Four weeks that can change lives

In a clearing in a wood, a casualty was lying injured. Enemy fire could open at any time and we had to get them to safety almost a mile away. A couple of hundred yards into that mile, my arm started aching and my combats were so hot I thought I was melting.

We were supposed to work as a team, but everyone was struggling. All the time soldiers were "encouraging" us as only soldiers can, to run faster or simply run as we slowed to a walk. We broke into a shuffle to appease them.

All we could do was change sides of the stretcher between us to give our arms a rest.

I have never been so pleased to see a 'finish' line in my life, and the poor casualty was unceremoniously dumped on the ground as we gulped for breath wondering why we could have imagined a day at the Nesscliffe army training might be fun.

The casualty was, in fact, a jerry can full of water, but it was that one exercise that more than most gave me a little understanding of the Army's Midland Challenge 09, a four-week full time course that turns men and women into basic Territorial Army soldiers.

For as we began the stretcher carry, Captain Richard Harris said: "You have to realise that one day this could be for real. I have had to do it for real - carry a casualty to safety when it was a matter of life and death."

The other understanding came when 19-year-old Trooper Jamie Newman, from Telford, told me that when he did the exercise he had to wear a full respirator, giving him just 60 per cent of normal breathing.

"Those four weeks really did change my life," he said with a wide confident smile.

"I was very shy and the first few days, living with a group of complete strangers were really difficult.

"But I started to come out of my shell and soon made bonds with people that are hard to describe. You have to work together, you learn teamwork as well as so many other things."

The Midlands Challenge is an innovative scheme by the army to provide a new form of intensive training for those who want to join the Territorial Army. In the past labelled "weekend soldiers", the TA provides a valuable arm of the military and Territorial Army soldiers often now face active service.

Rather than complete their training at weekends people can sign up to a four-week intensive course and come out at the end as a fully-fledged TA soldier. They are even paid £600 for attending the course.

"The non-stop training means the training works and things become second nature. Training at weekends means you have to re-learn parts of the training each time you return," Trooper Newman said.

As well as the specific army training, Trooper Newman said he learned important life skills and skills that could be used in any workplace.

He is now hoping those transferable skills and the team and leadership skills he has learned will help him find a full time job to run in tandem with the TA commitments.

The intensive training takes place at Shropshire's Nesscliffe camp where your bed for the night is at best a basic iron bedstead, at worse the floor of a forest with a piece of canvas to keep out the elements.

You are fed and watered, given full clothing and boots, and as well as being taught everything to turn you into a basic soldier, you can also enjoy a few days of adventure training.

Our day was just a taste of those four weeks. We learned how to camouflage ourselves and understand basic fieldcraft and we learned what it was like to patrol carrying a 25lb rucksack and an imitation rifle.

We cooked our dinner, an army ration pack. The food was great for one day, and how proud I was when I quickly got my cooker going, boiled up my foil pouch of hamburger and beans and used the water for a cuppa in which I dipped my fruit biscuits. But I was already craving an apple by the end of the day.

And we had a taste of target shooting in the forest, with paintball guns, and also indoor firing which had my heart pounding as I was told during an enemy advance to hold my fire until fired upon.

We were put through our paces by a physical training instructor. I class myself as "fit for my age" and I coped well with the PTI's gruelling "warm up" which included crawling on the ground on our bellies as fast as we could.

But that stretcher carry was a real eye-opener.

Running the London marathon the week before really was a walk in the park in comparison.

We completed the task in perfect weather without our packs on our backs and with no one firing at us, and with just a jerry can - not a badly injured possibly screaming casualty.

And we were pathetic.

Hearing some of the tips for living in the field made me realise just how physically hard the army can be.

Drying wet socks with your body heat by putting them inside your combat jacket during the day was just one.

But talking to some of the self-assured, polite young TA soldiers who had gone through the Midland Challenge, it became obvious that they really did enjoy their roles.

* More details on the Midlands Challenge 09 are available from www.armyjobs.mod.uk. Last year more than 100 soldiers completed the challenge successfully. The majority are now deployed at units across the West Midlands enjoying their new role in the TA. Some have joined the Regular Army full-time while a few have been commissioned for officer training at Sandhurst.

By Sue Austin