All over?!
Well, Recruit training is over...who would have thought?
First off, sorry about last week, I tried to post a 'sizeable' news item about our last field phase, but the computer I was using in the japanese restaurant fucked itself just as I went to send the email (literally).
Anyway, a quick recap. (I'm in Te Anau by the way, my folks are taking a quick Tiki tour of the South of the South and I was thrown on the bandwagon too.) First, our last field phase was AWESOME. Dip Flat was wicked shit man as you'd expect.
The first 4 days were Exercise Defender, which entailed us constructing and defending a Helicopter LZ (Landing zone...) in a 'impedeing civil war' country. It was great. We were assessed on the ability of our section to conduct VCP's (vehicle checkpoints), Sentry posts, Recce Patrols, NBC patrols, Jungle Lane training and as a QRF (Quick Reaction Force). We were on 18-20 hour days with 4-5 hours rest (even though it was a "6" hour period - gotta clean that weapon sometime, and take a dump!!!) It was quite awesome as I've said. You were knackered beyond belief but just kept giving it 150%. Exercise Confirmation was the last few days and this meant we spent the time on rat packs out in the bush under our hootchies (half shelters). It was semi-non tactical however, we still had shit to do in our 12 person section. Each task was about half the day, 3-4 hours each but the best thing was the sooner we finished the sooner we could get the camp site and sleep! But we were still fucked, since the tasks weren't easy. We had an ammo tin carry (two for me full of concrete for 7km, hard...but I guess I'm just a pussy!) with packs and all that kit as well (I was leader too, and kind of screwed it, but we still passed...). And other stuff, like a first aid exercise, to rescue some HALO para jumpers and get them stabilized, a navigation exercise in the hills, night navigation, putting up a mess tent and all that. I'll tell you more later when I got a bit more time.
Grad parade was cool, I was in the defence tactics team, and we got some good pictures, I'll see if we can put them up if I can. But again, Thanks to everyone for your support over the last 13 weeks, its been awesome. I should be back around 5-6pm on Tuesday, and Cringle will know some more later on, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATE!!! Have a good 19th mate, get creamed and get some (I know you will..you got a very accomodating partner;-))
See you guys soon
AC S.Unka RNZAF