Speaker 1: Oh, beat force. If it doesn't work, you're just not
Speaker 1: using enough. You're listening to Software up Radio, Special Operations,
Speaker 1: military news and straight talk with the guys and the community.
Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to Software at Rodeo on time
Speaker 1: and on target. And this week again it's Big Phil. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it. I'm standing in for Brandon again this week,
Speaker 1: so you're gonna have to listen to me for just
Speaker 1: one more time and then Brandon will be back at
Speaker 1: some stage. Well, what I'm gonna talk about this week, Well,
Speaker 1: I was approached by the Gurkhas. We've all heard about
Speaker 1: the Gurkhas and they've been asking me to Champagne Champions
Speaker 1: Champagne or that we some champagne if I pull it off.
Speaker 1: But it's a champion, a new cause for them, and
Speaker 1: I'm going to talk a little bit about that, and
Speaker 1: we're also going to talk about the next stage of selection.
Speaker 1: Remember last week we covered the trees, so let's start off. Then.
Speaker 1: The Gurkhas feared and renowned around the world for their
Speaker 1: fighting prowess and rightly so, you know everybody in the
Speaker 1: UK has got some sort of attachment or some sort
Speaker 1: of story regarding the Gurkhas. They really are a formidable
Speaker 1: fighting force and they've been with us for a very
Speaker 1: long time. So firstly, who are there, Where are they from?
Speaker 1: Whither from Nepal the majority of them at the pool
Speaker 1: and some come from India, but mainly from Nepole. As
Speaker 1: one was explaining to some of the other day, there's
Speaker 1: two types of gurkha and there's the Nepalese gurkhas and
Speaker 1: there's what they call the gur Carli Gurkhas. Now, the
Speaker 1: Nepalese gurkhas are like the white collar workers of Nepal.
Speaker 1: They manned the hospitals, they do this out and the
Speaker 1: other They've all got fairly decent jobs and I've had education.
Speaker 1: The gur Carl Gurkhas, on the other hand, all of
Speaker 1: out and the sticks and those gurkhas, they're the workers.
Speaker 1: They really are Ryan, don't the girls the workers? They
Speaker 1: go big fields on point already there you go. So
Speaker 1: these gurkhas very lowly paid and they go through quite
Speaker 1: some selection process to get into the gurkha regiments. They
Speaker 1: have to apply months and years in advance, they have
Speaker 1: to travel quite some distance, some of them, and then
Speaker 1: they have to go through a very grueling selection process
Speaker 1: which culminates as legend would have it with them chasing
Speaker 1: a pig around, killing it and eating it. But in
Speaker 1: reality there's a lot more complex than that. They've become
Speaker 1: trained soldiers and then they come and serve in the UK.
Speaker 1: Now traditionally we've had them serving with is for for
Speaker 1: a very very long time. They've been you know, they've
Speaker 1: done many campaigns and all the recent campaigns has seen
Speaker 1: Gurkha's in action. They weren't really used in Northern Ireland,
Speaker 1: but outside of that, I think just about everything else
Speaker 1: I can remember, the gurkhas have been involved with very
Speaker 1: very skilled troops and obviously they have a reputation. They
Speaker 1: have a reputation for being ruthless and they carry their
Speaker 1: kukuri knives from which I'm sure many people have heard
Speaker 1: many many stories of people getting chopped up and putting
Speaker 1: the part with those things. I can tell you so yeah,
Speaker 1: very very good troops level you're so mind your side
Speaker 1: and against you. I can tell you that I've seen
Speaker 1: them personally working against me in the jungle where they
Speaker 1: we used them as our enemy on selection when we
Speaker 1: were out of the jungle, those would have beat what
Speaker 1: you're up against. And don't forget that's their environment. Ay,
Speaker 1: any of them. You know, they are survival experts. They
Speaker 1: live in the jungle. That's what they do. They're used
Speaker 1: to that sort of thing. So you're very much in
Speaker 1: their back garden when you come across the Gurkhas in
Speaker 1: the jungle, so that's where they're happiest. But that's not
Speaker 1: to say that they didn't serve down in the Falklands
Speaker 1: with distinction where it was where rainy, cold and stinking.
