Playing with the boys in green.

So, what did I do yesterday? Well, I'm glad you asked (okay, this is a bit self absorbed but sod it, it's my blog).
Yesterday was the station AWEL day, that's Air Warfare, Ethos and Leadership. This means that it's a training day for everyone to learn how to fight wars, the ethos (why you fight wars) and how to lead troops in war, or numpty workers in a cubicle laden office space – if you believe the hype about all the lessons of war being applicable to everyday situations and hence all leadership techniques being interchangable from the battlefield to the office. To an extent that's true, but there aren't many day-to-day scenarios that require navigating to a hidden covert rendezvous with an undercover agent of a foreign occupied state when you're working in a place that uses Dilbery to guage how well the day went ("We only had three pointy haired boss moments today, we're doing well!").
The boss said to us, a few weeks back, that there was this training day. On most of these we have a down day as there's no flying so no need for met information. We also usually have a staff meeting at the Skerry. This time – partly as there was flying programmed – the boss decided that we'd join in with the AWEL day instead. The, how shall I say it, more elderly mature of the staff had the option of a few different lectures on the current world status, the profile and role of the RAF and the history of the 140 EAW (Expeditionary Air Wing – organising the entire base to be able to deploy as a complete unit, rather than rely on other sections for maintenance and the like).
The other younger member of staff was going to be doing the more active stuff as well but he had a family matter he needed to attend to. Si was going to be doing the "rowing the channel on rowing machines" and "Tornado Pull". The last one was basically a tug-of-war with, yeah, that’s right, a Tornado GR4. He’s flying back up today so I’ll be able to tell him what he missed.
I was scheduled to do "something in the woods." The briefing I got was to turn up at a certain place and time with kit suitable for trogging through the woods.
I was doing the weather on Friday so I knew what to expect. Snow with fresh to strong northerly winds
So yesterday I rocked up on the base, after three Weetabix for breakfast, and joined cohort 2 of section A. We picked up our packed lunches (God bless the catering section) and piled onto the buses. Hour and a bit later we offloaded at the Colbin forest by Nairn and I was introduced to the rest of the cohort. Flt Lt Davy T from six foot was in charge and there were four others, ranging from SAC (senior aircraftsman) to Corporal.
Our situation was that we were downed inside of enemy territory and had to escape to the UN safe area some 10 km away, after building a bridge to cross the "ravine" and meet with Pedro, our local undercover agent. So our mission was to build the bridge, meet Pedro, make a rendezvous, rescue a downed airman and enable medivac and then make it to the extraction point in the UN safe zone. The main point of the day wasn’t to complete the tasks so much as to develop the leadership skills of the members of the group. This started with the briefing system, known as SMEAC (pronounced "smee-ack" to rhyme with the car firm SEAT). The acronym is for Situation, Mission, Execution, Any questions, Check understanding. To use it, you state your situation, your mission, your plan, you ask if anyone has any questions and then you ask random members of the group questions to check that they understand all the aspects of the plan. You might pick the SAC and ask what the mission is; you might ask the Cpl how long you’ve got to complete it and so on. It’s the standard system that the armed forces use so good to practice if you’re planning to join or go to officer selection.
My role for most of the day was as navigator, as I had the most experience, although I also handled most of the knots when we made our bridge (and my end was solid, hahaha). I will admit that the pace they set was faster than my normal but that was good. Also there were occasions where I didn’t keep as tight a track on the features that we passed, which is essential for close work nav, and as a result there were a couple of times when I wasn’t completely, absolutely certain of our location on the track. Only out by a couple of hundred metres at the most but with what we were doing, and considering my nav training, that was too much. No one minded, after all, I’m an evil civvy, but I was annoyed.
In the end we walked about 15-20 km, by the end of which I was feeling the blisters on the underside of my feet – shouldn’t have happened with the socks and boots but I didn’t wear the extra liners that I normally do (they’re in the wash) and I was also somewhat parched. I hadn’t filled my drinks bladder that morning, not being sure if I’d be able to fill it up later, and the opportunity never presented itself so I had to make do with the drink in the lunch provided.
It was a brilliant day, the guys were superb and the weather was great – fresh to strong northerly winds, cold and snow showers (it’s always nice when I get it right) – any the kit I had dealt with the weather wonderfully. I wasn’t wet, the cold was only a slight problem when we stopped and the wind wasn’t an issue, Gore Windstopper is expensive but damn it’s worth it. I think everyone in the group (except for the officer) had a Leatherman on them, myself being no exception, and mine came in useful for when we were making the landing zone for the medivac helicopters, admittedly only for cutting open the sacks for marking the area but even so.
Lessons learnt – SMEAC, ALWAYS fill your water bottles, double your socks, the right kit is wonderful.

Oh and Pip, the only reason I had a Primera was that was the car I was given by the rental firm. Hoping for something a bit more interesting next time.

(Edited to correct the E in SMEAC - it's execution, not "evaluate plan of action")