Which training was harder, Sandhurst or the subsequent bomb disposal training?
Sandhurst training is very physical. It's intellectually demanding as well, but big emphasis on the physical side of things. Lots and lots of living out in the field, lots and lots of speed marches and runs and physical exercise. They try to put the pressure on you. It's very difficult to simulate the pressures of combat unless you physically practice combat. You can't do that in a training environment because it's far too dangerous, and people would obviously get killed. So the way they simulate the pressures of that, in order to test someone's leadership ability, are to deprive them of sleep, make sure they're exhausted. That's when you see the true caliber of a person. So they do so much physical exercise and so much... not sleep deprivation, as in standing on your tiptoes with water dripping in the background and that sort of stuff. But physically, you're constantly on-the-go all day long. And when you're not on military exercise or military maneuvers, you're learning how to shine boots and iron all your kit and that sort of stuff. So that's one type of demand, and it's quite challenging. But the bomb disposal side of it... everyone's a captain when they go there as well, so they're fairly experienced officers anyway. But it's very much an academic environment. It's very practical as well. There are over 200 exams; I think you can fail three exams before you're kicked off the course. You're constantly doing this cramming where you're learning as much information as you can to try and pass the exam. Then you almost discard that, temporarily, and then you learn for the next exam. What you find is that the teaching is very, very good. Because, years later, something that you thought was complete nonsense and had no idea why you were being taught it, someone would ask you about it. Suddenly, out of nowhere, it would come to the forefront of your mind again and you'd be able to give a sensible answer about it. So it obviously works. But two very different sort of challenges, one mostly physical with a bit of academia and a bit of intellectual demand, and the other one, very much intellectual with a bit of physical.
