Spent the first half of this week being introduced to New College and the way thing work around here. We've been kept busy sorting out the accommodation and and getting ready for the coming inspections.
We then deployed onto exercise Royal Return which was a 2 day shake out exercise to blow away the cobwebs and get use to living in the field again. We woke up at 5am on Wednesday, had no sleep until we returned at 3am on Friday, we were then graciously given 3 hours sleep until we had to be up for a full day on the ranges. Needless to say everyone was absolutely knackered and caught up on some much needed sleep on Friday evening.
On the exercise I was platoon commander for one of the attacks, which I was pretty nervous about initially, but after we got into it I thought that I did very well, which my command position debrief concurred with.
Unfortunately for one of the guys in our platoon his alarm clock didn't wake him up on Friday morning, and when he finally awoke, realising it was midday his entire world came crashing down around him. Luckily for him they were feeling generous and onl gave him a week of extra duties. Which sounds a lot but it could have been much worse believe me.
This weekend we had some lessons on defensive operations in preparation for Exercise First Encounter which we have in a couple of weeks time. More about that to follow. We managed to get some sport in and had our Academy Sunday church parade this morning and spent the rest of the day getting ready for an inspection tomorrow morning. I'm still shattered and have a feeling that this week is going to be just as busy, but we'll get through it, we always do.
We are starting to be treated more as officers now, allowing us to take control of the day to day stuff and allowing us to have a part in decisions. However this freedom brings more responsibility, which I think is a little daunting but also a great opportunity to build confidence.
Thats all for now. Hope everyone is doing well, and isn't getting bored of my posts yet.
Rob x
A good read. Thanks Rob,
ReplyDeleteJC
Alright chief! Keep up the good fight! Give me a shout when youre back around here!
ReplyDeletePoor show from the duty bod and the rest of the section who didn't notice he wasn't up till 1200!
ReplyDelete