Speaker 1: So you know they're versatile. They're versatile troops. Nowadays, their
Speaker 1: lot within the army is fairly on par with what
Speaker 1: way are. But traditionally, because they are effectively mercenaries for
Speaker 1: our country, they don't get the same rate of pay,
Speaker 1: but moreover they don't get the same pension. So I've
Speaker 1: been approached by by a group of senior Gurkhas in
Speaker 1: his country and they've asked me if I would become
Speaker 1: like a champion for their cause to try and get
Speaker 1: them their Jews. When I say get them their Jews,
Speaker 1: a lot of these people when they left after I
Speaker 1: suppose to a guy idea other day, twenty eight years
Speaker 1: services man had done. He served in Malaya. He fought
Speaker 1: fiercely for this country in Malaya, Okay, which was a long, horrible,
Speaker 1: grueling campaign. He spent twenty eight years of his life
Speaker 1: serving the UK and at the end of it his
Speaker 1: pension didn't even equate to a quarter of what a
Speaker 1: private soldier would get. And this man got out as
Speaker 1: a major. Okay, So you can see that's too horrifically unfair. Now,
Speaker 1: the old school amongst us will say, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I feel their mercenaries they came over, they get what
Speaker 1: they get. But that doesn't wash with me. That doesn't
Speaker 1: wash with me. I believe that they should be brought
Speaker 1: up and brought in line with what everybody else gets
Speaker 1: at least. But it's the problem. Okay. So nowadays the
Speaker 1: Gurkhas are more in line, and their pensions are more
Speaker 1: in tune, and they're on a lot better package. However,
Speaker 1: there is about ten thousand Gurkhas within the UK right
Speaker 1: now whose pensions are absolutely appalling. This is how they
Speaker 1: explain it to me. A lot of them want to
Speaker 1: go back back to Nepal, where obviously their families are
Speaker 1: from there. Their families can't afford to fly them back
Speaker 1: out there, they can't afford to get there, or then
Speaker 1: and although they do get benefits which keep them alive here, okay,
Speaker 1: which which feed them and they're all housed and all
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. Okay, they have never got enough
Speaker 1: money to pick up everything they've got to move about
Speaker 1: to move back to Nepal. Now, in terms of money,
Speaker 1: what does it cost. It costs about thirty two thousand
Speaker 1: pound a year or something they've told me in benefits
Speaker 1: to keep a gurkha here if he's if he's retired,
Speaker 1: because of them still work after the guy out of
Speaker 1: the army. So they do support themselves and they have
Speaker 1: more overpaid into the system. But there are an element
Speaker 1: of them. Okay, you can't work anymore. You get to
Speaker 1: that age and you can't work. You shouldn't be working
Speaker 1: past sixty five, especially not if you spent your la
Speaker 1: running maunt of jungles slotting people on our behalf. You
Speaker 1: shouldn't be expected to work. So it cost us about
Speaker 1: thirty two ground to keep one of these gezes over here,
Speaker 1: when all he's asking for is a ten grund lump
Speaker 1: sums so he can get himself home and he's gone.
Speaker 1: He's our hair and that's what he wants. Said, they're
Speaker 1: not begging. They're not going on, we want benefits, we
Speaker 1: want there another. All they want is the lump sum
Speaker 1: that everybody else got in the military where they left
Speaker 1: and they want to go home. So I don't think
Speaker 1: that's unfair to ask. If you look at all the
Speaker 1: stuff that they've got up together, some of it in
Speaker 1: the day, and I never realized a lot of this
Speaker 1: stuff was extremely unfair. I'll give you an example. If
Speaker 1: a Gurkha came to the UK and was posted here,
Speaker 1: which many of them were for quite some time. They
Speaker 1: were boasting breck and they were based all over the place,
Speaker 1: and they would spent three or four years here. If
Speaker 1: they met an English girl, okay, and decided to progress
Speaker 1: that relationship in the marriage, if they got married, they
Speaker 1: would be thrown out of the Gurkhas. Now, that is
Speaker 1: an equality catastrophe that is absolutely so far out of
Speaker 1: order that you couldn't make it up. It's ridiculous. So
Speaker 1: there's a whole heap of other, you know, wrongdoings that
Speaker 1: we've we've we've inflicted on these people. And it's not
Speaker 1: saying that me feel their mercenaries, that they get what
Speaker 1: they deserve and all that sort of stuff. You're not
Speaker 1: giving them the same deal for doing the same job.
