The Volunteer - NWRFCA - Northwest Reserve Forces & Cadets ...

LIVERPOOL UNIVERSITY
OTC
RAC weekend was an
experience to remember
OCDT NIKKI REID
Explaining to tutors that we had to miss
lectures due to being personally selected
to represent the unit in a ‘national army
competition’ at the Royal Armoured Corps
base in Bovington somewhat boosted our
already inflated egos.
Once there, we discovered the epitome
of luxury on an OTC weekend – individual
rooms, and not just any individual rooms –
BIG individual rooms, with a SINK (to come
in handy later on for Mr Holland). A quiet
evening in the bar followed, with the five girls
on our team of ten disappointed at the lack of
eye candy despite being hugely outnumbered
by men (yes, this was important – our mothers
had sent us on this weekend to hunt for rich
cavalry officer husbands). After a couple of
awkward conversations with said officers –
“They’re so POSH!” – we retired to our 5 star
rooms for an early(ish) night.
Up bright and early the next morning,
we hit the gunnery school for a round robin
of tank simulators. These were definitely
a great experience, and how the 10ft Mr
Holland managed to squeeze into the tiny
crevice they called a simulator still baffles
us all. The most memorable stand of the
morning was definitely the COD-like computer
game – where we were working as a team
on individual computers to try and retrieve
a black briefcase under enemy fire. It’s safe
to say we failed this task; everyone got too
carried away blowing themselves up with
grenades and shooting IEDs and the whole
team was annihilated by two five year olds
playing enemy as CSgt Reid looked on in
despair.
We did, however, succeed in the turret
turning challenge. In teams of five, we had
to turn a Challenger 2 gun turret as far as we
could by hand in 15 minutes – much harder
than it sounds! Clutterbuck, Gibbins, Haines,
Holland and Lewis-Deboos managed an
impressive turn and a half and were beaten
only by the Para-ridden team from Bristol.
A standard horror bag lunch followed,
and then we had the opportunity to explore
and play with some of the various tanks and
vehicles such as Challengers and Warthogs.
One thing I think caught everyone’s attention
was how advanced the technology actually
was in these vehicles, and everyone loved
the remote controlled camera atop one of
the Jeeps! All the stands of the day were
interesting and fun, but the winner for
everyone was the ride in a Challenger 2 tank.
We all got the chance to stick our heads out the
top as we bounced along – and as we were in
an all-screaming, all-giggling, all-girls group,
our guys took us round twice! We then had
an insight into patrolling and recognising
suspicious ground features which could mean
the presence of IEDs. After nearly getting run
over by a tank and definitely getting nicely
mud splattered, we went on to a cheeky
orienteering-signals challenge before heading
back to prepare for the evening’s events.
Despite the fun packed day we’d had, the
highlight for everyone from the weekend
was definitely the regimental dinner in the
evening. After learning we were all going to
be split up onto different tables, we downed
a drink for some Dutch courage and went our
separate ways to sit at our allocated tables.
However, our initial worries melted away with
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