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By John Keast - Discipline. Comradeship, Training. Gerry Hurst-Evangelista likes it all. By day, Gerry operates heavy machinery. At weekends, he becomes Master Gunnery Sergeant Hurst-Evangelista. And his type of training and discipline may be coming to a town near you. Gerry is a key player in the Marine Combat Support League, and training HQ is a plantation behind the Rakaia Scout den. His plan, and that of the combat support league, is to keep young men on the straight and narrow. And being patriotic doesn’t hurt, either. The self-funding combat support league has operated for two years at Rakaia, and now has a core of 10 to 18 supporters. They range in age from 13 to 51. Most are young. The league runs a three-tier operation: Commserve, where community participation is pushed (50 hours a year), Corps-serve, where service to the organisation is encouraged, and Combat, where survival and outdoors skills and the use of soft-air guns is taught. Gerry believes his is a winning formula. “It’s fun and adventure, and learning something along the way.” Gerry served in the New Zealand army for nearly three years, and has a life-long interest in matters military. Though the league has its share of critics, Gerry there is also support. “We find the older portion of the community have the best acceptance of us,” he says. And, he says, though they train hard, support patriotism and embrace discipline, there is nothing secretive about the group. Exercises are publicised, and anyone can watch. Gerry says he has members from Christchurch, Tai Tapu, Ashburton and Rakaia, and hopes one day to set up other branches of the league. The league trains half a day every fortnight and sometimes holds 24 and 48-hour events. He says his motivation was seeing young people in Rakaia with nothing to do. To date, just one person has been asked to leave for reasons of discipline, and no one is allowed to do anything to bring discredit on the group. This Anzac Day, the league hopes to raise flags at the war memorial at Chertsey. Details at www.mcsl/.spruz.com. 
Corps members help Mayfield and Rakaia Cubs at Rakakia
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