Firestorm - 21. FS Chapter 21

Once in the conference room, I began to write down information onto the white boards, referring to my notes regularly, to make sure I had it down correctly. As I was doing this I explained the plan to the other team members, on how I wanted things to happen as soon as the buses arrive at the compound. We set out the large tents, lined up in the parade hall, which is to the left and down the passage from the reception area, while the dining hall and kitchen are down the passage on the right.

I wanted the three corporals to get the cadets out of the bus lined up and marched into the parade hall, via the side double doors, and paraded in the hall in their cadet units, with the four packed tents in front of their unit. Once gathered, the three cadet officers from every unit, will be put up two tents. After lunch, they would put up the remainder two tents each, ready for the cadets that would be arriving on Monday morning.

With this decided, I led the corporals to the storeroom, where there are some wooden pegs with colour painted tops, and some small sledge hammers, and going to the open ground area at the back of the outside parade ground, were there are two lots of ablution blocks, we began to mark out the locations for each of the tents for each cadet unit, with a two-metre gap between each tent. Once we had the 48 pegs in the ground, marking the front right corner of each tent, we loaded some more pegs and hammers into the jeep and we headed north to set up a dummy navigation course, as part of the introduction.

Once this was done, we returned to the compound and the conference room, were we found the CO and WO Owens looking at the white board. “Ah, there you all are” the CO said as we walked in, “Good Morning Sirs” I said right away in reply, as I approached them, while the corporals snapped to attention, “At ease, no need for that while we have so much to prepare before the senior cadets and their unit commanders arrive” Lt Colonel Harding said to the corporals.

“Sir, we have just finished marking out the positioning of the tents, as indicated on the whiteboard. As you see I have planned for the corporals to get the cadets lined up into their units, and march directly into the parade hall, where the tents are already stacked, we will give them the instructions in regards to putting up the tents, then get their unit commanders to supervise them putting up two of the four tents for each unit. After lunch, we will get them to put up the remaining two tents, behind the first two tents.

As you can see from the mud map on the white board, each unit’s tents are in a staggered line, so as to make it a little easier for access for everyone, with each unit’s 4 tents being in a “L” shape, the unit commanders will occupy the bottom right tent, and the senior cadets will occupy the middle tent in the 2^nd row, this way the other cadets are monitored by the unit commanders and senior cadets, to ensure discipline” I explained.

“I like you’re thinking on this, and I will be making sure that this layout is adopted for future camps” the CO said to me, and he indicated for me to continue. About twenty minutes later as I was coming to the end of my briefing, we were interrupted by the arrival of the catering team, from the 13^th Brigade. The leader of this catering squad, is Sergeant Tim Patterson, he had 3 cooks and 2 kitchen hands, all but one had the rank of private, with one of the cooks being a corporal.

Leaving the CO and WO in the conference room, I went to the compound kitchens. “Later this morning we will have the first lot of cadets, 48 in total, plus 12 - unit commanders, I am not sure how long Lt Colonel Harding and WO Owens are staying for, I will get them to let you know. As for me and my team, we will have lunches and dinner here with the cadets, and breakfast and supper, we will have at our own command post. Which is out there somewhere” I said to the catering team, pointing out towards the bush.

“Late Monday morning the rest of the cadets will arrive, which will be another 156, including unit officers, so there will be 204 cadets and unit officers in total. Breakfast will be at 0630, lunch at 12 noon, dinner at 1800, and supper at 2130 hours. There will be days when we will be doing manoeuvres, and the cadets will need either packed lunches, or dinners” I said to the catering team, before leaving the kitchens and heading back to the conference room.

“Staff sergeant, I will be heading back to the city after lunch, Warrant Officer Owens will be remaining here for the duration of the camp, as a liaison between you and me, and to help you in any way that you need” the CO said to me, “Very well sir, that will be fine, do you require a progress report every day?” I replied, “Twice a week will be sufficient, I think, say on Tuesday and Friday. I will come up on the Saturday, on their last day,” the CO said to me, and over the next twenty minutes we discussed the training camp some more.

