Two Years for Queen and Country

Desolate, demoralised, trapped in a cold unfriendly hut with twenty other recruits: is this to be my life for the next two years? I cannot begin to describe how depressed I feel. Nothing has prepared me for this. I look around at the faces of my companions. Everyone appears shell shocked and dazed by what we are experiencing. There is no let-up, just a constant barrage of commands and abuse. I have now been in the army barely two hours but it seems like a lifetime. How can I survive another ten weeks of this so called basic training? Such are my feelings of desperation as I start my National Service.