Sandhurst

DipStick McSwindler

This post has been deleted.

Tybalt

Here's the links for all three episodes on youtube

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

acorn1702

I was actually on a visit to sandhurst this week, the documentary really doesn't do the place justice, the facilities are top class.

KickstartHeart

acorn1702 wrote: »

I was actually on a visit to sandhurst this week, the documentary really doesn't do the place justice, the facilities are top class.

Documentaries made by civilians on military related things tend to never do who/what ever they're about any justice. They're aim is to get views, not to actually portray the pro's and con's of the situation/place etc . I'm not in the Army but I know that there are TONNES of extremely relevant stuff about Sandhurst that were just ignored by that documentary. I think though, to be fair, it was to follow the cadets and their journey through it all rather than to be a documentary about the academy itself so that's why a lot was left out.

bwatson

KickstartHeart wrote: »

Documentaries made by civilians on military related things tend to never do who/what ever they're about any justice. They're aim is to get views, not to actually portray the pro's and con's of the situation/place etc . I'm not in the Army but I know that there are TONNES of extremely relevant stuff about Sandhurst that were just ignored by that documentary. I think though, to be fair, it was to follow the cadets and their journey through it all rather than to be a documentary about the academy itself so that's why a lot was left out.

Just from your perspective, what aspects of RMAS life would you have liked to have seen explored?

KickstartHeart

bwatson wrote: »

Just from your perspective, what aspects of RMAS life would you have liked to have seen explored?

From an interested civilian perspective, I'd probably like to see the details of the training explored a bit more. As I said, they focused more on the cadets. I'd rather them to have focused on the situations and training behind the tactical exercises and things like that, rather than how the cadets felt during it. Generally I'd rather to see a documentary on the cadetship (or whatever term they use for it in the UK), rather than a documentary following the cadets themselves.

Local-womanizer

KickstartHeart wrote: »

bwatson wrote: »

Just from your perspective, what aspects of RMAS life would you have liked to have seen explored?

From an interested civilian perspective, I'd probably like to see the details of the training explored a bit more. As I said, they focused more on the cadets. I'd rather them to have focused on the situations and training behind the tactical exercises and things like that, rather than how the cadets felt during it. Generally I'd rather to see a documentary on the cadetship (or whatever term they use for it in the UK), rather than a documentary following the cadets themselves.

I liked the way it followed the students in the documentary, the way it explored each students motivation in wishing pursue such a career.

KickstartHeart

Local-womanizer wrote: »

I liked the way it followed the students in the documentary, the way it explored each students motivation in wishing pursue such a career.

Yeah to be fair I'm probably being too hard on the documentary. It is actually interesting to see what each of the cadets think about the whole thing. I couldn't get over some of them though. That marxist girl who could barely stand up with good posture, fell asleep on stag, and cried every time she got a bollocking and even when she finished the scratch, in particular.

As I said, I'm not in the Army, so its not my call, but I can't help but ask myself, how the hell did she get selected as a potential army officer? She tried to join the Army Air Corps. I don't think I can imagine her being a reliable person to be taking out enemy combatants in an apache if they had me pinned down. And how the hell did that guy who just copped out of everything, either get into Sandhurst or even worse, manage to get himself to become a confirmed cadet in the Cavalry and actually pass out and gain a commission. Pure madness.

People give out about the Irish Army cadetship competition, but there was definitely some people there that passed out from Sandhurst that I wouldn't follow into a swimming pool for a swim never mind a fire fight in Helmand province.

The Master of Disaster

I found it a reasonably interesting documentary but speaking to some of the cadets (now YO's) that were on that intake they felt it was quite a poor representation of Sandhurst and the CC. I suppose it's very hard to do justice to a 44 week course in three hours of TV.

My favourite was the guy who admitted to being 'a bit of a pansy' and who was whining about bleeding when he had the tiniest little knick ever! Passing the AOSB is one thing but it's not really representative of what a military life and the Academy will be like so you do wonder about people like that and whether they've really given serious thought to whether it's the life for them.

acorn1702

Also like to add in the food is amazing!

tac foley

The first year as a YO usually sorts out the wannabes from the willbees. Life in any battalion is VERY testing and can sort the wheat from the chaff. Most YOs are run ragged from a$$hole to breakfast time and barely have time to break wind.

A sh!te YO will not last the year, believe me.

In my time as the CI of my little establishment I sent three such WOS back to the 'factory' as NGE - 'not good enough'.

tac

Local-womanizer

tac foley wrote: »

The first year as a YO usually sorts out the wannabes from the willbees. Life in any battalion is VERY testing and can sort the wheat from the chaff. Most YOs are run ragged from a$$hole to breakfast time and barely have time to break wind.

A sh!te YO will not last the year, believe me.

In my time as the CI of my little establishment I sent three such WOS back to the 'factory' as NGE - 'not good enough'.

tac

Excuse my ignorance Tac, what's CI?

What you say is spot on too, the Cadetship is the easy part. The sudden rise in responsibility and duties combined with all the watchful eyes piles on the pressure many are unable to deal with.

tac foley

Apologies - CI = Chief Instructor. WOS = waste of space.

tac

OS119

Local-womanizer wrote: »

...What you say is spot on too, the Cadetship is the easy part. The sudden rise in responsibility and duties combined with all the watchful eyes piles on the pressure many are unable to deal with.

i reckon that a good 10% of YO's leave within 18 moths of commisioning - usually to sighs of relief from their units - and that a good few of the large number that leave at the 5 year point are kept well away from anything dangerous from the moment they get to their units.

its not a science by any stretch of the imagination - and as importantly that the 'growing time' that YO's used to get between commissioning and being an important part of the machine has just dissapeared: two brand new YO's arrived at a Bty in my Regiment in November and went to Afghanistan in March as Tp Cdrs - there's simply no time to screw-up and just sit there and watch what everyone else does, you have to be either good enough to go straight away, or you're no use.