No food was provided to fatigued recruits, who had by that time consumed their rations. Immediately upon arrival, they were subjected to a session of intense physical training. Instructors deliberately found faults in their performance to punish them with more exercise, waiting for the hungry, angry and confused soldiers to lash out or collapse.
For the next five days, the future Selous Scouts would be awakened before dawn and forced to exercise till 7 in the morning; this was followed by shooting practice in the bush. Recruits were taught to pay attention to objects in their firing zones – boulders, large roots, thick vegetation – and quickly fire short bursts at them to hit potential enemy hiding spots. This seemingly chaotic and wasteful fire was actually extremely effective in combat, and Scouts quickly reached sufficient automatism to strike several probable targets in quick succession without even looking at them.
The day was topped off by obstacle courses no sane man would even think of running. At night, the recruits were trained in navigation in utter darkness, silent movement and laying ambushes. In what little free time they had, they were expected to venture outside the camp and forage, as no food was provided still.
On the sixth day, the recruits were treated to a meal of boiled baboon in early stages of decomposition. The soldiers devoured it without hesitation. While semi-rotten meat retains nutrients and is safe to consume if boiled properly, instructors knew that in the field, thr recruits might face a choice between eating carrion or starving to death, so “if they know it’s edible only in theory, they will never eat it”. The first stage of training was thus passed, weeding out the weakest. #stayzero #manshit #zerofoxtrot #realbootcampstories