#I honestly was worried I was overdoing the whole social class thing but ohohoho I have underplayed it by a LARGE MARGIN apparently

[lisbetadair]

Sir.

So I thought I would do a little research this evening, to better prepare writing about how Sergeant Soap MacTavish became Captain MacTavish between Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2.

It turns out that there's a special Potential Officer Development Programme (PODP) course for this purpose, and potential officer candidates in the rank are encouraged to apply with support of their commanding officers. It lasts for 12 weeks and after this, a Board decides if they are suitable to progress to full officer training. So far, so good.

In 2007 (i.e. contemporaneous with the game timeline) a Freedom of Information request was made as to what the contents of the course was, and the result showed that it included expected material on Leadership, Strategy and Communications.

But then, it gets wild.

There's a whole section that I can only summarise as "How To Be Middle Class" with material on Art History, social etiquette and cheese and wine tasting.

I for one am sitting here, my paradigm shifted, experiencing cultural whiplash from the knowledge that they sent Soap MacTavish on a cheese tasting course.