Meet The Marines at George Amey Centre, Milton Keynes
5th November 2006 See the picture library here
We had to meet at our unit on Sunday for 0800hrs, so it was a fairly early start to the day. I arrived at the unit fairly promptly with the other St Albans Marines; Laurie and Callum. Cameron and Adam arrived shortly after. There were two other marine cadets there, one from Welwyn and Hatfield unit, and one from Stevenage. Our Detachment Commander (Sgt. Wales) and our Commanding Officer (C/Sgt Lansdown) were our supervisors for the day. We were also accompanied by a Royal Naval Midshipman.
The journey up to Milton Keynes lasted roughly 1 hour. Upon arrival, we were taken into a room with all the other people taking part in the event (approx 90 others).
We were split into 6 groups, with roughly 18 in each group, and were set off to one of the 6 stances, which lasted 40 minutes. Each group was appointed a group leader (who was a serving Royal marine) for the day, ours being Joe, or Jodie as he is known. There was Rigid Raiding, Climbing and Abseiling, Caving and Weapons Handling, Paintballing, Survival, and finally Shelters and Bivvies.
Our group was on the Rigid Raiders first. The Royal Marines use Rigid Raiders for rapid response, to get ashore and for various assaults from the sea. Each Rigid Raider can hold a section (8 – 10 men with weapons) as well as the coxswain. These landing craft can reach up to 44mph, which seems a lot faster than it sounds. Your hands and face get rather cold and it is a bumpy ride, but still more enjoyable than I ever imagined. This was a great start to the day, and the rest of the day met up to my expectations.
Our second stance of the day was the Climbing and Abseiling which was done on a 30ft climbing wall.
I was sent up the stairs first to go off the fan. The fan is a metal bar (like handlebars) which is attatched to rope suspended from the climbing wall. As you step off, the rope unwinds itself and slows you down enough to stop you hitting the ground at full speed. I was nervous about stepping off the wall into the thin air but I was ensured that it was 100% safe so I stepped off. There was a cold rush of air hitting my face as I went down (think I left my stomach at the top) and because of the momentum from coming down, when I landed on the floor I almost fell over. I went on this again another 2 times as I enjoyed it the most. Round the back of the climbing wall was the tallest climbing section. You had to climb up to the top of the tower and then abseil back down. I went on this after I had been on the fan and found it quite a challenge. You need to have good upper an lower body strength as well as flexibility to become an efficient climber. The final wall went 25ft up and started with a slope. Whilst I was climbing, one of the marines played a joke on me by dropping a spider on me to try and scare! Hah, it didn’t work! When you reached the top, you had to get yourself up and then either abseil down on the other side or take the fan down: of course . . . . I took the fan.
Our third and final stance before lunch, was caving and weapons handling. We were split into two groups with one doing the caving and one doing the weapons handling. We spent approx. 20 minutes doing each of them.
My group took on the caving first. We went with one of the marines and did 5 minutes of PT (Physical Training), this I was told was to make sure that your muscles are ready to be contorted by going through the various tunnels. We then put on our overalls and entered the caves. The tunnels started out as 4 foot wide and 4 foot high, but got smaller and much darker as we went further in, eventually being pitch black. About half way through the cave we had to ascend down a ladder which was lit up with the florescent fluid from a glow stick, which everyone managed to get over their hands! We then finished off crawling through the cave and came out rather hot and sweaty, but glad to be in the fresh air again. We then took off our overalls and went up to the second part of the stance: weapons handling.
I had been looking forward to the weapons handling as we got to see what weapons the Royal Marines use in current service. These weapons consisted off:
- Minimi Light Machine Gun (LMG)
- Genral Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG)
- 0.5 Browning Heavy Machine Gun
- Light Anti-Tank Weapon 94 (LAW94)
- 9mm Pistol
- Javelin Rocket Lanuncher
- SA80A2 (L85A2) with Grenade Attatchment
After lunch we headed off in a minibus to the woodland where the remaining 3 stances were set out. Our fourth stance of the day was survival. At the survival stance there were two marines and our group leader. There was a tent set out with various pieces of survival kit and survival information. We went through the contents of a 24hr ration pack (the different meals, sundries, drinks pack, extras and when to use them) and also how to cook the meals. They also told us how they would use the various foods (don’t ask?) We got to taste some of the biscuits and the non-meat sausage and beans. We then went through the contents of a survival tin, which every Marine carries and covered the various aspects of survival that the contents of the tin are there help you with.
Our fifth stance was situated in the wooded area just behind the survival stance. We were all kitted out with a set of overalls and a paintball gun with about 40 – 50 paintballs. We had a safety brief and were told how to deal with problems with the gun, and we then went to the firing range to fire two shots at the target to ensure the gun and gas were working correctly.
We were split into two teams and went to our starting positions, one of which was at the bottom of the hill and the other being at the top. I was at the top and was told by the Marine that his team (the team at the top of the hill) had never lost so far so was expecting good things from us. We did win in the end after a 10 – 15 minute game, which resulted in Cameron and Adam getting in a gun fight, our Midshipman getting shot about 20 times in the back (by her own team of course) and me getting shot in the back of the head. It was a good game and everyone enjoyed themselves and had a good laugh afterwards when we re-counted out tales.
Our final stance of the day was the shelter and bivouac stance. At this stance we went through the various shelters that the Royal Marines use and how they are constructed. We went through 4 different types of shelter: The A-frame, the lean to, the canopy, and a dugout. The A-frame, lean to and canopy are all constructed using a basha/bivvy and the dugout being constructed using any resources you can find (in this case the roots of a tree which had fallen over).
We were also told about sleeping arrangements under the shelter, where your kit will be stowed, and wether it would be appropriate to do paperwork under them. We then asked the marine some questions at the end about the Commando training at the Commando Training Centre Royal Marines (CTCRM) and life in the Royal Marines. He was very honest in his answers and did not try to avoid any difficult questions. I learnt a lot from these questions and answers and got an insight into what life is like as a Royal Marine.
After we had finished the last stance we were driven back to the main centre and watched another DVD on The Commando training, what happens on completion of basic training, and the different specialisations you can choose to do.
We then went outside for the final event for the day: The Unarmed Combat Display. Four Royal Marines and another P.T. Sgt who commentated, carried out the display.
This was a great end to the day and went over various techniques on unarming your opponent; unarming a sentry, strangle holds and many more. To finish the display off, they did a “king-of-the-mat” contest which involved almost every move demonstrated and put into use against the other Marines.
Meet The Marines was an amazing experience for me and I learnt a lot about life in the Royal Marines and now have a clear idea of my future career. All the others enjoyed the day and learnt a lot as well.
I would just like to say thank you to all of the members of the Commando Display Team for making my day out, an amazing experience. I would also like to say than you to C/Sgt. Lansdown & Sgt Wales for organising the event and driving us there and back, and also to everyone who attended for making the day as exciting as possible. I would also like to say well done to our Midshipman for being such a good (although bruised) sport.
By Stephen Buck, November 2006
See the picture library here