 How long did it take to join it? Well, it's a six month process and I'm lucky because my last two years spent in the regimen after spending 10 I was an instructor running SES selection, so I've seen selection from both sides of the fence Like I say, it's a six month process. It's broken down into segments and it's nothing like that shite That's on TV. I can tell you now During that six six months process You'll never get an instructor scream at you shout at you or try to motivate you The first phase is what the call the hills phase. This is where we take the soldiers up as individuals onto the breccan beacons and They they're set marches like walks. They get longer the weight the carrying gets heavier But they're always by themselves and there's loads of different routes, so they can't follow one another So after that period there's test week, which is a set of set marches Ending in a 65 km art called long drag The successful guys after that have proven that they can push themselves under audios conditions The next thing is we then take them to the jungle for five to six weeks But this time we put them into patrols and we're looking at them as are they a team player? Can they mix with five of the strangers and come to this unit and this as an instructor? This is where you start seeing to guys souls Because the jungle is actually harder than the hills phase because it's a hostile environment as soon as you get under the canopy It's a it's a a primary jungle. It's hot You're either walking up uphill or downhill. You're always soaken whether it's crossing rivers or just sweating You're carrying heavy loads You're under a lot of pressure and everything in there wants to either bury its head into you bite you or Scratch you So a lot of guys get in there and they become claustrophobic and they can't think about the tasks at hand They just see this green curtain in front of them So you could be here just looks exactly the same You walk all day and you get maybe four or five k's over there You're knackered and it looks exactly the same and everything is twice as hard in the jungle You have to be very careful with your own personal admin if you don't look at yourself Look after yourself your body starts falling to pieces. So during that period We've only probably gone into the jungle with 45 guys and we started on the hills with 200 You know, half of these half of these guys are gonna stick their hand up and say it's not them not for me Some of them that don't you know, they're not gonna pass So, you know, you're always making notes and I used to be fair as an instructor and under the trees If I had a certain individual and I wasn't sure what I would do is get him moved into another patrol So somebody else could look at him just to make sure it wasn't a personality You know problem because we all have friends or we all know people but you don't like them and there's you You know for no reason and you just think mmm. I'll just check double check on this kid the next phase after that is Combat survival again, we get the guys and we teach them All the things they need to know in terms of survival and how to conduct conduct themselves after capture That's resistance to interrogation and various things next phase after that is Continuation training. So this is where now we've got to teach soldiers who are used to carrying a weapon in a uniform how to carry a weapon in Seville clothes and then say walk in your neighborhood or my neighborhood and not stand out how to blend in To be a great man whilst, you know, they're on the radio. They're following somebody And that came from say like a Northern Ireland type of scenario Now they do other scenarios that are more fitting like lurk working in London Maybe following a terrorist cell to know that they've got to get in close to you know, put one into their head Other technical equipment now listening devices drones Other various other various kit. So at the end, you know, it's six months and you're usually left with anything from five to twelve guys and they're then sent off to one of the four squadrons and Basically, you're the new guy in the squadron, but you have to be capable enough To fit in as in, you know what the score is a good friend of my brothers. He passed Into the regiment and B squadron was up in Afghanistan But up country and this lard He was flown out To join the squadron, but he was at Basra Then he had a two-day road journey to get to the squadron and he had a bunch of Afghan soldiers Well on the first day he was ambushed and he was in an ambush for two days Conducting like this operation where he's having to call in fast day to drop audience ordinance Bring in other troops to orchestrate this whole attack. So the guys have to be top-notch once they pass selection Do you know also even you're Giving them the course and putting them through their paces. Do you know from day one who's got a good chance of passing in the jungle? I know within I would say a week of how they conduct themselves and there's a couple of little Tests I would do with them that I wouldn't you know, it's not rocket science There's an exercise the hardest thing in the jungle is navigating to know where you are because you