Speaker 1: And that's wrong, all right, That is wrong in anybody's book.
Speaker 1: These people take the queen's shilling like I did, and
Speaker 1: like everybody else that did serve over here, have taken
Speaker 1: the queen's shilling, have volunteered their services to the crown,
Speaker 1: have given their services to the crown. But in return,
Speaker 1: you get your Jews when you leave. And that's it.
Speaker 1: That's but that's what you expect. These guys aren't getting that,
Speaker 1: all right. So my aim is to try and help
Speaker 1: them out. Now we have a we have a newly
Speaker 1: appointed Veterans Minister, so we've got a veterans minister for
Speaker 1: the first time ever. The government in turmoil as it
Speaker 1: is of all this exit bullshit and all the rest
Speaker 1: of it, have said that we can have somebody in
Speaker 1: a decent position who will be the veterans Minister. Okay,
Speaker 1: now what does this mean. This means he's got the
Speaker 1: ear of the big man. This means he's got the
Speaker 1: ear of the Prime Minister. This means he should be
Speaker 1: able to get a ship done, all right. So at
Speaker 1: the moment it's a guy called Johnny Mercer. Now Johnny
Speaker 1: Mercer is an next captain from some unit. I'm not
Speaker 1: sure exactly where he's from, but he's you know, he's
Speaker 1: a stand up guy. I've met him on a number
Speaker 1: of occasions, and I'm lucky enough to have his phone
Speaker 1: number in my phone. Tom behalf of the Girl That's
Speaker 1: I've spoken to Johnny Mercer and I've said to him
Speaker 1: that you stand up for the Veteran's boss. Yes, I
Speaker 1: stand up for the veterans film. Well, these men of veterans,
Speaker 1: these men have served their countries. These these men are
Speaker 1: all entitled to wear a veterans batche, which is what
Speaker 1: I wear, which is what you wear, which is what
Speaker 1: anyone who served this country is entitled to wear. Okay,
Speaker 1: whether it be for five minutes, five years, fifty years,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. You all get to wear that badge.
Speaker 1: And you're all veterans. And so therefore, my good friend
Speaker 1: Johnny's represents us all, every last one of us. So
Speaker 1: to see one of us and an injustice as we
Speaker 1: are with my friend, the gurkhas is out of order,
Speaker 1: it's wrong, the smash boss. What can we do about it? Well,
Speaker 1: so far I've managed to tee up a meeting with
Speaker 1: the senior Gurkhas and Johnny. All right, So so Johnny
Speaker 1: and the senior Gurkhas are going to meet and hopefully
Speaker 1: they can present their case in such a way that
Speaker 1: john will understand and pass it on up the chain,
Speaker 1: because they were being represented by a number of people.
Speaker 1: But the issues all that went away, and at the moment,
Speaker 1: if he's not breaks it, it ain't heard. But that
Speaker 1: doesn't stop the fact from that there are probably ten
Speaker 1: thousands of these people in this country right now who
Speaker 1: just want tang ground so they can bugger off home.
Speaker 1: And I don't think there's a lot to ask to
Speaker 1: be fair, all right, just give them their money and
Speaker 1: let them go home, all right, where they can spend
Speaker 1: the rest of their days as old men with the
Speaker 1: people around them who love them. All right. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying that we don't love them, but if he wants
Speaker 1: to go home, if a man wants to go home,
Speaker 1: we should go home. They're not trained to our society.
Speaker 1: Their children are never in our jails, okay, and they
Speaker 1: work hard and they're honest people. So why is it
Speaker 1: in a time when we do seem to have a
Speaker 1: problem with some other people coming to this country who
Speaker 1: aren't so well behaved as these people that we don't
Speaker 1: look after. The ones that do behave themselves. All right,
Speaker 1: It's time that they had a voice. And I'm going
Speaker 1: to do my best to be that voice on social
Speaker 1: media and get them the profile and the recognition and
Speaker 1: all the rest of the stuff that they rightly deserve.
