| THE END IS NEAR!!!! Holy cow that was week 19. This was again a sad week as we lost 2 more members of our troop. That�s 4 in total now since the beginning . I won't go in to details about why they left but I will say that they are good friends, I will miss them. We are now a troop of 26 and we are troop 26 so that we will remain. Three weeks until the end. I must say that there were a lot of long, hot, boring lectures during this week. They still haven�t figured out how to turn on the air conditioning in APS so there we sit in our wool breaches and our high browns sweating up a storm. One of the tests we had this week was our shotgun qualifications. Everyone did well. I missed firing the MP 5 sub machine gun by one shot. Grrr I thought I had it in the bag. Best shot with the shotgun slug got to fire the MP 5. On Monday we had our final PDT (police defence tactics) test. This was it. The last test. We could be presented with any possible combination of behaviour. Even though I felt confident in my ability I was still nervous. The troop was split off into groups of 5 or 6 and set with a PDT Cpl for testing. I was volunteered to play the �Dummy� for our group. (I have small wrists and am easier to handcuff.) I was dressed up in padding and then given a behaviour and a scenario to act out. When my troop mates came in I had to act according to the scenario. You could hear the nervousness in the voices of my troopmates as they told me of my rights etc. We had our gravel road drive on Tuesday. I started out and about 15 min into the drive I asked the instructor, �Um are we going to do anything?� Every other drive that I had been on with instructors we had to learn and preform skills. I have driven on gravel roads before so this was nothing new and I was comfortable cruising along at 80kph. The Cpl replied back to my question with, �Nope this is it. You're doing fine.� �This is it?? I�m just driving on a gravel road.� So away we went all the way to this nice little town of Lumsden. We stopped there for a quick coffee and switched drivers. That was the extent of my gravel road drive. Apparently, it's done to give people who have never driven on a gravel road some experience with it. On the way back we went through a little valley. There sitting in what looked like a farmer's field was a very well kept old church. We stopped and went in. The church was build in 1900 and it is tradition for cadets to sign the church register. We went and signed and then quickly ran the mosquito gauntlet back to the car. On Thursday we had our final 3 mile timed run. I managed to shave 13 seconds off my last time ending up with 22:50. Fourth in the class. It seemed like we had noon parade every day this week and in fact, I think we did. I was up for troop commander and finally the time came. Basically, I just had to command a troop and lead them in a marching order around the parade square. It�s a long process and would take me a page just to explain what is done and what I had to do. The best that I can say is that parade is something you just have to see. I was also tasked with some senior troop duties. I was given the first Flag duty with two other troop mates. This is a drill procedure and you have to treat it as such. I was assigned to take the flag down. We marched out to the flag. Each one of us had our exact positions and duties to do. When the time came we had to lower the flag, fold it properly, and march it back to the guard room. I have that duty again tonight. We also have mess duty. That was fun. ( insert sarcasm here) I had to stand during breakfast and make sure that the troops coming in for breakfast were the ones that were supposed to be there. This week coming up is our last week of classes. We have introduction to rifle on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we qualify with the rifle. On Thursday we have night practice detachments until midnight and then on Friday we have regular classes. Morning starts at 5:30. That is going to be a rough day. The following week is the biggie. The "BIG THREE" - Final detachments, final exam, and panels. After that it's over. Just a few lectures, drill and more drill. This should be Week 20 but for now I am not counting this course in months or weeks, but days. I started out with 22 weeks ahead of me and now its only 22 days. |
| May 18, 2003 |
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