I'm watching the five-part series on BBC1 which documents the experiences of new recruits going through the Infantry Training Course at Catterick.
To say this is an eye-opener is an understatement for several reasons.
First, it's surprising off the bat that it takes six months to turn a civilian into a soldier, or Infanteer according to the current speak. But when you get to appreciate the poor calibre of the human material they get to work with the rationale becomes much clearer.
'Soldier' focuses on a single intake of 49 recruits which includes four females and a handful of blacks (no Asians, although the platoon commander, a Capt Wahab appears to be of subcontinental heritage). The rest of the platoon consists of white working-class males aged from 17 to 27. In terms of employability in civilian life I'd say their chances are probably low, in fact most of those interviewed indicate they were fleeing dead-end jobs.
I was particularly interested in how the four females went on. Only two of them are featured in the programme and surprisingly neither were butch, Amazonian types but rather petite and small-framed as became obvious when you saw them marching along with the rest of group. One of the instructors let slip that because their length of stride was so much shorter they were placed at the front of the column in route marches, otherwise they'd get left behind. As indeed they were.
From the start the training staff insisted they made no accommodation for the physical disadvantages and they treated the female recruits exactly the same. However several vignettes caught on camera gave the lie to this. At this stage it looks likely three of the four will pass and go on to join an actual regiment. I wonder if NCOs there will be as accommodating as their Catterick instructors were. Nobody will be allowed to complain of course.
The blacks haven't featured yet, except for one recruit from Ghana, who nobody thought to ask why he's taken the Kings Shilling rather than join the Ghanaian army. The others appear to be holding their own so far (I'm about half way though).
All in all this is a fascinating reflection of 21st century Britain, well worth watching. All episodes are on iPlayer.