Speaker 1: And see if we can't get a few of these
Speaker 1: old men. They are old men. See if we can
Speaker 1: get a few of these old men sent home. So
Speaker 1: to that end, please follow me on my social media okay,
Speaker 1: which is at big Field campaign on Facebook, on Twitter,
Speaker 1: and on Instagram. And if you see my tweets about
Speaker 1: the Gurkhas, please please retweet them. Please get the word
Speaker 1: out there, because this ain't fair. It ain't fair. We
Speaker 1: need to get some justice done here. We need to
Speaker 1: get these Gurkhas looked after, because I'm telling you, they
Speaker 1: looked after us. And there wasn't one of them ever
Speaker 1: flinched in battle. There wasn't one of them that ever
Speaker 1: didn't want to pull the trigger. And there wasn't one
Speaker 1: of them that didn't ever pull his knife out when
Speaker 1: he needed to. Okay, and even in recent times they
Speaker 1: have behaved in an impeccable manner. They've won Victoria Crosses,
Speaker 1: they've won Military crosses, they've won every ward for a
Speaker 1: valor this country has. Okay, so why can't we put
Speaker 1: a few quid in their pockets and send the moment
Speaker 1: when they want to go home and then asking the beer.
Speaker 1: They're not asking us for handouts. They're just asking for
Speaker 1: what they are worth, okay, and what everybody else was
Speaker 1: worth they're asking for any more. They're not asking for
Speaker 1: any less. They're asking for what they as veterans of
Speaker 1: this country or worth. So I know I'm dumping on
Speaker 1: America's doorstep at the moment, but the more people I
Speaker 1: can get behind this is the better. And if you
Speaker 1: start retweeting this stuff, if you start talking about it,
Speaker 1: it actually starts making sense. And if we can make
Speaker 1: people listen, we can make people understand. And if we
Speaker 1: can make people understand, then where you got it, people
Speaker 1: might actually start and help us. So that's my aim.
Speaker 1: I'm going to champion the cause of the Gurkhas. I'm
Speaker 1: going to help them out because they are great, great
Speaker 1: race of people, a warrior nation, indeed, a nation which
Speaker 1: is not scared to get his hands dirty when it
Speaker 1: comes to a bit of work on someone else's behalf.
Speaker 1: All we're saying is waging in properly give them the
Speaker 1: though that they deserve. Okay, so that's what I'm not
Speaker 1: not going to go on anymore about it. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I speak very highly of for Gurkher's. I've seen them
Speaker 1: operate and they've served this country. Well let's see if
Speaker 1: we can serve them. So let's continue with a bit
Speaker 1: of selection talk. So we got up to the trees
Speaker 1: last time when I told you about my last day
Speaker 1: in the trees, Well, we picked up on the helicopters
Speaker 1: and had a beer as we flew across the canopies
Speaker 1: and went back into Batan camp. And then we cleaned
Speaker 1: our rifles and waited for people to be been and
Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff, which was which was a
Speaker 1: horrifying day. And like I say, they gave you one
Speaker 1: last chance to drop yourself in trouble by getting you
Speaker 1: as much beer as you couldn't sing what you were
Speaker 1: like when you were drunk. So what happens in there,
Speaker 1: Well we flew home. We flew home as well. It's
Speaker 1: a very uncomfortable flight because you fly about to the
Speaker 1: UK on the same plane as the guys who failed selection. Okay,
Speaker 1: so it's all like it'sn't us and them. Now they're
Speaker 1: looking across the thing thinking at them, and we're looking
Speaker 1: across the thing thinking, don't look at me, because I
Speaker 1: don't want you to look at me anymore. Because it's
Speaker 1: one of those things. It's made uncomfortable, do you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? You start being in a feeling in
Speaker 1: a situation and it's not it's not nice anyway. So
Speaker 1: you've got that little treat and then when you finally
Speaker 1: get about the UK, they obviously go their way and
Speaker 1: you go about the Ereford. Now, at this stage of
Speaker 1: the campaign, this is the first time that the officers
Speaker 1: do something different to the men. Now, the officers on selection, okay,
Speaker 1: they'll probably only come to the unit for a couple
Speaker 1: of years to start offer. They'll then go back somewhere else.
