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I Started My Military Career At Just Sixteen

I started off my military career at the age of sixteen and fourteen days old. I joined the army straight from school after having passed selection at fifteen and a half. This is true but all I had wanted to do since I was a really young boy was to follow in the family footsteps and become a soldier. This is so true of a lot of lads in our society and often young women now too.

I went to the army foundation college in Harrogate where I was to complete a year long basic course. The AFC (Army Foundation College) is more popularly known as Junior Leaders. When I first applied for the army I wanted to be a Paratrooper. I had the grit and determination to do it. As it stands, an instructor from the Scots Dragoon Guards managed to talk me into joining his regiment and I thought his beret was cool (It was grey). I was apart of 3rd section 10 platoon Cambrai company and my instructor was a small Northern Irish chap by the name of Bombardier Johnson. He gave me the nickname of his favourite Scottish Muppet.

The training at Harrogate was hard and fast – A mixture of military skills and class work. As well as receiving all military skills – Skill at arms, Field craft, NBC, Drill, First Aid etc, we also gained key skills in Maths, English, Working with others and I also gained an NVQ Level 2 in Information Computer Technology.

I made some lifelong friends at Harrogate and ended up seeing them all over the world at totally random places which was quite fun. Our training at the AFC was more in depth than at places like ATR Winchester. Our introduction to field exercise was 3 days long whereas at an ATR their final field exercise is 3 days and our final one was 2 weeks. It consisted of a week of battle camp, lots of assault courses, bayonet training…. This was really hard because the instructors used to work you up to the point where your head was about to explode and then let you loose on some dummies. I managed to get my bayonet stuck in a tree because I ran it right through.

After battle camp you spend a week in the field learning how to patrol, ambushes, setting up harbour areas and field craft. It’s on these EX’s that you get to find out what soldiering is all about, because being a barrack room soldier is shi* and doesn’t get you anywhere if you want a decent career.

While in barracks there was a mass of room and locker inspections. This is hard as well. We got the white glove treatment and woe betide if there was a dark smudge on that glove. If there was, the kit that you had spent hours cleaning, ironing, starching just got thrown out of the window. I learned not to laugh when the window was actually closed (“Press up position… down…!”). Or you got told to get your arse down to the guard room for a beasting. That’s like extreme drill and it kills you. The man you had to see for your beasting was an Irish Corporal who suffered badly from wee man syndrome. He really enjoyed beasting recruits I can tell you. He ran you into the ground until you puked. I never let him beat me although he had me in tears a lot I wouldn’t let him break me and that pis*ed him off so he tried harder and I loved it! Ha! Ha!

When it came towards the end of our training we came to know our instructors as actual people and not the robots that were there to change you from a worthless maggot into a soldier – They were actually nice blokes, just real people whom were there to do a job. We then prepared for our passing out parade. You are filled with a great joy when you get to this stage because you are going to leave as a trained soldier, and all the blood, sweat, and tears you put into it finally paid off. In the end it was worth something and you got to celebrate with all the people you suffered with. The year was a long hard slog but I made it. Our parade finished without a hitch and I was overcome with pride and joy. I wasn’t a maggot anymore but a trained member of the British Armed Forces. So we all said our good byes to each other and went home for a well deserved break before heading off for phase 2 training.

MORE TO FOLLOW…

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