That evening, the lads had a delicious hog roast served with milky mashed potato and hundreds of identical peas. They all enjoyed their dinner, for it was to be their last at the AOSB. Jim and Anthony sat opposite each other, Jim continuously bringing up the move Anthony pulled earlier that day on the ropes, and expressing how well he did. All of a sudden, Jim and Anthony looked at each other, then looked around at each and every single person in the room; they didn't see them for the ordinary people they were, they saw them as brothers, all with the same dream.
All of a sudden, Colonel Dawes stormed into the room, followed by two young officers. 'I would like to thank each and every one of you lads for attending the Army Officer's Selection Board, every one of my fellow colleagues has expressed how much fun they had talking and finding new things about you.' He said, with his very loud and projected, but friendly voice. 'We hope you enjoy your last night in Newbury, and hope to see you at Sandhurst!' He stated, then walked out of the room, with the two officers following close behind him.
That evening, Jim and Anthony exchanged phone numbers, and promised each other that they will meet up sometime soon. All night, they went on about what careers they would take up in the army; Anthony took a rather large interest in the Kings Royal Hussars, due to the fact that they drive around sixty ton Challenger twos around all day! Some of the other lads expressed how they wanted to be either infantry or parachute regiment, but Jim wasn't too sure .on what he wanted to do; he had quite an eye for taking up a role in infantry, but he wanted to assess all his options first. He had always wanted to be infantry, but now he had heard the lads talking about what they wanted to do, he made it his quest to research more on army jobs that weren't specifically infantry based.
The next day, Mark had come to pick Jim up from the main hall. As usual, Jim was ready to go with all his bags packed, and he gave his father a debrief on what had occurred during the last few days, not missing out any details. That evening, Jim was in an adventurous mood, so he sat down at his desk, opened his laptop and browsed the British Army website. He observed a large number of roles, such as a cavalry officer, logistics, artillery, armoured infantry and so on. He was drawn in by the thought of them, but the one that really stood out to him the most was the 'Apache Attack Helicopter Pilot' of the Army Air Corps. Jim had always had an interest in aviation, but nothing from his previous years could match the urge he felt to join the Army Air Corps and train to fly the 'AH-1 Apache'. He immediately called Anthony and told him of his findings. Anthony confided in him that he too had an interest in the Army Air Corps, and they both chatted very casually about the subject until Jim was called down to have dinner with the family.
'So, how did the Selection go then sweetie?' asked Karen, in a very sweet and friendly tone. 'Oh it went very well, mum, met some very nice people, one of them is called Anthony. We got along very well with each other; we helped each other out of a couple of sticky situations.' Jim replied with a smile. The family continued to ask Jim questions on how it went and what challenges he was faced with. After dinner, he adjourned back to his bedroom, where he spent the rest of the night surfing the British Army's website.
