Ex ALTCAR CHALLENGE

On the weekend of 5^th/6^th May, a team of 4 girls and 4 boys from 606 Sqn participated in the Altcar Challenge, at Altcar Army training camp near Liverpool. The girls’ team comprised of myself – Kat Bryer –, Amy Witwicki and Lucy Roper from Ops Flight and Jemma Holmes from Supply Section.

Although we had prepared for the weekend with extra training sessions, we were all still
nervous about what to expect on the day!

After the long trip to Liverpool, we were quickly ushered to the assault course to be given a safety brief. It was with excitement and a little trepidation that we viewed the challenging obstacles,
as we were given a demonstration by an expert who made it look easy – even scaling the 9 ft wall unassisted!

Amy – who was nominated team leader – then went to a meeting to get the instructions for the
following day.

Later on that evening in the bar, we studied the brief for each challenge and had a think
about how we were going to tackle them. We saw that there were unfamiliar
weapons to strip down and so Lucy and I spent some time with Cpl ‘Taff’ Townsend,
learning how to strip down an AK47 with the help of a picture and a few
drawings, while I scribbled notes and worked it through in my head. Sgt Hobbs
did the same thing with Jemma and Amy on the General Purpose Machine Gun or ‘Jimpy’.

The day itself was a fantastic experience. After the first few challenges – kit check
and pistol shoot – our nerves had settled and we knew we were in for a great
day. Thanks to Taff’s fabulous coaching the AK47 training paid off for me and we
whizzed through that challenge.

There were many different stands ranging from kinaesthetic skills, such as the weapon
handling and grenade stalk, to real life scenarios, such as how to handle
police abusing a civilian, Vehicle Check Points and the Battlefield First Aid
stand. Amy and Jemma had beautiful orange hands for the rest of the day after
this challenge thanks to their first aid skills and the fake blood!

And then there was the assault course..... This could have been said to be Lucy’s
nemesis and it is fair to say that some of the obstacles had been playing on
her mind. Of course it was typical that our slot was right at the end of the
day, so she had a long time to think about it. However, we all completed the
course and Lucy overcame her fear of the cargo net. It was such an exciting and
exhilarating thing to do!

As a team we gelled very well and there was no friction at any point. This was commented on by
several people.

Everyone in the team put in maximal effort and so we knew that by the end we would be happy
with the result, as we could not have tried harder.

We cannot thank Sgt Hobbs and Cpl Townsend enough for all their fantastic support and training. They can be quoted as saying that they ‘felt like proud Dads,’ as our team came marching down to the stand that they ran – the March and Shoot.

Altogether it was one of the best weekends I have experienced since joining 606 Sqn and one
on which I really felt I learned a lot. I can’t wait to be involved next year and know that next time round we will have a much better idea of what to expect. Overall we were third out of the girls teams, but the 606Sqn boys came away with first prize for the battlefield first aid so a really great achievement for 606!