Ouch, dem words hurt, Jim.
To the OP
Remember the culture shift from being a civvie to the first days at BMQ? It's kinda like that every step you go up BMQ > BMQ (L) > BIQ > Basic Para > Basic Recce > etc. One thing to look at is this: they want to look at how you may react when bullets fire but they can't shoot at you, so you will be stressed in other ways. Always remember to just play the game and don't ask why. If they want you to double-time to the range on foot, then you do. If you (something) is not clean enough even though you spent the whole previous night working on it, then clean it again. In the latter part of the course, you may be asked to do things for the morale of the platoon. I had to tie a towel around my neck like a cape and run around the platoon, at dinnertime (in the field), with my arms out and making airplane noises. Why? Not my place to ask and looking back on it today, it was fun.
At BMQ, you are introduced to being a soldier - PT, inspections, weapons, fieldcraft, etc. In BIQ, you will achieve a standard in it. Yes, and in further courses like Recce, you will master it. Keep you head up and yours ears open. There will be a lot to learn and the minute you stop listening and start grumbling with 'Why the f... does the MCpl harp on me for this? He is such a dick!'. It is then that you stop taking in new information and begin becoming jaded.
