Originally Posted by i_love_ftorres

You get them issued at pccbc so you'll have two months to break them in. The commandant was very specific that the only boots your allowed to wear are the ones you've been issued. So unless they are exactly the same as the ones you've brought it'll be a waste of money. No harm getting your feet used to boots if you've never worn them before though.

I've broke mine in well enough in two weeks just by wearing them at work for eight hours a day and polishing everynight. I imagine this scenario is not feasible if you work as lifeguard.

Xomus welcome to the longest five months of your life, which in the end will go by very fecking quickly. I'd worry more about how your going to use the remaining time as a civvie to it's full potential.

Congrats on passing main board anyhow.

Thanks Torres,

Well I will train with them once a week just to get a feel for running with boots and combats on.

As for what I'm going to do between now and D-day....I'm going to keep working for a few months, if I can manage to keep it together, being a data monkey is really not much fun....
Then I'm taking the last two months off to train ( a friend of mine just did his PCCBC a few weeks ago for the sept intake and got 7m48 on the run, I have to match his time.....)
Then I plan to go on holiday with my girlfriend for a few weeks in the sun, maybe go diving in South East Asia, be beach bums for a few weeks. Then going trekking with my old man in Morocco or the Alps, leaning more towards Morocco though, starting the CC course in winter will be cold enough....

Regards,

X.

Well done Xoums and Rhino, see you there in January!

CW

Originally Posted by Xoums

I for one really enjoyed this book, albeit a bit selfish and not very focused on the actual men

That's an interesting way of looking at it, could you expand a bit? I would have said that it was essentially his account of his time in the army and his experiences therein; quite hard to do that without focusing on himself. I don't think that could be called selfish as such, more the inevitable outcome of such a book. I certainly don't think he ignored the guys on the OMLT team he worked with in Afghanistan or indeed the Afghan soldiers in his book.

If you read 'Sniper One' for example by Dan Mills he doesn't spend a great deal of time explaining how the officers role in the defence of CIMIC house; his book focusses on his platoon and the job he did. That's fair as well I feel.

If you want something which deals with a wider view of the situation you'd be better to look somewhere like Richard Holmes 'Dusty Warriors' as he comes to the situation from the outside of it and so is able to give a better overview of the whole PWRR battlegroups tour of Iraq, from the perspective of everyone from the CO to the RSM down to the Private soldier, all of whom he spoke to for the book.

Xoums

Running in boots before you're properly prepared is a virtual guarantee of a deferral of entry resultant upon eg. shin splints or other similar. A quick search will throw up other threads which will tell you the same. When people who know, tell you not to do it, they're offering the results of hard-won experience. Now I know that you've spent money on your new toys, but be advised. Leave them in their box. You know better? You want to chance turning a January entry into May? You choose.

Oh yes, congrats on passing.

Old Rat
Out

Originally Posted by Ratty22

Running in boots before you're properly prepared is a virtual guarantee of a deferral of entry resultant upon eg. shin splints or other similar.

Tallies with the view of an ex-RAMC doctor friend of mine. Years after leaving the army, she's still going on about all the soldiers she treated for tendon and other lower limb problems resulting from running in boots.

Running in boots never did my legs any harm, but then I didn't do it very often

Originally Posted by Ratty22

Xoums

Running in boots before you're properly prepared is a virtual guarantee of a deferral of entry resultant upon eg. shin splints or other similar. A quick search will throw up other threads which will tell you the same. When people who know, tell you not to do it, they're offering the results of hard-won experience. Now I know that you've spent money on your new toys, but be advised. Leave them in their box. You know better? You want to chance turning a January entry into May? You choose.

Oh yes, congrats on passing.

Old Rat
Out

Could not agree more.

RMAS will (as all training establishments do) put you through a structured PT programme of training in boots to accustom your body properly - fear not you will be getting thrashed before you know it!

Going out and thrashing yourself in new boots is a pants idea - just walk in them, polish them back up and they will be well broken in by the time you get there.

If you choose to ignore those on this forum please at least place your post in the APTC forum and take the views of the SERVING members in there.

Remember, if the Army wanted you "boot fit" they would test you wearing boots prior to accepting you!

Good Luck

Point taken regarding the boots, I will put my news toys away...

Originally Posted by Switchback

That's an interesting way of looking at it, could you expand a bit? I would have said that it was essentially his account of his time in the army and his experiences therein; quite hard to do that without focusing on himself. I don't think that could be called selfish as such, more the inevitable outcome of such a book. I certainly don't think he ignored the guys on the OMLT team he worked with in Afghanistan or indeed the Afghan soldiers in his book.

If you read 'Sniper One' for example by Dan Mills he doesn't spend a great deal of time explaining how the officers role in the defence of CIMIC house; his book focusses on his platoon and the job he did. That's fair as well I feel.

If you want something which deals with a wider view of the situation you'd be better to look somewhere like Richard Holmes 'Dusty Warriors' as he comes to the situation from the outside of it and so is able to give a better overview of the whole PWRR battlegroups tour of Iraq, from the perspective of everyone from the CO to the RSM down to the Private soldier, all of whom he spoke to for the book.

I have read "Sniper one", and thoroughly enjoyed it too. Regarding "The junior officers reading club" comment, I would like to retract ithe comment I made about it being selfish. It is indeed meant to be his own subjective experience and as such it does a great job.

I have just bought "Bugles and a tiger" and have only yet read the first chapter. However, the author makes a very interresting comment regarding the "Pathan" tribes that resided (resides?) in the regions between what was at his time India (now Pakistan) and Afghanistan I quote, " The task of disarming the tribes might have cost about twenty thousand lives and taken ten years of all out campaigning"(p17). Pretty accurate call made over 70 years ago.

I thought Hennessey, while undoubtedly a witty, entertaining, honest and informative writer, needs to rein in his style a bit. His prose strikes me as a bit flabby, with long, run-on sentences and unclear construction. You get a sense of the power of his Oxford English degree without any tempering of clarity.

You get issued Goretex boots at RMAS. Fact.