After about a minute of waiting around, the very lively Colonel Dawes gathered the lads round and said 'alright lads, I would personally like to welcome you all to Newbury Army Officers Selection Board. Now, out of you standing in front of me, I can sense that there are some determined leaders among you. Now, on with the testing. First up is the written work and us getting to know you better, in modern terminology, that means an interview'. The Colonel chuckled, then led them off into a separate building, where we were all sat down in a room at individual desks, and the Colonel came round every one of us and placed a piece of paper upside down on the desk, along with a good 5 pieces of lined paper. Jim guessed it was the 'Current Affairs' essay, and he guessed right; the Colonel walked to the front of the room and said 'in this test, you will have to right an essay on the subject that is on the piece of paper that is faced flat on your desk.' On that note, the Colonel set them off, and Jim, eager to get on with it, flicked the piece of paper over and was plunged into a world of politics. It was an article on brexit, and the question asked for his view on the situation.
Jim didn't have a moment to lose, he stuck onto the subject like glue and wrote a good five page essay. He was quite possibly the only person in the room who had written so much. Even the Colonel gave him a look when he came to pickup his essay. He believed that Britain should've remained in the EU, but he respects the views that other people have on the subject.
By the time all the papers had been collected, it was dinner, which was a roast lamb. Jim enjoyed his meal very much, in fact, he took the time to congratulate the chef on his way out of the dining hall. Little did the chef know that Jim had stuffed a handful of flapjacks in his pocket!
Afterwards, it was their 'down time', so they could just hang around their room and chill. Jim took this time to look over the schedule for the next couple of days. Tomorrow, they had to undertake interviews and the day after that, they would undertake specific command tasks such as getting your team through a web of ropes. Unlike some of the other lads who were drowning themselves with fear, Jim was excited and couldn't wait for what was up next. He got an early nights sleep, with the thought of joining the British Army stuck in his mind.
