# Great video



## scottishcanuck (22 Jan 2007)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blrpjlqfi7g

Why cant we have a recruitment video like that?


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## Mike Baker (22 Jan 2007)

Nice end, 99.99% need not apply


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## Sig_Des (22 Jan 2007)

99.99% need not apply...I love it!


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## Rice0031 (22 Jan 2007)

That was pretty cool...

But I like our new commercials, too.


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## NL_engineer (22 Jan 2007)

scottishcanuck said:
			
		

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blrpjlqfi7g
> 
> Why cant we have a recruitment video like that?



Because that would cause the public to think that our training is like that.


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## Rice0031 (22 Jan 2007)

And hard, rigourous training would be... ...bad?


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## tomahawk6 (24 Jan 2007)

The USAF are no slouches in the commercial ad biz. ;D

http://www.dosomethingamazing.com/?s=95&v=478


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## The Rifleman (25 Jan 2007)

I have done that commando course - the water obstacle isn't that bad - in fact it give you a bit of a rest - the 8 mile run back to camp soaking wet is the killer!


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## scottishcanuck (25 Jan 2007)

Is the water thing actually that long??


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## The Rifleman (25 Jan 2007)

not really - it is that narrow - i got through it in about 5 seconds but it does seem longer - don't forget the water supports your weight so its not that hard to move - the stoney bottom really hurts the knees and elbows - and the DS (Directing Staff) pissing into the water before hand puts you off - its all psychological really


I have been on a more scary confined obstacle course. We have a German Village on Salisbury Plains that we use for urban fighting - FIBUA/FISH/DIBUA/etc

There are various training "stands" - Molotov Cocktail range, booby trapping a house, crossing barbed wire obstacles, MoE, etc. One is a confined obstacle course within the rubble of a bombed building. It is to simulate trying to escape from within a bombed building. There is literally no room to move as you try to negotiate through small gaps in bricks, rubble, timber, etc, and mostly in pitch darkness - it totally freaks out some blokes and they need to be "talked" through after losing it! It twists and turns and takes about 20 minutes of extreme exertion and when you get out you feel as if you have just done a 2 mile run!


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## afclick (26 Jan 2007)

Excellent video!


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## daftandbarmy (27 Jan 2007)

Good theatre. Slightly resembles reality. The rope tests were infinitely more difficult. The whole thing was easier than P Coy. Good stuff nonetheless.


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## scottishcanuck (4 Feb 2007)

Is there a spot to lift your head to breath if you need to. Or will you just drown?


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## daftandbarmy (4 Feb 2007)

Unlike the film clip portrays, the 'Smartie Tubes' as they are called (there are two of them) are big round metal culverts about half/ three quarters filled with slimy brown water. It's on the Woodbury Common training area and they're in a low spot that is a swampy area, so are permanently wet. They come near the end of the Endurance Course. 

On the Endurance Course, you and three others need to start at the training area at a specific time (make your own way to the start, about 2 miles from Lympstone) and do a 4 mile timed race starting at  a series of obstacles on the training area carrying rifle and webbing weighing 30 lbs (dry), finishing at Lympstone on  the 25m range. At Woodbury, after leaping over and under various things and going up and down many hills you hit Peter's Pool. This is a 5 ft diameter culvert fully underwater, but only about 5 ft long. You get ducked under by a DS at one end while another DS at the far end grabs you by the webbing and hauls you out. Off you then gallop, after all 4 are through, to the Smartie Tubes. The tubes are about 3 ft in diameter I think. You go into the tubes one at a time, usually on your left side (if you are right handed) and you drag yourself through on your left side keeping head above the water as much as you can. It's about 20 ft long I think, so all 4 of you are in there at once. Here's the catch - with all these water obstacles you need to keep your right hand tightly gripped around the muzzle flash eliminator with your thumb over then end of the barrel, because at the end of the run you need to fire 10 rounds at a target on the 25m range. Anyways, in the tubes what usually happens is there are little tidal waves rolling back and forth that are stirred up by people who flap - some people get claustrophobic - or by people trying to rush through too fast. So in the pitch darkness you can gulp down a bit of water without warning. The secret is to make sure everyone goes smoothly and steadily through to keep down the ripples. (One time I went through a guy totally froze in panic and I basically shoved my rifle up his ass all the way through to get him going with my head mostly submerged the whole way - but that's another war story). So, once out of the tubes you gallop off across the training area and down the road, through the front gates of Lympstone and straight to the range. Give the rifle a quick pull through then shoot 10 rounds at a Fig 11 target. Your final score is based on your team time (time stops with the last man in) and your shooting score. It looks like a nightmare, but you get to practise several times during the 5 week long commando course. The Royal Marines are fanatics about gradual and incremental training - and there's really no excuse for failing or flapping during test week

This is just one of the tests on the Commando Course. If you fail this test, you get one chance to re-run it, after you've done all the other tests of course. Recruits do this test at the end of their training (last 5 weeks of a 30 week long syllabus) and the All Arms Commando Courses (which is what I did) do the 5 week course following a 3 week pre-course at Seaton Barracks in Plymouth - where the pubs and Devon cream teas are much better.

Here's the link to the Wikipedia explanation of the tests. The f***ing rope tests were horrendous. I found the rest of the tests not that difficult, but then I've got shoulders like a trout (I'm a runner, not a fighter). Based on this description ,they've changed the course locations a bit since I did it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Arms_Commando_Course


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