Army Phase 1 Training- getting my son through...
Discussion
Hi all,
I'm hoping for some advice from people who have recently gone through Phase 1 training or anyone with Army experience I guess.
My son, who is 18, started Phase 1 training en route to (hopefully) a career in Signals. Within 3 weeks he was having trouble owing to his own immaturity and lack of willingness, which resulted in him almost being kicked out but they eventually back trooped him to the beginning. He really knuckled down after his Mum and I gave him a stern talking to, and to his credit he has got all the way through to Week 12, so just two weeks left.
However, last week he failed a field admin test, which basically is a one hour test in which the recruit has to clean themselves, cook breakfast and clean their rifle out in the field. This was a retest as he failed the original test a few weeks back owing to his rifle being unacceptable. To cut a long story short, he has been told the only thing holding him back is his admin skills (specifically cleaning his rifle and some of the less enjoyable ironing jobs) so having been one of the top recruits at marksmanship, fitness, drill, etc. he is being told he is being back trooped again back to Week 7.
He is coming home for 3 weeks next week, it will great to see him, but I am incredibly frustrated that basically an inability to recognise what constitutes a clean rifle has cost him 5 weeks of training. I will say he is a different kid to the one who got back trooped first time round - the amount of confidence and maturity the army has given him is amazing, but I'm just wondering what can be done. He isn't the sort of guy who asks for help which I have told him is a huge mistake.
To his credit, he has told me he can't wait to get back and show them he can do it, but this will surely be his last chance and I wonder if there is any external help available for these three weeks such as cadets or reserve where he can practice?
The army have been fantastic so far, and like I say the immature, doubting boy we dropped off at the beginning of the year has changed to a confident, mature, almost robotic young man and that is great to see, but it's a huge worry for us that his dream keeps getting curtailed.
Thanks for reading.
I'm hoping for some advice from people who have recently gone through Phase 1 training or anyone with Army experience I guess.
My son, who is 18, started Phase 1 training en route to (hopefully) a career in Signals. Within 3 weeks he was having trouble owing to his own immaturity and lack of willingness, which resulted in him almost being kicked out but they eventually back trooped him to the beginning. He really knuckled down after his Mum and I gave him a stern talking to, and to his credit he has got all the way through to Week 12, so just two weeks left.
However, last week he failed a field admin test, which basically is a one hour test in which the recruit has to clean themselves, cook breakfast and clean their rifle out in the field. This was a retest as he failed the original test a few weeks back owing to his rifle being unacceptable. To cut a long story short, he has been told the only thing holding him back is his admin skills (specifically cleaning his rifle and some of the less enjoyable ironing jobs) so having been one of the top recruits at marksmanship, fitness, drill, etc. he is being told he is being back trooped again back to Week 7.
He is coming home for 3 weeks next week, it will great to see him, but I am incredibly frustrated that basically an inability to recognise what constitutes a clean rifle has cost him 5 weeks of training. I will say he is a different kid to the one who got back trooped first time round - the amount of confidence and maturity the army has given him is amazing, but I'm just wondering what can be done. He isn't the sort of guy who asks for help which I have told him is a huge mistake.
To his credit, he has told me he can't wait to get back and show them he can do it, but this will surely be his last chance and I wonder if there is any external help available for these three weeks such as cadets or reserve where he can practice?
The army have been fantastic so far, and like I say the immature, doubting boy we dropped off at the beginning of the year has changed to a confident, mature, almost robotic young man and that is great to see, but it's a huge worry for us that his dream keeps getting curtailed.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks all for the comments. Some really helpful advice, and yes I have considered a proper beasting while he is home.
It's definitely not a motivation issue, he could withdraw himself any time, and in his own words he can't wait to get to Phase 2 and do his trade as its what he has always wanted to do. The big issue is that he is just such a relaxed character, and everything is done at a relaxed pace which just doesn't work when you're against the clock on things like the admin test.
Bear in mind he has passed everything else they have to thrown at him, some of them (in my mind) a lot tougher so it's just so frustrating that something so basic is in the way. Of reaching the end.
I will certainly try to make his time at home slightly uncomfortable, but I have no doubts he wants to go back and get through. No doubts at all.
Thanks for the advice re: coating the rifle, that was my advice a few weeks back - I also said try and fire it less and keep it dry (!) so it's not as dirty.