As we ended the planning meeting, we heard two buses arriving in the compound. “Here we go, this is the start” I announced with a smile, as we headed out to meet the new arrivals. We stood and watched, as the cadets staggered out of the buses, all in uniform, but some were not up to the standard required by the army, and I groaned as I looked at the raged group of cadets, “Ok guys, let’s get some order here, and get started” I said quietly, not realising that WO Owens was standing beside and slightly behind me, and he snapped to attention. “Yes, Staff sergeant” he said in reply, and he stepped around me and snapped to attention again.

“Unit Commanders, have your units present on parade” the Warrant officer commanded in a loud voice, and straight away, there was twelve voices, echoing orders, and within a minute the twelve groups of cadets were lined up in one row, with their unit commander with them. “Good morning, and welcome to this cadet training camp at the Bindoon training facility, my name is Staff Sergeant Benning, the officers beside me are, my commanding officer, Lt Colonel Harding and Warrant Officer Owens, the other instructors are Corporal’s Gregson, Hays and Masterson.

Inside the parade hall there are twelve piles of items on the floor, pick up your kit bags and each unit parade in front of one pile, go” I announced, and hoping for some order, it was the total opposite, as the cadets picked up their kit bags and staggered towards the parade hall, with WO Owens opening up the double doors. When the cadets were gathered in the hall, the Corporals and I followed WO Owens, and the Lt Colonel into the front of the hall.

“Well that was very sloppy and very disgraceful… Cadets, attention” Warrant Officer Owens ordered, and the cadets went back to being in one line, in each unit, and the unit commanders did the same. “I think a little bit of hard work is needed, to remind you that this is not a holiday, in front of you are four tents, I want each unit to collect two tents, and make their way out to the end of the outside parade ground.

There you will find marker posts, each with a different colour and pattern, I want each unit to select a marker post, and put up the two tents, with the front corner of each tent to be within two centimetres of the marker post, now go” WO Owens announced, and he and I watched as the cadets wandered out of the parade hall with the two tents, and the three corporals followed them out.

“This is going to be one very painful week” I commented and WO Owens chuckled at my comment, “I am sure things will improve once they have settled in” the Warrant Officer replied with a smile, I do hope so Sir, I do hope” I replied, shaking my head, as we made our way outside, to see how they are progressing with the tents, and we found the three corporals shouting at some of the cadets.

“This is no holiday park, now get a move on, unless you want to sleep under the stars tonight” I heard Marc Hays shout, “No sir” a cadet replied, “oh, oh, here we go” I commented quietly, as we watched Marc come face to face with the cadet. “Sir, do I look like a sir, cadet, what do these strips on my sleeves say my rank is” Marc shouted, at the now terrified cadet, and I saw the cadet’s unit commander begin to approach Marc.

“Stand down Captain” WO Owens ordered, intervening on his approach towards Marc and the cadet, and I gave him a smile in response. “Sorry corporal” the cadet eventually replied, and he got back to work. Finally, when the tents were all up, and Corporal’s Gregson, Hays and Masterson were happy with them staying upright. “Right, make your way to the dining hall for lunch” WO Mike Owens announced to everyone.

Turning to me he smiled, “How about you call me Mike, when there is no one around” the Warrant Officer said to me, “as you wish sir, I mean Mike” I replied, and we followed everyone else indoors. As we entered the dining hall it was quite noisy, and I could see that Mike was not too happy, and we made our way to the head table, which was a first for me. As we neared the end of lunch, Lt Colonel Harding stood up, and using his spoon he tapped the table loudly, to get everyone’s attention and silence.

“I look forward to hearing how you all progress over the next 7 days, good luck with your training, I now hand you over to Warrant Officer Owens” the CO said and he turned to Mike, who stood up and nodded his head. “Thank you, sir. Right, now that you have perfected the art of erecting tents, once lunch is over, I want each unit to return to the parade hall, and collect the remaining two tents each, and put them up, as quickly as possible. Leave your kit bags in the parade hall, as you will collect those later, Unit commanders, please lead your cadets to the hall. That is all” Mike said and he sat down again.

Once all the cadets and their unit commanders had left the dining hall, I motioned the team to gather around. “This is not going as good as I had planned, any ideas on how we can turn things around?” I asked everyone gathered. “I was informed that you put the corporals here, threw not one, but two navigation courses yesterday, so why don’t we give them a lecture on navigation, and put them through the courses” Mike suggested.