Speaker 1: They'll do this, that and the other, okay, and they're
Speaker 1: on a slightly different deal. Whereas a trooper will revert
Speaker 1: his rank, he'll go down to the bottom of the
Speaker 1: pile and he'll work his way back up again, an
Speaker 1: officer retains his rank, okay, and he comes in as
Speaker 1: a troop commander, so it was usually a captain by
Speaker 1: the stage of the campaign. He won't revert that at all.
Speaker 1: You'll keep his captain's rank. But there's a clause to
Speaker 1: all this. When you come out of the trees, they
Speaker 1: have to do a thing called officers Week. Now I'm
Speaker 1: not an officer, and so I obviously didn't do officers
Speaker 1: a week. But when I was in the squadron, I
Speaker 1: sat in on an officers week and watched some of
Speaker 1: the stuff that goes on. And to say they grilled
Speaker 1: them for a week, he's an understatement. They test them,
Speaker 1: They test them to the absolute limit of the brain power. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, and he's are clever men, These aren't you know,
Speaker 1: These aren't slouches, these aren't these aren't run grunts, all right,
Speaker 1: These are men. These are thinking men doing a soldier's job. Okay.
Speaker 1: Their officers, they're good officers. And they get stretched, get
Speaker 1: asked lots and lots of questions, They get given scenarios,
Speaker 1: they get given battle plans, and they have to produce
Speaker 1: and explain why they've produced what they've produced in front
Speaker 1: of a lot of people who've done a lot of stuff. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you could be a young officer now and you
Speaker 1: could be say, in front of the c O with
Speaker 1: a regiment, the rs M of the regiment, the whole
Speaker 1: squadron of the regiment, DSF, Director of Special Forces, and
Speaker 1: all sorts of other characters in this room and you
Speaker 1: don't even know who they are, and they are going
Speaker 1: to drill you. They are going to absolutely tear you
Speaker 1: a new one. Okay, they really are. So it'sn't extremely
Speaker 1: tough week. What are the troopers doing during this time?
Speaker 1: World Troopers? We do a little bit of We do
Speaker 1: some extra weapons, we do some heavy weapons. I think
Speaker 1: we did the mortars, we did a fifty count machine gun.
Speaker 1: We did the two oh freeze, so we went to
Speaker 1: Breck and we did some stuff on the ranges. We
Speaker 1: actually had two weeks where it wasn't too bad at all.
Speaker 1: And obviously we know what's happening with the roopers, with
Speaker 1: the officers, so they are getting absolutely beasted in the
Speaker 1: how and we're having quite a good time. So although
Speaker 1: they're on a slightly different deal, and rightly so, at
Speaker 1: that stage of the campaign, you've got two weeks to
Speaker 1: where you can actually for the first time on selection
Speaker 1: not chill, but you're out there, you're learning, and now
Speaker 1: it's more on a level. You've done your real, real
Speaker 1: honking graphs so far in the jungle, and this is
Speaker 1: a good time for the body to start repairing itself
Speaker 1: toenails start reappearing now, and the skin on your backs
Speaker 1: growing back and all that sort of stuff. All the
Speaker 1: bites are going down, all the forms are now coming out,
Speaker 1: your fingernails and all the rest of the stuff. Okay,
Speaker 1: because that dirt from the jungle is gonna be in grained,
Speaker 1: there's going to be all sorts going on. You know.