can't see nothing so everything's done by pacing and it's ridgelines and River junctions and things like that. So there's a certain skill to it So what I would do is take the guys out and we do it tactically So we're moving slowly, you know, everybody getting into fire position stuff like that get into a lying up position And they run through all the drills and then I would say right fellas tomorrow we're gonna just do some Semi-tax stuff And I will give you start giving your tips and stuff like that But but I want you up at three o'clock in the morning on the track now When you're in the jungle in the in the in the light goes down It's like being locked in a room without any windows and somebody puts a blanket over your head Now the guys have to then put the hammock up have to put the poncho up They have to sort the food out and everything else. So that means they're emptying their rucksack in various other things So get get them up at three o'clock pitch black Pack the kit get them on the track I would walk them for about 200 meters then just stop them and say right use lots sit down Get yourself a brew on get something to eat and I'd walk down to the bash a site So this used to crack me up You get to see one bash a site so you find a pair socks get over here You find some paper you find something else you'll find a bit of equipment you'll find maybe a mat like a rifle magazine So then I go back and I'm like who's is this you know, that's him So there's a lot of bollocksings and then it's like you then get to see how a guy takes a bollocking Because nobody likes being told you know that they're an idiot and that they're their shits not together And it's how they affect them and whether they can get over it But then you look at their attitude at the way they start looking at you And then the other thing that I've forgotten to say as well What I do is when I get them in to that l up point. I will just say I'm going back to base for an hour And I'll be back Now that patrol are supposed to work together and that means if you're the radio operator You've got to set up your radio get your antenna routes and and then come like write a message out and stuff like that So what should be happening is your one of the lads and patrols should become to you Asking you to give give you his hammock in his poncho So as you're working on the radio, he's putting your bedding up Another guy should be coming in saying give us your scoff and we'll eat together So he's cooking tea as you're sending that message. So the patrols working but you can all I Guarantee you'll always get one guy who will slope off and he just gets his hammock up gets his scoff on and he thinks He's in bed now for an extra hour's kip because he's just looked after himself Then as soon as I identify that person when you watch them as a patrol working He'll always stand out like a dog like a dog's wallet and he and know he's not working with it The more you watch the more things you see and then at the end, you know You're making notes and stuff like that and during the period of time They'll come up to you and they'll just say, you know, I'm gonna wrap the funniest one was we went out on a three-day It was actually a three-day turnaround Navics so we walked for three days just directly out into the middle of the jungle and I could see this kid he was gonna wrap and Sure enough the end of the day came up and he went staff. I've had enough and I want Just sit over there and take five minutes. I'll give you five minutes to think about it and Came back. You went. No, I want to wrap I went, okay break your weapon unload your weapon and break it up because this fucking now He's got a live round up the spotlight, you know, and he could get pissed off for me So just say break your weapon down pack it up in your bag and then he said, oh, well, what happens now? I Said you you're off and he went, well, how am I getting back? And I'm the same way it got here mate You're gonna walk and then if he realized and it's happened a couple of times they realized then it walked out thinking they're gonna wrap But never thinking I'll still have to walk back So if he kept his mouth shut and just walked back you to still being in, you know, so From a mental point of view you see guys make some really stupid Decisions, especially when they're exhausted and tired and the think a spider's around the corner or snakes around the corner So the jungle is a great place to be I love it because as soon as I get in the jungle I know I can step two meters away from you and you wouldn't be able to see me And I can hide and and when you consider my escape in a vision was on a flat Fucking desert floor flat as this thing where there was no fucking hiding the jungle to me is heaven I don't give a shit. I don't give a shit trees. I don't give a monkey's if I've got Ticks on me bites leeches whatever they can chew away as much as they want. I know I'm safe Whereas in the desert, there's no way to hide is that what a lot of people break in the jungle Yeah, was that the main yeah when you consider these guys are the fittest from the course because they've passed the first phase They get in the jungle and they just wrap and they let