It's definitely not a motivation issue, he could withdraw himself any time, and in his own words he can't wait to get to Phase 2 and do his trade as its what he has always wanted to do. The big issue is that he is just such a relaxed character, and everything is done at a relaxed pace which just doesn't work when you're against the clock on things like the admin test.
Bear in mind he has passed everything else they have to thrown at him, some of them (in my mind) a lot tougher so it's just so frustrating that something so basic is in the way. Of reaching the end.
I will certainly try to make his time at home slightly uncomfortable, but I have no doubts he wants to go back and get through. No doubts at all.
Thanks for the advice re: coating the rifle, that was my advice a few weeks back - I also said try and fire it less and keep it dry (!) so it's not as dirty.
We are in East London, so Colchester is probably closest, but the boy now goes back this coming weekend as he decided (wisely) that he didn't want to be home for 3 weeks and took an offer to go back earlier in the process.
I had a good chat with the former Section CO yesterday, and the feedback was very positive, except that he "doesn't appreciate what clean looks like" and I think the rifle was a culmination of other admin tasks (e.g. boots) that just weren't good enough. The CO pointed out that the rifle is one of the easiest tasks, and once he failed it first time they just made him work harder. As someone has said, normal standard is 'battlefield clean', but once he failed they upped the standard and wanted more from him and he couldn't do it in time. While on Ex. they eventually gave him extra time to clean it and he ended up with "a high standard of cleanliness" but clearly this was just to check he could get there in the end - but the damage was done.
She felt that if he were to retest again now, under the proper criteria, he would probably pass.
I want to thank everyone for their help and suggestions - it's great that there are some many positive responses. It would be easy for the Army just to boot him out and tell him to come back, which I know people think it is how it should be, but supposedly he will make a good soldier and he just has to knuckle down. I had him cleaning my football and walking boots last night, and we can see what the issue is so we just need to give him an extra kick up the arse, as has been said it is his life to f
k up.
I had a good chat with the former Section CO yesterday, and the feedback was very positive, except that he "doesn't appreciate what clean looks like" and I think the rifle was a culmination of other admin tasks (e.g. boots) that just weren't good enough. The CO pointed out that the rifle is one of the easiest tasks, and once he failed it first time they just made him work harder. As someone has said, normal standard is 'battlefield clean', but once he failed they upped the standard and wanted more from him and he couldn't do it in time. While on Ex. they eventually gave him extra time to clean it and he ended up with "a high standard of cleanliness" but clearly this was just to check he could get there in the end - but the damage was done.
She felt that if he were to retest again now, under the proper criteria, he would probably pass.
I want to thank everyone for their help and suggestions - it's great that there are some many positive responses. It would be easy for the Army just to boot him out and tell him to come back, which I know people think it is how it should be, but supposedly he will make a good soldier and he just has to knuckle down. I had him cleaning my football and walking boots last night, and we can see what the issue is so we just need to give him an extra kick up the arse, as has been said it is his life to f
k up.I just wanted to update and bring this thread to a happy conclusion. Tomorrow we are attending our son's Pass Off parade after another emotional couple of months.
He really knuckled down when he went back, passed all of the remaining tests first time and has generally shown exactly what the staff were asking for. I really didn't want to think too far ahead, we have known this date was coming all along, but planning for it has, I'm embarrassed to say, not been something we have committed to as we just didn't know how it would turn out.
We clearly needn't have worried, in the past 7 weeks we have had nothing but positive news fed back to us from our son. We couldn't be more pleased, and I wanted to thank everyone for the advice, all of it was used in some way or another and hopefully had some effect.
Looking forward to the long drive tomorrow in the Golf R Estate, just to give this a proper PH link...
He really knuckled down when he went back, passed all of the remaining tests first time and has generally shown exactly what the staff were asking for. I really didn't want to think too far ahead, we have known this date was coming all along, but planning for it has, I'm embarrassed to say, not been something we have committed to as we just didn't know how it would turn out.
We clearly needn't have worried, in the past 7 weeks we have had nothing but positive news fed back to us from our son. We couldn't be more pleased, and I wanted to thank everyone for the advice, all of it was used in some way or another and hopefully had some effect.
Looking forward to the long drive tomorrow in the Golf R Estate, just to give this a proper PH link...
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