Firestorm - 5. FS Chapter 5

Once I was unpacked, and shown around the barracks, we went down to the temporary Royal Engineers building, where I was introduced to the rest of the platoon and company. I learn that there were only 3 platoons in the company, so a total of 40 men and women in the platoon and 120 in the company. I concentrated on getting to know the people in my platoon first, as well as the platoon commanders and the company commander.

When they learnt that I had been given a promotion to Lance Corporal, I explained that it was probably from all the previous civilian training that I had done, plus the high-altitude parachute training that I had just completed, which I learn only a few had completed. I was informed that we had a company training briefing at 10-00 hours, in preparation for the training at Bindoon, and that after lunch we would be preparing for tomorrow’s equipment and supplies two-hour drive north.

We were about to leave to go to the briefing, when Lt Colonel Harding walked in, and we all stood to attention, “Benning, Carter and Langton, with me, the rest of you to the briefing, that is all” the colonel announced, and I quickly followed the other two soldiers out of the building, following the CO, who took us down the road to the SAS command building.

I had no idea why we were being picked out to follow the CO, as I had not had the chance to meet and talk to Sergeant Langton and Corporal Carter, as we entered a large briefing room which was filled with about 40 men, all who were in full work uniforms, and the colonel instructed us to take a seat, and he walked on to the front of the room.

A few moments later we were called to order and told to sit down. “Right, some of you know that this is Lt Colonel Harding of the SOC REC usually based in Holsworthy, his regiment has graced us their presence to participate in two weeks of intensive training at Bindoon commencing tomorrow” the speaker said, and it took me a while to be able to see his rank on his shoulders, which was a full colonel.

“Until a few days ago, he had only five members of his regiment, who have completed the high-altitude jump, now he has six and we have three of them amongst us today” the colonel added, and as soon as he mentioned the words high altitude jump, I knew the reason for being at this briefing, as did Carter and Langton.

“The youngest and most recent member is just 17 years old, he has training in fire-fighting, industrial first aid and emergency health care, fluent in Spanish and French, a skilled marksman, but he is new to Army life, so let’s welcome Lance Corporal Mitchell Benning” the colonel announced, and the corporal and sergeant sitting next to me gave me a solid pat on the back, and I stood briefly to acknowledge the colonel, before sitting down again.

“These three REC members will be joining us for the high-altitude entry into Bindoon, we will leave here at 0600 for the 30-minute short journey to RAAF Base Pearce, where our ride will be waiting for us, we take off at 0645 and commence the drop less than 20 minutes later, approximately an hour before the REC arrive at the Bindoon Training Facility. One other thing, there is currently three Army Cadet units, number ninety at the facility, and they will not know of our aerial arrival, their commanding officers will know, but that is all, they will be on a training manoeuvre and will be armed with paintball guns.

We will be armed with the same, for safety reasons, their aim is to patrol and secure the facility, while we will be aiming to disrupt their goals, there is to be no excessive force on the cadets, just disarm and secure. Three long bursts of a whistle will be the indication that this manoeuvre is over, and we will regroup and hike back to the main facility, which will take about an hour” the colonel announced.

I was a little surprised that there was going to be cadets involved, but knowing that they are around the same age as me was also a nice thing too, as most of the members of my platoon are aged twenty or more. After a further hour of briefings, we were dismissed for lunch. Suddenly I was surrounded by a large group of SAS members, which was a little terrifying at first, till they began introducing themselves to me and shaking my hand.

“Hey guys, what was that call sign given to that teenager in that British movie about their SAS” I heard one SAS member say out loud, “Cub, and the movie was storm breaker” came a reply soon after, “Welcome to the team Cub, you are part of us now” the first guy announced to me with a smile, and everyone cheered, as we made our ways outside and towards the dining mess for lunch. As I sat down with Carter and Langton on either side of me, they gave me a jab in my side each with their elbows, “I don’t know what it is about you, but you seem to get a lot of attention and rewards very quickly” Langton said to me, “I try not to, I just seem to excel in everything new that I try, I just can’t help it” I replied with a little grin, as we began to eat.

