Anglesea recruit earns place in infantry

ANGLESEA’S Private Ryan Doyle has earned his Skippy Badge after completing the demanding Royal Australian Regiment (RAR) infantry training program.

The badge, awarded to RAR soldiers on graduation, was presented last month after the latest cohort completed Exercise HardCorps – the final and most demanding test of their 17 weeks of training at the School of Infantry.

The overnight exercise begins at midnight and tests recruits’ physical and mental readiness for service as infantry soldiers through a series of combat scenarios and endurance challenges.

Doyle said he was drawn to the RAR by the opportunity to push himself.

“I wanted a challenge and to do things that you don’t get to do as an ordinary person,” he said.

 

“The equipment you use, the lifestyle, it stood out to me.”

Despite not knowing what to expect, he said he was eager to enter the final stage of his training.

“I was more excited than anything, to be honest. We didn’t quite know what was in store, they didn’t really give us a brief, so I was in anticipation of what was coming,” Doyle said.

The exercise included carrying a wounded soldier on a stretcher under simulated fire, clearing an urban facility and completing a 25m live-fire shoot before sunrise.

Doyle said the stretcher carry proved the toughest challenge.

“We had just come off 10 days of digging defensive positions, so my grip was quite gone. I wasn’t expecting that,” he said.

 

After completing the exercise, the recruits were presented with their Skippy Badges, qualifying them to join the Infantry Corps.

“I’m looking forward to learning what it’s like to be a soldier,” Doyle said.

“We’ve completed this training and now we move on to learn and develop more. That will be really interesting.”