"Энди Макнаб. Немедленная операция (engl) " - читать интересную книгу автора

didn't give a damn. I threw myself into all the bone bravado: I was out with
my mates now; I was going to stay in the army forever; I didn't need a wife.
There were many like me; I was not the only one.
There was a NAAFI disco every Tuesday night at R.A.F Wroughton near
Swindon. It was a great event, but then, so was anything that took place
outside Tidworth.
Six or seven of us in freshly pressed kit would pile into the chocolate
and cream Capri, everybody stinking of a different aftershave.
One Tuesday night I met a telephonist called Debbie and forgot all my
resolutions about not needing women anymore.
A posting came up as a training corporal at Winchester, and I grabbed
it. Germany could wait. Careerwise the job was known as an E posting-a good
one to get.
By the time I came back I'd be a sergeant.
My platoon commander was a lieutenant; under him he had the platoon
sergeant and three training corporals.
Each'of us full screws (corporals) was responsible for between twelve
and fifteen recruits.
One or two of the lads were fairly switched on with life and really
wanted to join the infantry for what it offered. Most of them, however, were
there because they wanted to be in the army but lacked the intelligence to
be anything but riflemen-a bit like me, really.
A lot of them hadn't got a clue what they were doing when they turned
up. They'd been looking at the adverts of squaddies skiing and lying on the
beach surrounded by a crowd of admiring women. They had the impression that
they were in for three years lolling around on a windsurfer; then they'd
come out, and employers would be gagging to get their hands on them.
We had to show them how to wash and shave and use a toothbrush.
I'd get into the shower and say, "Right, I'm having a shower now,"
taking with me the socks that I'd been wearing that day. I'd put them on my
hands and use them like flannels, so I was washing my socks at the same time
as my body. Then I had to show them how to shower, making sure they pulled
their foreskin back and cleaned it and shampooed their hair.
Every one of them had to do it exactly the same-way, cleaning their
ears, cleaning their teeth in the shower at the same time, cleaning the
shower out afterward. i,d then show them how to cut their toenails
correctly. A lot of them didn't cut them at all, and they were stinking, or
they just got the edge and then pulled it away so they were destroying the
cuticle. In the infantry, if your feet are fucked, then the rest of you is
fucked.
A lot of them had never done their own washing. We even had to show
them how to use an iron. But soon everybody was all squared away, and they
knew what they were doing and, more important, why.
The idea of the training was to keep them under pressure but make it
enjoyable. The training corporals had to do everything that they did,
leading by example. And all the time we were also aiming to create
competition, a sense of achievement for their group, building up teamwork.
The results of the section reflected directly on us, so we had that
extra incentive to do the job as best we could. But it came to the stage
where I was so involved in it that incentives weren't necessary.