After lunch, we returned to the SAS area, to start making preparations for the high altitude jump in the morning, in the previous briefing, we were informed of high cloud, light winds, with a chance of rain, as we prepared our parachute packs, oxygen sets, our emergency survival kits, ration packs and our compact kits. I learnt that I needed to cut down on what I could take with me to Bindoon, as I would be carrying it all with me when we jump.

As we were nearing our preparations, we were all issued with a paintball gun, and paintball ammunition, which we took a little of time to get familiar with, and while doing that I asked to nobody in particular, if anyone who which cadet units would be at Bindoon. I asked our CO that question during lunch, he said the Northam region Cadets, Albany region cadets and Swan Grammar School Cadet unit” a Warrant officer replied, and on hearing the name of my old school, I gave out a loud groan.

“Does that groan mean anything Cub?” I was asked, “Yes warrant officer, it means that SGS is my old grammar school, before I had to pull out, due to financial difficulties on the family farm” I replied, and those who hear my reply gave a short laugh, “Never mind Cub, I am sure that you will put them in their place” another member responded, and many around us agreed with that statement.

By the end of the day, we were all set and ready for the start of tomorrow’s training, and after dinner, we were given the rest of the evening to relax, with a 2100 hour lights out. When reveille sounded at 0530 the next morning, I groaned, before struggling out of bed, it was the only thing I hated about the Army, we being woken that way. I had showered last night before bed, so I changed into a fresh uniform, and seeing that they were minus the badges, patches and rank on the sleeves, I had to quickly sew them all on.

During breakfast, which I was late for, I learnt from the others in my platoon, that they would be leaving via trucks at 0700 hours, and that they had to do final preparations straight after breakfast is over. I said that I would be with the SAS unit for the first stage of the training, and that we would be arriving at the training facility at another time from them. The platoon tried to get more information from my, but I refused, and they began to push me about a bit to get met to talk, but I still refused.

“Knock that off right now” a voice bellowed, and I looked up to see that it was SAS Warrant Officer Mike Owens and half a dozen other SAS members standing nearby, “Are you ok cub?” Warrant Officer Owens asked me, “Yes sir, I am fine, they were just fooling around” I replied, “Well men, you better remember that Benning, is still under age, so watch it or you will be on charges, understood” Warrant Officer Owens said to the offending platoon members, “Yes sir, Sorry sir” they all replied.

“Sorry Benning, I guess we got a little carried away, when do you turn 18?’ one of my platoon colleagues asked, “Not for a few more months, next year, and apology accepted” I replied with a smile, just as corporal Harding returned with seconds of desserts. “What’s going on, what was the WO saying to you guys?” Harding asked as he sat down, and began to eat. “We got a little too rough with Benning, when we tried to get some information about what he is doing with the SAS, and they saw us doing it” one of the platoon members – Casey replied.

“You should know better, I have already warned you about this, I hope you got a good chewing over by the WO” Corporal Harding replied, “Oh yes they sure did, and they have apologised to me so it’s all cool now” I responded, “Hey Benning, how come he called you Cub?” one of the guys asked me and I chuckled. “It is the nickname they gave me, same as in that movie – Storm breaker, I think the movie was called” I said.

Once breakfast was over, Carter and Langton from 2^nd Platoon and I headed over to the SAS mission prep area, were there were three trucks waiting for us, and after final checks on all of our gear, we loaded up and were soon on our way heading north then east to RAAF Pearce at Bullsbrook. At the security gate, we had our security ID’s checked, and the vehicles looked at quickly, before we were permitted onto the base, and we were taken to end of the main runway, were a Hercules transport plane was waiting for us.

Once we were loaded up into the back of the plane, fully kitted up, we sat on the webbing seats, and held on to what we could for the noisy and rough take off. Before we knew it, we were getting ready for the jump, which would be from an eight of just 15,000 feet, and as I exited the plane for the freefall stage of the jump, the crisp morning bit into me, as I continued to fall, till I reached the height of 1,000 feet, and I pulled the chute cord, and I waited for what seemed to be eternity, for the chute to fully open, and capture enough air to pull me up.

In the briefing, we had been instructed to land in four groups at different locations at the northern end of the training facility, which is approximately 20 thousand acres in area, we had individual satellite communication units, so we could all stay in contact with our platoon commanders, over that large area.

