Mud Sweat & Tears - Bear Grylls [71]
I knew that look and I knew that feeling.
Matt was amongst them. The guy who had helped me so much on that final Endurance march. He had been failed for cracking under duress. Switch off for a minute, and it is all too easy to fall for one of the DS’s many tricks and tactics.
Rule 1: SAS soldiers have to be able to remain sharp and focused under duress.
Matt turned, looked at me, smiled and walked out.
I never saw him again.
CHAPTER 64
So that is how we came to be standing in a sparse room, in a nondescript building in the barracks at SAS HQ – just a handful out of all those who had started out so many months earlier.
We shuffled around impatiently. We were ready.
Ready, finally, to get badged as SAS soldiers.
The colonel of the regiment walked in, dressed casually in lightweight camo trousers, shirt, beret and blue SAS belt.
He smiled at us.
‘Well done, lads. Hard work, isn’t it?’
We smiled back.
‘You should be proud today. But remember: this is only the beginning. The real hard work starts now, when you return to your squadron. Many are called, few are chosen. Live up to that.’ He paused.
‘And from now on for the rest of your life remember this: you are part of the SAS family. You’ve earned that. And it is the finest family in the world. But what makes our work here extraordinary is that everyone here goes that little bit extra. When everyone else gives up, we give more. That is what sets us apart.’
It is a speech I have never forgotten.
I stood there, my boots worn, cracked and muddy, my trousers ripped, and wearing a sweaty black T-shirt.
I felt prouder than I had ever felt in my life.
We all came to attention – no pomp and ceremony. We each shook the colonel’s hand and were handed the coveted SAS sandy beret.
Along the way, I had come to learn that it was never about the beret – it was about what it stood for: camaraderie, sweat, skill, humility, endurance and character.
I moulded the beret carefully on to my head as he finished down the line. Then he turned and said: ‘Welcome to the SAS. My door is always open if you need anything – that’s how things work around here. Now go and have a beer or two on me.’
Trucker and I had done it, together, against all the odds.
So that was SAS selection. And as the colonel had said, really it was just the beginning.
Since I did Selection all those years ago, not much has really changed.
The MOD (Ministry of Defence) website still states that 21 SAS soldiers need the following character traits: ‘Physically and mentally robust. Self Confident. Self Disciplined. Able to work alone. Able to assimilate information and new skills.’
It makes me smile now to read those words. As Selection had progressed, those traits had been stamped into my being, and then during the three years I served with my squadron they became moulded into my psyche.
They are the same qualities I still value today.
The details of the jobs I did once I passed Selection aren’t for sharing publicly, but they included some of the most extraordinary training that any man can be lucky enough to receive.
I went on to be trained in demolitions, air and maritime insertions, foreign weapons, jungle survival, trauma medicine, Arabic, signals, high-speed and evasive driving, winter warfare, as well as ‘escape and evasion’ survival for behind enemy lines.
I went through an even more in-depth capture initiation programme as part of becoming a combat-survival instructor, which was much longer and more intense than the hell we endured on Selection.
We became proficient in covert night parachuting and unarmed combat, amongst many other skills – and along the way we had a whole host of misadventures.
But what do I remember and value most?
For me, it is the camaraderie, and the friendships – and of course Trucker, who is still one of my best friends on the planet.
Some bonds are unbreakable.
I will never forget the long yomps, the specialist training, and of course a particular mountain