themselves and it shows mental weakness that they're you know They're not focused and you know certain and they're all shapes and sizes You know, you can't just say he's a big lad like yourself. He's a big unit. He'll be fine It's all shapes and sizes now another one and on my selection, which was unusual During the resistance to interrogation now You've had a hard week on the run no food and living in just your clothes piss wet through and Sometimes it's all around Scotland and further down to Northumberland So yeah, you're knackered and then you go into a resistance to interrogation for 36 hours and you get in you get it's it's very realistic You are you're subjected to sleep deprivation, which really screws your mind up But you're interviewed by different people and you'll usually get a guy who looks decent He'll ask you nice questions and you'll say if you sign this piece of paper I'll give you this bar chocolate. You'll get a right nasty looking guy who's gonna threaten you You know, he's gonna knock your head in you'll get no guy who will just keep asking you the same question And he it's a false He puts you in a false sense of security because you think he's a dithering old guy and then you get a woman and I'll tell you what you go into a room as big as this table and behind you and the woman's there There's two guards behind you and there's cameras and what it is is all the other interrogators are watching your reaction and She's listening to them and they do an analysis on you. So first thing she does is Get your overalls off. So you're freezing cold. So your dicks disappeared And she laughs like that she's like that You call that a cock, you know, is that what's that what you're gonna do with that? Well, I mean to me I'm just like Just blanket zone it out and you're there because you can't talk Can't you you can only see your name rank and number that's it And I'm thinking they can punch the shit out of me because they can't kill me because it's an exercise But your head starts to get twisted and these guys are in foreign uniforms and stuff And you think and is this real and you start questioning yourself well these lads one lad He was a big old paratrooper being down south He launched himself over the table to knock this bird's head in and obviously that the guards pulled him down He was off selection and he'd done all the work on the hills done all the work in the jungle And then another guy did it and she had seven guys crack under an interrogation and it's It is it's a it's a mental state and it's it's hard to tell you I mean if you if you were doing some psychedelic, you know, there isn't like saying gnomes running around the floor But they're there that's like not being on drugs But it's like being on drugs because you haven't slept for maybe three or four days And then the when you're in the when you're in the bag in the pen You're in stress positions with being subject to white noise and it really like screws your head In a big way and that's the easiest way to interrogate anybody is first of all keep them up for a week and Then they'll start seeing things They'll hear voices and then you throw a bit of waterboard in and they'll be fucking singing like a budget Yeah, I don't know if this is true, but I used to watch the I don't know what film it was But these I think they used to put the soldiers under the water But it used to just tap on the top of their head like that trip. Yeah, it's just to make your answer You should lose your shirt. Yeah, you can it's making anybody uncomfortable Because the white noise It's it's a like none of as if in terms of it's not being hit with a stick because the good thing is Somebody's hitting hitting you with a stick and I'm sure you've had a fair few beatings when they're hitting you You grit your teeth and say go on your bastard, you know And it it gets your adrenaline up it gets everything open You're getting ready to go back when nobody's touching you and your backs breaking your arms are breaking Or you're in a sitting position with your hands in your head And then somebody's pouring water over you just to make you cold and you're freezing and that it just it Wears you away. So that's the mental torture. Yeah, not the physical. Yeah, and it's it's you kept in a room under their control All I did was 36 hours, you know, I know it's 36 hours You don't know how far in you are how far, you know, you've got To go in fact, yeah, that's screwed Before you go in on the exercise because it's a week on the run and being chased by say infantry units with dog teams So you might have had about three or four beatings during that period they said When you finish It'll be the sergeant major of training when you have a white on band on and he'll he'll get you out the room And sure enough this guy Don came and he went Jory. That's it I didn't believe him. I'm like, this is a fucking trick and I sat outside on the floor And he said are you all right yet? And I was like wouldn't speak to him and it took me about three hours Until other guys were coming out of the pen and we're all sat together Because you're that aware that this could be a setup, but it wasn't, you know, but that's how much it screws you