As the SAS platoon that I was attached to neared the ground, we could see a large number of cadets scattered everywhere, and we manoeuvred the parachutes, so as to avoid getting caught up in the trees, and on touching the ground, we rolled up our parachutes and quickly packed them into our chute packs, to be checked and repacked properly later in the day.

Quickly our platoon of twenty regrouped, pulling out our pain ball guns, and charging them, before our platoon Captain gave us our instructions. We had already been divided up into 4 squads of five, at the last briefing yesterday, and I was in Delta squad, and 2IC – second in command, as we fanned out and prepared to face the approaching school cadets, who would be using just motion signals, as they didn’t have the luxury of modern hi tech communications like we did.

When I spotted the first group of cadets, I looked to my right and left, and they hand signalled that they saw 8 to 10 cadets in front of us, and we lay in the bush camouflaged waiting for them to fall into our trap, and as soon as they were close enough, we heard the signal in our earpieces to “take them down”, which we did. Soon we had marked each and every one of them with paintball colours.

“Drop your weapons, on your knees, hands behind your backs” I ordered as we swiftly approached the stunned cadets, and our platoon quickly collected all the cadet weapons, and had all the cadets lined up, seated on the ground, with their hands behind their heads. “Who are you guys, you are not cadets? One of the school boys asked, “Look at their bad dumbass, they are regular army” another student commented, “Look again numb nuts, they are Special Air Service” another student added.

“Welcome to the army boys, we thought we would drop in and surprise you” my platoon captain said, “What unit are you with boys?” I asked, “Northam Region Cadets sir” one of the boys responded, “I am not a sir, look at my rank cadet, what am I?” I responded in an angry manner, “Sorry corporal, I guess I am still a little stunned that you appeared out of nowhere. I am Cadet Under Officer Banks, senior cadet for our unit” one of the older boys replied.

“That is what we do cadet, and in this case, it was from 15,000 feet” my platoon sergeant responded with a big smile, and we were silent for a few moments, as we all listened to information from the other squads, “Copy that, squad delta of 3^rd platoon has ten cadets from Northam, over” we heard the captain say in response to information that other cadets had been captured from Northam and Albany.

Two of the platoon members were selected to march the captured cadets to join the others that had been captured, while we continued on with the sweep to find and capture more cadets. The next group that we spotted, were being a lot more careful that the previous group, and we lay in waiting for them to enter our trap, but this time we had a longer firefight happen, which resulted in two of our platoon getting hit by paintballs, as we approached and circled the cadets.

“Ok, we surrender” we heard a voice call out, and the cadets stood up and held their weapons out, “On your knees, weapons on the ground, and your hands behind your head” I and one other squad member ordered to the cadets, who obeyed the orders. “Who the heck are you guys?” one of the cadets asked as the weapons were collected, “They are Special Air Service according to their arm badges” an older cadet answered whose voice sounded family, “That’s enough talking Murray, just shut up and listen to my CO” I ordered, and I saw the cadet turn to face us, to see who it was that knew his name.

I was hoping with all the war paint and other camouflage, that I wouldn’t be recognised, “Right, now Cadet Murray is it, I am guessing you are from Swan Grammar?” the captain announced, “Yes sir that is correct, I am cadet officer Murray of Swan Grammar School cadet unit, may I ask who it was that knows my name” the cadet replied, and my Co smiled and looked at me, and the cadet flowed his gaze and frowned.

“It can’t be surely” Cadet Murray said eventually, “Why don’t you take a guess cadet Murray” I said with a smile, “Well, the voice sounds familiar, but from the last that I heard, you were heading to a government high school, eh Mitchell Benning” the cadet responded. “That will be corporal Benning to you now Cadet Murray, I hope you liked our surprise, my superiors decided that we should drop in, and join your training session” I responded.

‘What do you mean drop in Corporal Benning” another cadet asked, “that’s Peterson isn’t it, well Peterson what do you think the SAS does best, we drop in unannounced, and today it was from 15,000 feet” I replied with a big smile. “Holy smoke, I don’t think I could ever do that Corporal” Cadet Murray replied. “Enough of the reunion, let’s get these cadets to join the others, so we can continue” the platoon captain said to use.