alacrity174
War Hero
I'll preface this by saying it's a loooon time snce I've done a BOST, COST or any other kind of workup.
It seems though that the worst thing that ever happened to FOST was leaving Portland. Only ht eflight were ever RA there so at least you had a full ships company together all week and apart from the marred lads at weekends too. There was many a debrief in the Breakwater as the mess cleared before the evening FOSTis evolution, firex, etc. where we "discussed" the days activities and how we could 1 up the seariders. It sems that back then, especially post '82 FOST was really trying to teach you how to fight the ship and survive, not acting like a look at me I know everything just ask me and I'll tell you bunch. Back then FOST was full of been there done that, learned this lesson blokes who had valuable things to say and on the whole we listened, they really were instructors not black cat merchants, the teams all had experience on the type of ship they were seariders on, so a T42 guy never messed about on a T21. Don't get me wrong Staff Sea Check (SSC), was always a btch and we could never secure for sea to their satisfaction, but when a ship left Portland after 6 weeks of BOST we knew our stuff, had a great team spirit and looked forward to our deployment as a ay to blow off steam and try some of the stuff we had just practiced.
Still the best part about any Portland work-up was Summer time in Weymouth, fantastic memories.
It seems though that the worst thing that ever happened to FOST was leaving Portland. Only ht eflight were ever RA there so at least you had a full ships company together all week and apart from the marred lads at weekends too. There was many a debrief in the Breakwater as the mess cleared before the evening FOSTis evolution, firex, etc. where we "discussed" the days activities and how we could 1 up the seariders. It sems that back then, especially post '82 FOST was really trying to teach you how to fight the ship and survive, not acting like a look at me I know everything just ask me and I'll tell you bunch. Back then FOST was full of been there done that, learned this lesson blokes who had valuable things to say and on the whole we listened, they really were instructors not black cat merchants, the teams all had experience on the type of ship they were seariders on, so a T42 guy never messed about on a T21. Don't get me wrong Staff Sea Check (SSC), was always a btch and we could never secure for sea to their satisfaction, but when a ship left Portland after 6 weeks of BOST we knew our stuff, had a great team spirit and looked forward to our deployment as a ay to blow off steam and try some of the stuff we had just practiced.
Still the best part about any Portland work-up was Summer time in Weymouth, fantastic memories.