Pray you never need us!
But we hadn’t been issued with ammunition yet as just getting into the plane itself was proving to be something of a challenge. For example, a certain member of Charlie Team proved to be a bit over-zealous on his wing entry and got his foot stuck… The rest of the team, trying to beat the five second record, were right behind him when he went down and the end result was the entire team in the door in under five seconds but all lying sprawled on the floor waving their pistols uselessly about in the air… But the physical ineptitude of that member of Charlie Team wasn’t the only hazard. As one member of Delta found out, having a drag strap on your webbing is very handy if you’re hit, but bugger all use when it catches on the top of the doorframe leaving you hanging there like an Action Man wind chime.
Alpha Team had their moments too, with one unnamed member (they all look alike in the kit) obviously having trouble with the aircraft door from his perch on top of the Landrover… We all stood and watched as the poor chap spent a good 30 seconds heaving this thing back and forth trying to get it to stay open… And Bravo didn’t get away free of cock ups either as with their wing entry the lead guy banged the door open to then look back and see his squad all lying on the wing having fallen over one of the team who’d managed to step neatly into the hole in the wing where the fuel caps used to be…
The 'discussion' about how best to assault the aircraft rages on whilst HEXUS' David Ross models this winter's latest hat fashionsSo the morning was spent with each team having a go on assaulting each part of the aircraft and learning the various methods of gaining entry to the plane until we could go in through every door and have the entire four man team inside in somewhere between 5 and 7 seconds… for after lunch it was time for the real thing!
For a good idea of what the morning training involved, you should have a click on the image below, as this will give you nice video of the morning's training session, showing how an assault on each different type of door is carried out with views from both outside and inside the aircraft.
Click to download the Training Video