17 March 2022
On Friday evening, we departed from Abingdon School keen to get to the Bramley training area for an amazing weekend. We arrived and quickly started patrolling to our exercise area. We dropped off our bergens, set up our bed spaces and picked up our rifles, then got briefed on a patrol to get water. We went out into the darkness with two jerry cans per section and a map to read using the moon’s light. We arrived at our location at 21:00 and refilled in order to live out in the field for the rest of the exercise.
We went back and had an early night in order to be up for lessons the next morning. Patrolling and contact drills were practised under the supervision of active soldiers and experienced staff in order to ensure we were carrying out drills to the highest standards. Then we set up our harbour area to sleep out in the field and got to link up with the RAF Reserve Regiment and see their night vision capabilities first hand which was an amazing experience that all the cadets enjoyed. Then we were treated with a local chip shop dinner which was quickly consumed by everyone. Unfortunately, the weather had quickly become extremely cold and the rain was very heavy so we had to sleep inside our accommodation. The final day started with a brief recap of skills and drills which quickly lead into a realistic ambush situation including mass amounts of blank rounds that all the cadets highly rated as a once in a lifetime amazing experience.
Written by Cpl Henry Beer
