The Big Breach - Index of

The Big Breach; From Top Secret to Maximum SecurityCompliments of http://www.192.comparts of the Territorial Army. Some were condescending towards the fewrecruits, like myself, who had no previous military experience. `Youwon't get past the first weekend,' scoffed one shaven-headed formermarine. We were briefly interviewed to assess our previous militaryexperience and suitability for the course. Those with criminalconvictions and the weirdoes who turned up equipped with blackbalaclavas or armed with knives were shown the gate. Thequartermaster's store issued us with basic army clothing and equipmentwhich we would have to use for the selection course - camouflagetrousers, a pair of boots, a couple of hairy woollen shirts, a woollypullover, webbing, water cans, sleeping bag, a waterproof poncho, abergen to put it all in and, most importantly, a compass. We were givenanother running test - this time eight miles in one hour in our newboots. About 20 per cent immediately dropped out and were told toreturn their newly issued kit.Soon passing selection became my only goal. My work at Booz Allen &Hamilton was unimportant - just something that had to be done betweenTA weekends to pay the rent. Every second weekend for the next fivemonths, along with the other surviving candidates, I reported to theDuke of York's at 1930 on Friday evening after a boring but tiring dayin the office. We were issued rations and our kit was checked by the DS(Directing Staff) to ensure that we were using only the originalequipment issued to us. Anybody who tried to make the selection processeasier by purchasing better-quality boots or goretex waterproofs wasimmediately `binned', the terminology for ejection from the course. Atabout 2130, we crammed into the back of a leaking canvas-roofed fourtonlorry and drove down the King's Road, past its thronging pubs, outof London and down the M4 motorway towards Wales.We would arrive in the early hours of the morning at a remote forestlocation somewhere in the bleak Brecon Beacon mountains, often alreadysoaked if it was raining. Using our standard army issue sleeping bagand poncho to make a bivouac, we slept for a few hours in a copse or bya mosquito-infested reservoir. Reveille would be at 0600 and the DSgave us an hour to eat a breakfast of dehydrated porridge, canned meatand boiled sweets, make a mug of tea, then pack away all our kit intoour bergens. At 0700, the DS gave us a grid reference, usually ahilltop six or seven kilometres away. We set off at the double enmasse, navigating to the control-point with our waterproofed ordnancesurveymap and precious compass. The field rapidly strung out as thefittest and best navigators got to the front. On arrival at thecheckpoint, another member of the DS, enviably curled up in his tentwith a hot brew on, called out a new grid reference another tenkilometres or so away across difficult terrain. On arrival there, wewould be given another grid reference, then another, and so on, neverreally knowing where or when the march would end.At around 1800 the fastest runners reached the final checkpoint wherewe cooked some of the rations that we had been carrying all day and gotsome rest. The other runners would straggle in over the next few hours.The really slow candidates, or those who could not complete the coursethrough exhaustion or injury, were binned. At about 2100 the DS wouldbrief us on the night march, done in pairs, as the risk of navigatingthrough the craggy mountain ranges in darkness was too great -candidates had occasionally died of exposure or made navigationalerrors and walked off cliffs. We normally finished this shorter marchpage- 16 - To purchase the original limited edition hardback version of this bookplease call 08000 192 192 or go to http://www.192.com