We recently heard from Old Viking Henry Blois Brooke (17S). Here is what he had to say.

Over the last 18 months I have been training to become a Royal Marine Commando Reservist. As you can imagine, it’s been a huge commitment, missing many family gatherings and parties over the weekends away but it’s been a dream of mine since I started Shiplake so I don’t regret anything. I decided to go down the reservist route as I am also enjoying my day-to-day job as a Business Development Representative for Buildscout in the property industry. 

The cherry on-top of becoming a Commando is that I managed to achieve a record time around The Endurance Course (the 1st of the final 4 Commando Tests following the final Field exercise). The Endurance Course is a best effort six-mile (9.65 km) course which begins with a two-mile run across rough moorland and woodland terrain at Woodbury Common near Lympstone, which includes tunnels, pipes, sheep dip, wading pools, and an underwater culvert. The course ends with a four-mile (6 km) run back to CTCRM followed by a shoot on the range having to hit a minimum of 6/10 shots on target showing you are fit to fight after physical exertion. My record time was 54mins 10 seconds - beating the previous record by 22 seconds!

Now I have completed recruit training, as a trained tank I take part in monthly exercises around work and I am looking forward to heading to Cyprus for a month in May. Norway is next on the list for me to take part in artic warfare training.