Speaker 1: It's now time where you know, all the little bites
Speaker 1: are starting to get infected. So you've got to go
Speaker 1: and get to the med center, clean everything up and
Speaker 1: just make sure that your body is back in a
Speaker 1: decent shape, you know what I mean. There's now a
Speaker 1: chance if you need do to go to the dentist,
Speaker 1: the doctor, get yourself sorted out. So it's a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks, there's not too much pressure on you, and
Speaker 1: you're working extremely hard. So it was actually for the
Speaker 1: first time on selection. For the first time on selection,
Speaker 1: you're actually thinking, wow, this is quite chilled, and then
Speaker 1: boom they hit you they're back in the classroom and
Speaker 1: you're doing you're doing combat survival. They're teaching you everything
Speaker 1: you need to notice of if they're teaching about fire,
Speaker 1: they're teaching you about water, they're teaching you about shelter,
Speaker 1: the staples of survival. You're getting lecturers in, you getting
Speaker 1: this in, you getting name. You're now living in the
Speaker 1: field again. You're doing stuff, you're cutting around, you're everything
Speaker 1: they're teaching it. You're practicing and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: And it's extremely Like I say, it's interesting. Again, it's
Speaker 1: a beast thing, but it's interesting. So all the time
Speaker 1: you're learning, it's fun and I thought it was a
Speaker 1: great time. Although it's again they're being quite tough on you.
Speaker 1: I remember every man got issued a chicken and all
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. And you learn about killing animals
Speaker 1: and tringing things up and catching stuff and all that
Speaker 1: good survival stuff. So you're getting you're getting some really
Speaker 1: good lessons. And like I said, at the end of that,
Speaker 1: you start learning about resistance to interrogation. Again, you're getting
Speaker 1: lots of lessons. They've got people in who have been
Speaker 1: captured and all that sort of stuff. When they're talking
Speaker 1: to you. They're relaying their experiences and you learn, learn, learn,
Speaker 1: learn right all the time you're learning. And then at
Speaker 1: the end of that phase, I'm not sure how long
Speaker 1: that was. It might have even been a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: you know, but whatever it was, two, three weeks, whatever
Speaker 1: it was. At the end of that phase, you then
Speaker 1: go into the to the real sort of meat of
Speaker 1: what you've just learned. They set you, they capture you
Speaker 1: all up, they round you all up. You get captured,
Speaker 1: You get taken down to the bare bones, they take
Speaker 1: your clothes off, your day searcher, They put you in
Speaker 1: some honking rig. They take you out to the middle
Speaker 1: of nowhere, and they set your loose in the countryside
Speaker 1: of the UK, and there's now people after you. O
Speaker 1: case here on the run and you disappear out in
Speaker 1: the booloo. And the deal it is quite simple. Get caught,
Speaker 1: go home, all right. So you don't want to get
Speaker 1: caught at any cars. Get caught year off. So within
Speaker 1: that time, with the skills that you've learned, you've also
Speaker 1: got to make a few decisions and a few things
Speaker 1: have to be done. I can't go into it too
Speaker 1: much on this platform because it's not you know, some
Speaker 1: of it is quite sensitive stuff. But believe me, everything
Speaker 1: you've learned you're now putting into practice, and it's not easy.
Speaker 1: You're not just all like evading capture. You've actually got
Speaker 1: things that you have to do whilst you're out there,
Speaker 1: because obviously, if you were doing this a real you'd
Speaker 1: be behind enemy lines and you'd be trying to get
Speaker 1: yourself back in some way, shape or form, trying to
Speaker 1: alert people and trying to let people know where you
Speaker 1: are and evade the capture at the same time. So
Speaker 1: it's a very stressful period. There's not much sleep. You're
Speaker 1: keeping an eye out. There's dogs coming after you, there's
Speaker 1: helicopters up, there's firm or there's there's night vision. There's
Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff coming after you, and you've got
Speaker 1: to keep yourself on the run. Anyway, at the end
Speaker 1: of this period, you do get captured and you go
Speaker 1: down the pane as you would have any enemy. Now again,
Speaker 1: I can't go too into the procedures after you've been captured,
Speaker 1: but believe you me, it's as real as it can
Speaker 1: be without actually killing you. All right, They absolutely put
Speaker 1: you through your paces, they keep you captured, they interrogate you.
