I’m thinking of supplementing ACP32 lessons with some basic survival/bushcraft lessons. Has anybody tried this avenue to spice up IET lessons?
I’d avoid the word bushcraft like the plague, it means fires, axes and loons. None of which are likely to bring about approval.
Survival training should be - and might actually be useful - when it’s framed within a realistic scenario: DofE group gets lost/benighted - what’s it’s decision making process between lobbing the tents up and finding other shelter? What’s the balance between taking stuff that would be useful in a survival/emergency situation and taking so much stuff that it weighs you down and makes that situation more likely? What are the comparative dangers and advantages of staying in the tents Vs using (for example), an old sheep shed in the middle of nowhere?
TBH, if you want to make IET more effective, the most important thing you need to do is expose the cadets (and staff) to the realities of being ‘on the hill’ - putting a tent up, reading a map, cooking a meal are all very different propositions with slightly numb hands and a brisk wind and some rain.
It’s a process, not an event - they need to do it in the safe, easy conditions of the Sqn, then have a practice in a less benign environment, and only then should they put in the position of having to do what seems like relatively basic stuff for real.
I once got a Sqn along to a Royal Artillery exercise on a large, exposed, wintery training area - the CO assured me that all the cadets had done IET and could look after themselves in the field: what actually happened was that making breakfast in sleet took about 90 minutes because the vast bulk of them had never cooked a ration pack outside of a warm, sunny and windless day at their Sqn, and simply had no idea how do to it in crap conditions. The cadets were in a right old state - cold, wet, hungry and unhappy. They enjoyed the exercise, but their enjoyment and experience was significantly reduced by their lack of preparedness for just living and working at 500m in early Spring.
Knowing how to make a fire out of wet grass would have had no practical effect, but merely having practiced putting a tent up in the wind and rain, cooking, putting waterproofs on, and packing their daysacks and belt-kit would have allowed them to have a much better time and got a lot more out of it.
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What Angus said.
IET is an intro session - it doesn’t need spicing up - just doing effectively so they nail the essentials when it matters. Any more is great - but don’t detract from the actual requirements.
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Yup, ^^^this^^^.
Decide on a handful of critical skills, and just bash into them.
(I’d go for kit selection and packing, cooking in the field, basic map reading and Nav, putting tents up and campcraft - management of wet gear, when should they get changed into dry gear etc - and a bit of practical meteorology: when it says 5c, 10mph breeze and light rain, what will that feel like at 500m and what will I need to think about in terms of clothing and equipment?)
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I’d do nav, nav and more nav. Then a bit more nav. And try to get them to think about the emergency actions / climatic injuries scenarios a bit and practice actions on. Don’t need Ray Mears for that.
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Thanks for your input everyone!
I second this.
Add some improvised nav too. Constellations, stick and stone method etc.
Makeshift shelters, and emergency signalling techniques.
What I did as a cadet which I want to do but guess I can’t anymore is:
Here’s how to make a snare
Here’s how to make a fire from sticks and grass
Here’s a rabbit shot on the local farm (let’s pretend you caught it in the snare)
Here’s how to skin and gut said rabbit using a broken bone as a knife
Here’s how to cook rabbit on your fire
Dinner
I know more than one Squadron that does skimming of animals etc
How many hops have they managed to get out of an animal?
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- But I made a poor choice by skimming a badger. Choice of animal is key.
I’m not keen on teaching snares (for several reasons - not least I dont want a cadet deploying said skills in the suburbs and killings Tiddles).
But everything else could easily be done as an interest session provided you can risk assess it sufficiently and recognise that some cadets may not want to partake for reasons.
I see it as the old catchall of “extra mural training”. And if you dont want to do it yourself, tap up a decent chef or butcher to come and run the session for you - they can be incredibly engaging to watch and learn from.
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Well that makes me a lot happier. Thinking a change to December’s training programme is on the cards. (Plus I get a chance to go shooting on the local farm).
Of course I’ll ensure there is something else for those cadets who don’t want to take part for whatever reason.
Carrots?
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If you find a shallow enough lake, get a kangaroo and use some carefully placed horseradish you can get them to hop pretty much indefinitely (or at least out of sight).
I find a Tortoise to be the best shape for the task.
I’ve only managed to get one using a seagull, but it was a very long one.
I opt for crabs for the added element of danger.
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Porpoises or is that cheating?
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Be interesting to see what your TSAs opinion is on that. I know of a few who are not keen on any survival training taking place especially anything involving knives and fires.