Anywhere but Chatham…
Phase 1s,
Following up from Fran’s blog about Perth I thought it worth mentioning that there is a wealth of information in the blog archive about transitioning to phases 2 and 3. Looking back you will see that the blog has been a cathartic release for students past and present to whine about their experiences both overseas and when venturing out of the Army cocoon in the UK.
USACE:
https://htstrial.wordpress.com/2015/04/16/usace-not-a-place-in-china/
https://htstrial.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/progress/
Matt Fry had some difficult administrative times and is very articulate in presenting them!
BP:
https://htstrial.wordpress.com/2015/04/20/lang-time-nae-see-far-hiv-ye-been-min/
https://htstrial.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/getting-started-in-aberdeen/
For the design office to come:
https://htstrial.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/what-colour-is-my-parachute-or-do-i-have-add/
For anyone ending up in the US Brad and I have tried to ‘tag’ our posts so that they are a little more sortable. It may be something we could do in the future to separate the E&M blogs from the unending pictures of concrete too.
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
Henry, thanks for this, I had forgotten about Rich’s draft suicide note. It made me smile when I originally read it as I remembered similar situations during my own attachment in Oxford. The saving grace was the time that it gave me to do hooky research for my thesis and the F1 related projects that predominated that office gave me the excuse to go and visit really cool sites. The caricature of the typical designer is absolutely spot on though, however this also led me to my “the universe is only held in balance by the correct geek to leaders ratio” theory that I applied when vetting members for the works team when we formed 518 STRE. It has also held me in good stead as an engineering manager ever since.
Thanks for the comments
I’m actually quite enjoying the design office. In construction at USACE it can feel like you are always checking up on what someone else is doing whereas in the design branch it feels like there is a more tangible product; even if it is just a report or spreadsheet.