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Muddy task for Royal Marines trainee musicians

11 October 2019
I’m a Royal Marines Musician, get me out of here…

The latest batch of trainee musicians from the Royal Marines School of Music were taken out of their comfy surroundings (en suite individual cabins, classrooms, halls and practice rooms) in Portsmouth…

…and endured a week in the wild down at the Commando Training Centre in Lympstone, near Exeter, where the Navy’s elite seaborne infantry earn their coveted green berets.

The musicians act as stretcher bearers and assist medical teams both on warships and the casualty treatment ship RFA Argus, as well as in the field.

As well as performing at public events up and down the land such as the Mountbatten Festival of Music in the Albert Hall, homecomings, (de)commissioning ceremonies, in time of war, the RM Band Service has a key role to perform.

Its men and women act as stretcher bearers and assist medical teams both on warships and the casualty treatment ship RFA Argus, as well as in the field.

That means they must be expected to endure the hardships their commando brethren are used to, hence the ‘survival week’ at Lympstone.

The only ‘casualty’ from the infamous mud run was one lost combat boot.

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