Nite Maverick - Dave Coleman

Myself and the instructors, accompanied by Nite Watches owner Roger Green, paced up and down Ashley train station, awaiting the arrival of 22 hopeful recruits, male and female, young and old, from all different walks of life, who had signed up for a Military Experience Weekend to push themselves to their very limits. Little did they know that once they stepped off the train and onto the platform, they were stepping into our world for the next 48 hours, and any preconceived opinions that this would be a nice holiday weekend of camping would be quickly irradicated from their minds from the shock of capture that was about to come…

The Civvy 2 Commando Weekend is ran by a team of currently serving and former Royal Marines and aims to give anyone who signs up an authentic insight into what Military life is like. It is open to anyone between the ages of 16-55 and is designed to push you both physically and mentally, to test you, and to educate you on crucial outdoor, first aid, and life skills to take away with you for the rest of your life.

Throughout the weekend, the recruits were put through their paces in Military fitness, yomping (carrying heavy kit over a distance), running, battle fitness, and even conducted the Royal Marines Fitness Assessments. But the fun didn’t stop at fitness, all of the recruits were taught how to read a map and navigate their way back to camp, as well as getting stuck into some soldiering skills such as shooting, camouflage and concealment, combat and traumatic first aid, and survival lessons from subject matter experts.

We as instructors were particularly impressed with the amount of teamwork and unselfishness demonstrated throughout the weekend by the recruits and how quickly they bonded, formed close friendships, and collectively pulled together to push through the hard and sometimes painful times to make it to the other side as a team!

The ethos of the weekend, and the unit of measurement used to assess recruits’ performance was the four pillars of the ‘Commando Spirit’ which are…

Courage, Determination, Unselfishness, and Cheerfulness in the face of adversity. These four character traits are etched into the brain of every Royal Marine who completes their basic training at Lympstone and go onto live by these for the rest of their lives.

So pertinent are these ethos, that Civvy 2 Commando & Nite Watches decided to collaborate and create a limited edition Civvy 2 Commando, Commando Spirit, Nite Watch, which displays the Commando Dagger, the Civvy 2 Commando logo, and all 4 elements of the Commando Spirit engraved on the back as a reminder of the ethos and values expected of a Royal Marines Commando. The top prize for the weekend was the ‘Commando Spirit Award’ and one of these limited edition watches was awarded to Kalen Rhodes, who was an outstanding recruit from start to finish and his unrelenting effort and determination caught the eye of all the C2C instructors and Roger Green.

All in all the weekend was a massive success, everyone who attended left with friends for life, a broadened mindset, and most importantly, a sense of accomplishment after persevering through some truly gruelling physical challenges and having their eyes opened to what they are truly capable of.

The most rewarding moments in life are those that have come hard earned and our recruits definitely learned that over the weekend.

Now we look forward to our next camp from Friday 26th – Sunday 28th May and then onto our final one for the year, Friday 4th – Sunday 6th August.

A massive thank you again to Nite Watches for all the support in these camps!