“Does that include the unit commanders?” Troy asked, and I smiled, “Let’s get them to do some training on their own, Mike can you take them down to the caretaker’s compound, well out of the way of the cadets, and put them through some drills and anything else you can think of for three hours” I announced. An hour later, we had the 48 cadets loaded into the two trucks, and heading north towards the two top navigation courses, while Mike and the 12 cadet commanders were in three jeeps, heading south, to do separate training.

Once they were near the first navigation marker, of the dummy course, we stopped and I had the corporals get all the cadets off the trucks and paraded up, where we began the introduction to navigation training. I had prepared dummy copies of the navigation sheets, to go with the course that we had set out, which I was using for the introduction lecture. Half an hour later, I asked the 12 Cadet Under Officers to gather in one group, and the other 36 cadet warrant officers to parade in their units, and I split the Cadet Warrant Officers into three groups, with only four from each unit being together, so they can learn to work with other cadets that are total strangers.

Fifteen minutes later I lead the Cadet Under officers, there 300 metres to the start of one of the real navigation courses, while Marc transported one group of Cadet WO’s to the other northern navigation course, and the remaining two groups, would stay behind, and start attending separate lectures on night navigation, by Troy and Amos. Although not familiar with the northern course, Marc had an area map of the course, so he knew where the group was supposed to go, and monitor their progress from a distance.

Two hours later, both groups had successfully completed the course, and the other two teams had started on the two courses an hour ago, as Marc and I began to give the night navigation lecture, where we had done the earlier lecture, which was completed just ten minutes before the two trucks arrived with the rest of the cadets, just before 5pm, and with everyone loaded in the truck, we made our way back to the compound.

I announced to all the cadets, that they had an hour to relax, grab their kit bags, have a shower, and changed, ready for dinner at 1800 hours. The cadets went to retrieve their kit bags, and staggered off to their tents, to get settled in and get organised, just as Mike and the cadet unit commanders marched into the compound looking very tired and weary, and Mike had the biggest grin on his face, as he watched them head off to their tents.

“They definitely didn’t expect to be doing a lot of hard work for this camp, and boy did they get a good work out” Mike said to me, and I just chuckled, “I hope this makes them realise that we are not here for a holiday, but for some hard work training” I replied, as we headed to admin office to relax for a little while. A few moments later one of the unit commanders arrived to speak to us.

“Just wanted to know if there was anything else planned for this evening” he asked Mike, since he was the ranking officer, “No Captain, we have no activities organised for tonight, but I would like to suggest, that some of the stuff that you learnt today, could be passed on to the cadets, say 1 ½ hours, then the cadets can have the rest of the evening to relax, and I suggest a 2100 hours bed and lights out” Mike responded.

“We won’t be at the compound, we have our own command base camp elsewhere on the property, so we will leave you soon after dinner, and return after breakfast. Reveille is at 0615, breakfast is at 0630” I added, “Very well, I will pass the information on to the other unit commanders” the captain said and he left to pass on the information. “So, what are your thoughts on how it all went today” I asked Mike, Troy, Amos and Marc.

“Not bad really, after a few grumbles, the unit commanders did quite well, we did some basic navigation in the bush, with maps and compasses, plenty of drill practice, and of course the nice long march back to the compound” Mike reported. “I am sure they were thrilled about that” I commented. “My group of WO cadets did quite well with the navigation course, but I’m a little uncertain on the night navigation lecture” Marc said, “My group was the same, not bad on the navigation course, but a little uncertain on the night navigation lecture” Troy added, and Amos said the same for his group. “As you know, I had the CUO’s and I was not impressed, they were sloppy and lazy with both the night navigation lecture and the navigation course, I am tempted to make them do it again” I added. “Since we only have tomorrow and early Monday before the rest of the cadets arrive, I suggest that we push theses senior cadets as much as we can” Mike announced, and he turned to me.

“Right for tomorrow, let’s start with Strategic planning lecture, one search and kill manoeuvres, that we will have on the last day, we need to get the CUO’s and WO’s to be familiar with command strategies, planning and executing a successful manoeuvre, to hunt down terrorists. Mike have the paintball guns been ordered, and organised for delivery by Thursday? I asked letting the team know what the plans are for the next day, “Yes ordered, and will be delivered on Wednesday afternoon” Mike replied.