Speaker 1: You get all the lessons that you've learned, you have
Speaker 1: to imply them implicitly. If you break, if you crack,
Speaker 1: if you give up, that's it. You're gone, your bust,
Speaker 1: You're out of it. Okay, that's your selection. Finish, your
Speaker 1: time is up, Please go home. Okay. So it's an
Speaker 1: extremely tough, tough time and extremely tough course. By the
Speaker 1: end of this stage, now you really are whittling the
Speaker 1: numbers down. There's not that many left at all, and
Speaker 1: it's you know, I can't remember how many were left
Speaker 1: at this stage of the campaign on my course, but
Speaker 1: it wasn't many. Okay, So you're out on the run now.
Speaker 1: They do actually bolster this course up to make it
Speaker 1: worth while doing. And you have a few pilots on
Speaker 1: the course, and you have a couple of other people
Speaker 1: from different units that might find themselves behind the enemy
Speaker 1: lines and have them to escape. Now you actually think
Speaker 1: that's a bit of a it's a bit of a hindrance,
Speaker 1: to be honest, because as well as you trying to
Speaker 1: cut around the area and do your bits and pieces,
Speaker 1: you've also got other people now that you want to
Speaker 1: you want to avoid. On the same course as you
Speaker 1: you know, I don't want to go near you. You're
Speaker 1: gonna get me caught your lunatic And whereas you're just
Speaker 1: going to go back to your helicopter and fly and
Speaker 1: do whatever you've gotta do, I'm gonna get bin. I'm
Speaker 1: going to go back to a normal army unit, and
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna be able to carry on. So you've
Speaker 1: gotta be very careful at this stage because you could
Speaker 1: get suckered into something that could get you thrown off
Speaker 1: the course, all right, And that they said these cases
Speaker 1: are just going to go back to being fire pilots
Speaker 1: or whatever it is they came to do. Okay, you're
Speaker 1: going to go back to a rifle company, having failed
Speaker 1: the course, having come through all this on selection. You
Speaker 1: could get bin for something as stupid as getting caught
Speaker 1: nickings and food from somewhere else. And so you've got
Speaker 1: to try and stick to the rules and do it properly.
Speaker 1: That said that, they say there's always a plus side
Speaker 1: to everything that I do. Again, I enjoyed it because
Speaker 1: I'm learning how I'll now pick myself up against you know,
Speaker 1: we had a unit of men looking for me. I'm
Speaker 1: putting myself against those men. It's me against them. That's
Speaker 1: the way I saw it, very very determined to get
Speaker 1: through his face, determined not to be beaten, and all
Speaker 1: that stuff sort of stuff, and it really was good
Speaker 1: to be having in the driving seat. There's nobody telling
Speaker 1: me what to do. Now I'm out there doing my
Speaker 1: own thing. I'm fighting against them, Okay, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: evade capture. I'm on the run, I'm doing on with trills.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at all the stuff that I've been taught.
Speaker 1: It's coming into life now and a very very worthwhile
Speaker 1: part of part of course, it was really extremely enjoyable.
Speaker 1: Once you get captured, now that's a different that's when
Speaker 1: it starts. That's when the p turns into pain. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you all right, that's that's a different matter. Again,
Speaker 1: like the seller can't get too into it, but believe
Speaker 1: me you it's it's it's a very unpleasant time you
Speaker 1: finish his face and then it's off to do a
Speaker 1: bit of parachute. Now, I was already power of trained
Speaker 1: when I went on selection, so I didn't have to
Speaker 1: do the first four or five jumps, which we're on
Speaker 1: a state line, round square, round, round, shoot just just
Speaker 1: a hop and pop out the side of the aircraft.
Speaker 1: We then moved on. We did some square shoots, a
Speaker 1: bit more advice stuff against static line, but static line
Speaker 1: squares terrible stuff with Kit, all this sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: Did a bit of counter terrorism for the first time,
Speaker 1: which was again it all knew. You're you're in black kit.
Speaker 1: It's the first time you've ever seen it. It's what
Speaker 1: you joined for us. You know, extremely enjoyable. You can
Speaker 1: still get bin on this stuff, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: But it's now you're almost reaching the finish line. Like
Speaker 1: I say, you finished your counter terrorism stuff. I can't
Speaker 1: remember how long it was. Again, you're being exposed to
Speaker 1: more of the animal. Now you're seeing a lot more selection.
