With women taking an increasingly high profile in the armed forces, the Essex Chronicle sent reporter Kate Eshmade for a day with the Territorial Army to see if she would cope
with military life…

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I had given all my uniform measurements and then run possible scenarios through my head a hundred times of being barked awake by an overbearing Sergeant Major, cross-country runs at 4am, cold showers and press-ups on demand.

To admit I was a little apprehensive would be the understatement of the year.

On my arrival at the Territorial Army training centre at Chilwell, Nottingham, I wasn’t disappointed, as it had security fences, beds that just about fit a single person, over-sized khakis and orders to dress smartly for dinner in the Officers’ Mess.

But then the enthusiasm of the offices and the community feel of Chilwell started to melt away my misconceptions and I had to admit it, but I was actually looking forward to the next day’s activities.

All the soldiers at the centre are members of the Territorial Army or Reserved Forces – people who have served in the army before.

They spend two weeks being training and prepared to join the regular army for service in the Balkans.

Unfortunately, or fortunately for me, we weren’t asked to do anything too physically draining, all down to Health and Safety regulations, but we were able to spy on others taking their fitness assessment.

No longer a test, soldiers are asked to do two minutes of press-ups, two minutes of sit-ups and a mile-and-a-half run, this can no longer be failed and is just a way of assessing fitness levels which can then be built upon.

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