WEEK 3 (May 23-29) – Weapons Handling & Nav Tests

 This week was very academic. There were a lot of theory classes and lessons, so it wasn’t all that “exciting.” Not in terms of being a soldier anyway. But all of it important nonetheless. We had classes on international relations, weapons handling, diversity & inclusion, country code (how to behave in the countryside—one of the “rules” is to enjoy yourself), navigation, and operational law (laws of armed conflict). It was extremely difficult to stay awake during some of the classes due to getting around 5-6 hours of sleep a night and the information being very dry. And no, we are not allowed to fall asleep, so I ended up standing up for probably 60% of the time in classes. 

We still have regular room and locker inspections almost every day. That means all of our “free” time in the evenings is spent ironing and polishing and tidying so that all of our kit and bedspace is presentable. During one of our locker/room inspections this week I had a water bottle that I hadn’t emptied from the previous day. It was maybe ¾ full (1 L bottle) and one of the corporals beelined to my locker that day and started checking everything. While I was standing there at attention looking straight ahead, I could see him in my peripheral vision uncap the water bottle and pour it all out on the floor in front of me without saying anything at all. So there was a big puddle around my bed that day. And then the next day he did exactly the same thing and he unscrewed it and poured out the few drops that were left over. The part that I found really funny though was when he emptied it all out the first time, I could see the squaddie across from me, Williams, also stood at attention and facing forward but his eyes were looking down as far as he could past the end of his nose, straining to see the puddle on the floor. I saw that and started laughing but had to stifle it because the corporals were still doing inspections around the corner in the other part of the room. The best part about it all was when that same corporal came by on one of the evenings after just to check on us before bedtime and he asked me “So is the floor dry yet?” 

We did have a lot of PT this week (just the same as any week going forward, I suppose). We didn’t have the same PT instructor as last week, we had a different one almost every day. Some were easy-going, others were strict, but all of them pushed us hard. When we do our cool down stretches at the end of the session, my hands and feet are normally slipping in my own sweat on the floor. We had a few weight training sessions—squats and deadlifts mostly. We almost always do a cardio/body weight circuit, which really gets the sweat dripping. I really want to get my 2 k time closer to the 7 min mark so I do try to push myself. But the cost of that has been feeling so stiff and sore that I can’t hardly move. 

We also did a sprint session around the track and an agility course on another day, which included vaulting over obstacles and climbing ropes. On Friday, we had a PT session that lasted AT LEAST 2 hours. It was pretty brutal. We started out with deadlifts, then had to do a circuit which was 5 burpees (put your hands on the floor, jump your legs out behind you, do a press up and then jump back up again. I hate them.), 10 press ups, 15 squats, and run a lap around the building (all while holding a 5 kg weight plate). And do all that ten times. I’m pretty fit in the group so I was bewildered as to why I was the last one to finish. I only managed to do 9/10 of the rounds, and by the end couldn’t even lift myself off the floor anymore for the press ups. So at the time I didn’t know how everyone else managed to do it so fast (until I found out later that no one else did it 10x either and some people stopped after doing 5 rounds…). There was also a session in which someone decided to go to the bathroom during the session so the PTIs had us all wait for them. They took 102 seconds so at the end of the session they told us we ALL had to do 102 burpees. But they had mercy on us, so we only had to do 80! Did I mention I hate burpees?? 

We had some navigation classes this week which ended with a practical and a written test. We had to learn how to find bearings using a compass, read contours on a map, measure distance, and learn the symbols that are used on maps, among other things. The practical test involved us measuring our pace across a 100 m field and then using that to measure the distance we had to travel. For example, my pace was 55 strides across the 100 m which meant that if we had to go, for example, 40 m, then I would take 22 paces to reach that distance. We were also given bearings to determine the direction we had to travel so we used our compasses to follow the directions and then hopefully ended up at the correct finish point. All of the groups were within about 20 m of the finish point so I guess that meant we all passed that portion of the test. Then we had a written portion. I was cramming a little bit at lunch time right beforehand, and I was a bit panicked since there was so much information we had covered in a short period of time, but I did alright in the end. I was surprised to find out I got full marks on it! 

We also had a weapons handling test which is a big milestone for our training. If we don’t pass that then obviously we can’t move forward in training because live firing on the ranges will be quite regular from now on. We have been doing classes to learn the drills since last week and did the test on Thursday. A lot of people were anxious about it but Cpl Naismith, our Section Commander, told us she was confident we would all pass, which we all did. So we were rewarded with a couple of hours to ourselves at the rec centre and had pizza on Friday.  

On Saturday, then, we did some simulated firing with rifles loaded with air compressor magazines which was meant to mimic the kickback of real rifles. We aimed at a screen with targets meant to be at a range of 25 m. I think I did pretty well, had some tight groupings of shots. The idea was to shoot 5 rounds at each of the four markings on the target, and the computer would calculate your accuracy based on your shots. The problem was that I miscounted my shots so instead of 5, I shot 6 on some of them and that completely skewed measurements. The distance between the spread of the 5 shots is measured and that is the score you get. The pass grade was a spread measurement of 85 mm between shots, but since I did 6 on some of them, that extra shot I did was included with the next grouping of shots, and so it counted them as being way spread out. I was miffed about that because now that’s on my shooting record and I’ll have to make up for it somehow if I want a good shooting record (we get graded on all of our shooting sessions and earn points for our section. It’s sort of like a competition to be the best section). Anyway, I’ll have to start learning to count properly so I can do well this coming week.  

This week was pretty tiring but I’m excited for the coming week as we’ll get to do a lot more shooting. I’m happy those tests are behind us, although I’m sure there are many more tests to come.