A FORMER Tavistock College student has just been awarded the coveted Green Beret, after completing 30 weeks of the hardest initial training in the world.
Royal Marine Commando Alex Moles, aged 17, passed out of the Commando Training Centre at Lympstone on June 13 with 841 Troop.
The Green Beret is the distinctive hallmark of Commando troops, indicating that those who wear it have attended and passed a gruelling and physically demanding test of endurance, displaying the Commando qualities of unselfishness, cheerfulness under adversity, courage, determination and high professional standards.
Alex said: ?Commando training is well known for its intensity, but everything we do is progressive, which enables people with all standards of fitness to achieve the final goal ? to finish training and be awarded the coveted Green Beret.
?It?s been a fantastic experience for me and I?ve made some life-long friends among my fellow Royal Marines ? the sense of achievement felt by all of us is immense.?
Royal Marines training culminates in recruits having to pass the Commando tests, which are conducted carrying a full 32lbs of kit and equipment.
The tests include a one-and-a-half mile endurance course, five-and-a-half mile run and shooting test; a tarzan assault course, a nine-mile speed march completed in 90 minutes and a 30-mile yomp across Dartmoor carrying full fighting kit, completed within eight hours.