Royal Marines

[cbiwv]

I was just looking over some of the tasks the Royal Marines have to complete in basic. Much respect. Thirty two weeks of training.

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

[happyslapper]

A couple of years ago, ITV ran a multi-part series called Commando - On the Front Line.
It's by a guy called Chris Terril, who's been making documentaries, and writing books about the Royal Navy for decades.
It follows 924 Troop from the moment they step off the train at Lympstone to their combat tour of Afghanistan. If you're interested, some thieving bugger (God bless him) has uploaded the entire series to youtube:

Episode 1, Part 1



The rest of the series is on the playlist on the right of the screen.

[Stevey1]

The Royal Marines have a great history and their emphasis on endurance marching seems to have stood them in good stead: from the Falklands War to Afghanistan. There was a good recent article about cross-training with a branch of the USMC that showed how well the two forces work together. If I recall the US contingent were quite ill on a RM route march

Commando - On the Front Line.

Thanks for the link, I remember this series from a couple of years ago. That Chris Terrill managed to complete the Commando Course as well was impressive!

I had mixed feelings about the programme though and would be interested to hear from any RM members about how accurate it is. I've never held military service, but a friend of mine attempted to join the Royal Marines a couple of years before this show was made. He later joined another military branch, but he described the regime at Lympstone as being alot rougher than depicted in this show. The same with a Royal Marine reservist I spoke to. I think maybe the programme suffered from 'reality TV' syndrome a bit in that alot of time is devoted to filming peoples complaints when they are not training and not alot on the day-to-day regime/inspections etc. I suppose the MOD were/are keen to recover the media image of the military following bullying scandals over the last few years and portray a 'friendly' image for potential recruits. I suppose that's TV though.

I enjoyed this clip though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ8Jx...eature=related

[cbiwv]

Thanks for sharing this. It's very interesting.

[CMN]

Originally Posted by Stevey1

I've never held military service, but a friend of mine attempted to join the Royal Marines a couple of years before this show was made. He later joined another military branch, but he described the regime at Lympstone as being alot rougher than depicted in this show.

Media management. Look at the hullabaloo that kicked off when the naked rollmat World Championships were broadcast.