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Cadet Cambrian Patrol (September 2010)

Our weekend’s exploits started on the Friday night as we fought with our navigational skills to arrive in South Wales and obtain our first meal - fish and chips. After filling our empty stomachs we found our beds for the night at the main camp, Sennybridge.

Next morning, after just a few hours sleep, we prepared to deploy to the FIBUA Village (Fighting in Built Up Areas) which was to be the base of operations for the rest of the weekend. The morning was slow, with basic run through of drills and procedures which would be needed in order for us to compete at our best over the next 24 hours. Part way through the morning our Patrol Leader, Archie Selka, was whisked away by the organising staff so that he could receive his 2 hour long orders brief in preparation to brief the rest of the patrol. During the afternoon we had a series of stands including one in which we used the FIBUA Village to learn how to clear rooms and houses. We had a spare hour afterwards which was spent consuming as much food as physically possible in preparation for the night ahead.

At 1800 we had a final team brief and were then loaded into the minivan with all of our kit and rifles and driven out into the training area. As it became dark we made our way as a patrol into our harbour area carrying out the necessary drills we’ve learnt over the past year in our L6 exercises and spare time. After putting up our bashas in complete silence we moved out of our base and began the first of the tasks to come – carrying out a CTR (Close Target Reconnaissance or ‘recce’) on a target located 1000 m away. Listening in on the enemy and using flares to light up the target we gathered as much Intel as we could from the safety of a muddy bank of a small stream. As the enemy action quietened we began to make our way back to the harbour area. Whilst a rota was devised for personnel to guard stag points through the night the rest of us managed to get our heads down for a few hours.

We half expected something out of the ordinary to have been arranged as part of the task through the night, however all remained quiet until we surfaced again the next morning at 0600. We had breakfast and packed the rest of our kit away into our bergans, unbeknown to us that we were to have a full kit inspection within the next 3 minutes. Sure enough, as we tactfully emerged from the trees ready to move off, the happiest Colour Sgt we had ever met addressed us and demanded to see every item of kit he deemed necessary. This included kit on, and not on, the kit list.

After being deducted a fair few points we started the 5 km march to the first of the round robin activities of the day. Going slightly off course to save time we arrived just in time for the orienteering and military questions exercise where we split into two groups to complete the task which took around 40 minutes. Unaware of how we’d performed we left the activity and began the trek to the next phase – an ambush of the enemy. I think most of us agreed that this was our most favourable part of the weekend, having been given blank rounds and told to fire at the enemy. The final two phases consisted of a command task, which we excelled at being from the ‘Command Task College’, and a march and shoot which we were equally successful at. The ‘march’ was just over 1.5 miles in our kit with rifles. We completed it in a time of 16 minutes, the second fastest team in the whole competition managed 21 minutes.

Having completed the weekend’s tasks we made our way back to the FIBUA Village to find an apprehensive Ma’am Pervin and Colour Sgt Kelly. We knew that we hadn’t won the competition by any means, yet we all felt that we’d had a good shot at it and given it our very best. The hour long results ceremony confirmed that we’d gained Silver Standard Award and had been placed third in the Senior competition.

We were given a celebratory packed lunch and re-boarded the minivan. With our nerves now gone, and having had little sleep, we all managed to doze during the 5 hour journey back to College.

Our sincere thanks must go to Ma’am Pervin and Colour Sgt Kelly for giving up their weekend to support this activity and making our participation possible.

Archie Selka, Alanbrooke 09E and Josie Lockwood, Portland 09E

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