The Bayonet Assault course

Something was definitely afoot.

After weeks of strict orders, sharp timings to be met, and the constant demand to maintain a 'sense of urgency' from sunrise till bedtime, there we were at 9pm, watching a movie.

It was weird, and initially people couldn't relax. Everyone was glancing over their shoulders, keeping an eye on the SGI's for any suspicious activity...but there was nothing and gradually people began to enjoy the evening off. The movie was Gallipoli and they sent us to bed just before the Australian soldiers were about to charge over their trenches to certain death.
'Go to bed' the instructors told us. 'We'll finish it in the morning'.

Oh boy, did we ever.

20 minutes before reveille that next morning they hit us.

Covered in cam paint, screaming like a maniac, as though he was on fire, one of my sergeants came bursting into the room.
'GET UP! GET THE FUCK OUT OF BED!!!! GO! GO! GO OUTSIDE NOW!!!!!"

I almost had a heart attack.

We raced outside our cabins, pulling our sheets out with us as we'd been taught, and we were deafened by the sounds of gunfire and explosions erupting all around us. There was smoke everywhere, it was pitch black, and someone had rigged up an extensive sound speaker and was blasting dramatic, war-y, music. Very much Two Steps from Hell-esk. It was absolute sensory overload. The sergeants were running up and down the corridors screaming at us to get back inside, that we were being attacked, that we had exactly 6 minutes to get ready but we couldn't stand up, we had to crawl on our stomaches back in and somehow, in amongst the darkness and confusion, find our clothes, find our weapons and put cam paint on our face. GO! GO! GO!

Sweating, stressing and swearing, us girls finally made it outside and were lying flat on the concrete breathing hard. We were herded like cattle back into the main hall and from there watched the next 3 minutes of the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Ankn-AzC4 then we raced off down the path to the bayonet assault course.

'FIX BAYONETS'

The whole point of bayonet training is this: if you're in a war zone and you're down to just you and your bayonet, something has gone horrifically wrong. The only thing you have left going for you is the tiny blade at the end of your rifle and your aggression. The sergents wanted us to channel that aggression.

We began by running at dummies.
Screaming till our voices were hoarse we ran and slashed and stabbed at the figurines. I don't know about the others but in my head was every angry thing that had ever happened to me at training so far. All the times me or my friends had been unfairly yelled at, embarrassed, tired and stressed or just not coping.
After we finished with the dummies we were put through the actual obstacle course.

We jumped into bear pits full of water, crawled under barbed wire, jumped off walls and ran through tyres, after each obstacle we ran at a dummy and screamed as we charged it. It was the most manic and psychotic thing I've ever done, and it was incredibly bizarre and frightening to see the calm, smart, rational people I'd been training with up until this point completely let loose in such an aggressive way.  It was a definite reality check I suppose. That behind the ironed uniforms and the strict discipline...this is the army, and the training we're all given has an ultimate purpose.

We were all absolutely shattered by the end, emotionally and physically. It was definitely one of the most intense things I've ever participated in however I'm glad I did. All of this training so far has been challenging in different areas and doing this course made me realise a few things about myself, perhaps the most important of which is that I discovered that I can keep my cool in these sorts of situations, and that psychotic, crazy anger definitely does not come naturally to me. Both good realisations.

Ladies and gentlemen: the bayonet assault course.