A film on Sheikh Mohammed's time at Mons Officers School, UK

Khaleej Times

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00:00As Sheikh Mohammed always had that essence, the essence you see today, the essence that

00:08made him the youngest Minister of Defence in the world, the essence that allowed him

00:11to go through months through that tough training, that essence was there.

00:17From the very start showed that he was slightly different from the rest.

00:22His upbringing in Dubai was very helpful.

00:26Was very character building, without a doubt.

00:29Are you born a leader or do you become a leader?

00:31In his case it's probably both.

00:33He was a tough young man, straightforward.

00:36And he's a man who doesn't give up.

00:37It's in his blood.

00:38That's all I would say.

00:39What he's done speaks for itself.

00:41He's spectacular.

00:42An exceptional young man.

01:00We're talking about 60 years ago, Officer Cadet Mohammed Rashid, we knew he was going

01:05to have a position of importance, but the whole point about Mons was that you trained

01:11everybody the same.

01:12It didn't matter whether they were a chap up there or a chap down there.

01:20The British political agent came with a warning for Sheikh Rashid.

01:24He said, going to Mons is like going to prison.

01:27It's that tough.

01:29And Sheikh Rashid turned to the British political resident and laughed.

01:33And his response was, don't worry, Mohammed will endure.

01:42It was a very physical six months.

01:46There were a lot of blisters.

01:48They were taught how to deal with them.

01:50And he did it with everybody else.

01:52They'd be dropped off, off a truck, until they found their way back to camp.

01:58We all went to bed and forgot about them.

02:00But it was highly illegal.

02:05I certainly went to bed.

02:09Well, history would tell you that it's not, because you are the son of whoever, does not

02:16mean by any stretch of the imagination that you're going to be a success.

02:20Sheikh Mohammed, coming from Dubai, he cannot have done what he's done without having some

02:26pretty strong leadership abilities.

02:28But he's obviously got it.

02:32It was like a crammer.

02:34It was push, push, push, push the whole time.

02:39And Sheikh Mohammed was obviously a remarkable young man, because he kept up, but he also

02:46shone in front of his sergeant and his captain, who were marking his team the whole time.

02:57Train hard, fight easy.

02:59You had to put them under pressure.

03:02The reason why he was created and given an appointment, because he had shown the capabilities

03:08of being a leader.

03:13400 cadets were dropped into the middle of the Brecon Beacons, and they were given one

03:18hour.

03:20After one hour, there was 100 so-called enemy that were sent into there and hunted these

03:25cadets down.

03:26Their job was to go and hunt them down, capture them.

03:32At the end of this exercise, there was two platoons, 16 men out of 400 who hadn't been

03:39caught, and he led one of those platoons.

03:43It became perfectly obvious that he was a little different from most of the others,

03:49because he had this attitude of being in charge.

03:55These sort of people have a sort of charisma which burns out, because you can feel power

04:06and you can feel radiance.

04:08It all helps to sort of build your team.

04:15Mohammed was made the leader for one particular phase of battle.

04:21A British cadet questioned something he did, and I remember distinctly, he went over to

04:27this chap, and he picked this chap up by his collar and said,

04:33You will do what I effing well tell you to do.

04:37And of course, we saw this, and it was rather amusing.

04:40He simply had to, because failure was not an option.

04:45And he certainly did well.

04:48Ship Mohammed said to Sergeant Major Benny, I can hit that from 800 metres.

04:53And Sergeant Major Benny, who told me this himself, said,

04:56Officer Cadet Rashid, that's absolute balderdash.

04:59Ship Mohammed picked up his rifle, boom, right in the middle.

05:05Had done one shot, zeroed his rifle and put the next five in the same hole, virtually.

05:12I said to him, Mohammed, tell me, where did you learn to shoot like that?

05:16And he said, oh, my father was very strict with us.

05:21And I find that these things, you don't forget about.

05:30They obviously saw talent in Ship Mohammed, which is either self-taught, or perhaps his family.

05:39Very soon showed his capabilities, and that's why he rose up in the system.

05:46I interviewed a cadet called Charlie Wiggin.

05:49And Wiggin told me about one of these marches that they were forced to do.

05:53Now, if you didn't return, you were out.

05:55Charlie Wiggin was done. He was collapsing on the floor.

05:58Ship Mohammed saw him, stopped, went back, picked Wiggin up over his shoulders,

06:03and dragged him back to camp, and passed out of Mons successfully.

06:07But he wouldn't have done if Ship Mohammed hadn't picked him up that night.

06:11And there's one report which still exists, that Ship Mohammed was the first back.

06:17When you have marchings of 10, 12 miles at night,

06:23and you're carrying your full pack, as they called it in those days,

06:28and you get to that exhaust thing, and then you'll get hypothermia, and you can die.

06:36You've got to have that backbone, but also the care and attention that goes with it,

06:41into how to bring people along with you.

06:44Towards the end, he was put in charge of the platoon.

06:49Mohammed was the best off-cadet.

06:53But an overseas cadet had never been an under-officer at Mons.

07:02And I had to take the decision that I was going to make the first overseas cadet an under-officer,

07:09a senior under-officer.

07:11But then, it was difficult.

07:14But I stood my ground, although I was the boss, so I had every right to stand.

07:18I stood my ground, and all the others said, but they were worried that this was not usual.

07:26Mohammed arrived in my office, saluted and did all the right stuff,

07:30stamped in front of my desk, and stood there.

07:33And I said, Mohammed, I'm making you senior under-officer.

07:41A big, broad smile spread across his face.

07:45It was an extraordinary achievement.

07:52I was amazed by what he had achieved.

07:54So well done him. These things have obviously stuck with him, you see.

07:59Sheikh Mohammed was standing out of sync with the rest of Kohima Company,

08:03of which he was the senior under-officer.

08:05And Benny goes out onto the parade.

08:07He shouts, Officer Cadet Rashid, take two steps right.

08:12So instead of him shuffling two steps right, he shouts, Kohima Company, two steps left.

08:19And the whole company moves towards Sheikh Mohammed, and then they were in sync.

08:23Benny remembered this story 20, 30 years later, because it never happened before, and it never happened after.

08:32I had horses in the stables at Mons that I could ride and practice.

08:37And on this particular day, a member of the guard from the guard room came running into my office,

08:43saying, the horses are loose, and the dog's pissed off.

08:50There was absolute chaos.

08:52The next thing I saw coming out of some trees, and it was Officer Cadet Mohammed.

08:59There he was, two horses, him in the middle, leading them very efficiently.

09:07Well, his success has been entirely to his own efforts.

09:11Nothing, well, training to be an officer does help a bit, but it's not the be-all and end-all.

09:19When these cadets came to Mons, they were the best of the best.

09:23They were the elite, they were going to be officers, but 30% failed.

09:28Yet here was this young man from Dubai who succeeded.

09:32He proved himself to be well worthy of getting the commission which he was going to get at the end.

09:38And the Commandant of Mons said to Sheikh Rashid,

09:42What next? Sheikh Rashid turned to him and said,

09:45Mohammed's coming for one. He's going to keep us safe.

09:49Sheikh Mohammed has proved that his father was a great man.

09:53But Sheikh Mohammed is a great, great man.

09:56You know, what he's done is a triumph.

09:58Sheikh Mohammed is not the same as everybody else. That's why he's Sheikh Mohammed.

10:12You

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