Speaker 1: And then let I say, finally, when you've done all
Speaker 1: that and you've got your you've got your wings, and
Speaker 1: you've done your jumps and all that sort of stuff,
Speaker 1: you've now got your halo wings. You're ready to be badged.
Speaker 1: And I remember it was quite a somber affair. There
Speaker 1: wasn't that many of us left at this stage of
Speaker 1: the campaign. He went into the we went into the
Speaker 1: lecture fare and the CEO came in and he chucked
Speaker 1: each one of us a sandbarrey and that was it.
Speaker 1: You had made it. He was in, he was in
Speaker 1: the sas. And it's one of those things where you're
Speaker 1: sort of like the elation is with you for about
Speaker 1: twenty seconds, because before you know, you're down the stores,
Speaker 1: you're getting your kit and your bottom of the pile again.
Speaker 1: You've gone from passing selection where you could be fifteen
Speaker 1: football to the bottom of the pile. You're now surrounded
Speaker 1: by people that have been on ops, people who have
Speaker 1: done this, done that, done the other. You're the bottom
Speaker 1: of the pile again. Okay, it's not so evident. They
Speaker 1: don't treat you like a complete numpty. But you are
Speaker 1: the new boy. You are the tea boy. You are
Speaker 1: the man who, if there's a shitty job, is going
Speaker 1: to do that shifty job. Okay, so you're the bottom
Speaker 1: of the heap. So you've just been through this this course.
Speaker 1: You've achieved what you wanted. But in true, true sense
Speaker 1: of everything I've taught you on this on these free
Speaker 1: lectures about selection, if you remember the very first thing
Speaker 1: I taught you, it was the regimental ethos. And the
Speaker 1: first regimental ethos was an unrelented pursuit of excellence. And
Speaker 1: this is where you see it on a mas scale
Speaker 1: for the first time, because you've just passed selection, but
Speaker 1: you haven't reached the top of the mountain. You're about
Speaker 1: just in the foothills. Okay, You're now striving. You're striving
Speaker 1: to go further and further within your career. And like
Speaker 1: I say, that really is that is how selection works.
Speaker 1: So now they say you get in, but you're by
Speaker 1: no means have you made it. You're now at the
Speaker 1: beginning of a very very long and difficult journey and
Speaker 1: things only get harder and longer, but to be fair,
Speaker 1: they get more enjoyable too, So you know, the upside
Speaker 1: of it is the harder you work, the more enjoyable
Speaker 1: it is. That's the end of my talks on selection.
Speaker 1: I've given you free good talks on selection there so
Speaker 1: I hope it's given you a bit of an insight
Speaker 1: into what we do over here in the the limey
Speaker 1: side or our side of the pond. And like they say,
Speaker 1: any of you that have done selection elsewhere with the
Speaker 1: Seals or Delta, you can understand where David Sterling's impact
Speaker 1: has actually come into play with your regiments and with
Speaker 1: what you're doing, okay, because I remember somebody saying about
Speaker 1: special forces soldiering. Alright, special forces soldiering isn't danging on
Speaker 1: frobes or falling out helicopters or jumping out of planes
Speaker 1: at twenty thousand feet. Okay. Special forces soldiering is the
Speaker 1: basics and the basics done well, and that's it, all right,
Speaker 1: That's that's what you've got to remember. The foundation of
Speaker 1: any soldier starts with the basics, and those basics can
Speaker 1: be built on them. We can take them in any direction.
Speaker 1: But if those basics aren't strong, the platform isn't strong.
Speaker 1: And if the platform isn't strong, we can't overload it.
Speaker 1: If we can't overload it, we cannot build an operator.
Speaker 1: That's it. But don't forget the check out everything else
Speaker 1: on software software dot com and create club great club,
Speaker 1: Create club dot com. Okay, I'll have a butchers there
Speaker 1: as well, because there's some top kit brought to you
Speaker 1: by some top operators. So that's me for the week
Speaker 1: until next time. Who dares wins and I'll see you
Speaker 1: all later. Used them Listening to Self rep Radio. New
Speaker 1: episodes up every Wednesday and Friday, Follow the show on
Speaker 1: Instagram and Twitter at self rep Radio