo waiting for him to report - "Chef Dudley reporting the fire hose for evening rounds chief" ha ha i couldn't believe he actually fell for it ! the chief wasn't amused !
After cleaning stations was secured we all got stuck in to cleaning our shoes/boots , washing kit, ironing kit, drinking fizzy drinks in the rec room, smoking like chimneys (I'm in the process of giving up !). it was all a bit of a mad rush but you soon get into the swing of things and everything becomes routine.
On the Friday we made our debut on the parade ground on ceremonial divisions , watching all the families of the passing out class taking photos, crying, clapping and cheering i thought to myself "that's going to be you up there soon!" i couldn't wait !
We were all looking forward to week 3 now as we had a visit to pier cellars coming up and no more trips to the sick bay for vaccinations! ....
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