Sgt. Pippitones Circus

I was sent an image by an old friend from my time in the army recently which brought back some memories.

This particular time saw us on a 2 week exercise. One week we were in Sennybridge on a trench digging exercise and the other week they called it ‘adventure training’. It was painful at the time but I have healthy memories of it.

One morning we were woken at an ungodly hour to undertake a mountain rescue. “Wear lightweights (thin trousers), a tee shirt and your combat jackets” we were told. We set off into the mountains, conducted the fake rescue and then we were driven off to a remote location in a wood. We were given strict instructions to remain within a perimeter and simply told to survive. There was frost on the ground and that night myself and 2 other men cuddled beneath a tree in a make shift shelter, no sleep, simply cuddling and shivering.

Another day we were set a task to work in pairs and get as far away from the camp as possible, get proof that you had been there and get back within a given time frame. My colleague and I, seeing a van delivering food to the NAAFI, jumped in the back and hid. We let it take us wherever it was going, it could have been going to London for all we knew but thankfully it stopped within the hour in the town of Brecon. As soon as the driver opened the back door we shot out leaving him shouting. As we ran I turned my head round to check that he wasn’t chasing us when I bumped into a man and knocked him to the floor. To my surprise I knew the man, it was Mr Hayes my old Maths teacher, an unbelievable coincidence!

Quite a lot of the time we spent in the Brecon Beacons, orienteering, carrying very heavy boxes up Pen-y-Ffan and marching through the night. One particular night I remember being mesmerised by the amount of shooting stars, some of which you could hear pop.

We were split into groups for many tasks and our group consisted of the following (as per the photo):

Adrian Chadwick, Brian Asher, Me, Michael Annis, David Cant & Rob Millwood (Who took the photo).

 

What a lovely bunch of chaps. I’m still in contact with the majority but not Asher or Annis, I haven’t a clue what became of either of them. I think Brian Asher was a little older than the rest of us and he appeared crazy at times, particularly when drunk, he had a thousand yard stare and plenty of tattoos. His shoes looked like they were too long and he used to move like a clown, that’s why we called him Sgt. Pippitone for the duration of that exercise and we were his circus.