Ask US anything about life in the Forces

[Woodsey]

Should the army training include - say between tours - academic qualifications to prepare for life on the outside?

When are they supposed to get drunk?  

[Tal]

Should the army training include - say between tours - academic qualifications to prepare for life on the outside?

When are they supposed to get drunk?  

I'm not sure Her Majesty's finest are supposed to get drunk

[Marky147]

Should the army training include - say between tours - academic qualifications to prepare for life on the outside?

When are they supposed to get drunk?  

That's what landbased postings are for

[kinboshi]

Have you ever gone into a fast-food restaurant in Dublin and pretended to be Dutch whilst trying to buy some sauce for about 50c?

(that one's for jjandellis)

[kinboshi]

Have you ever gone into a fast-food restaurant in Dublin and pretended to be Dutch whilst trying to buy some sauce for about 50c?

(that one's for jjandellis)

No not at all, but I have tried to buy a slice of cheese from one. 

Was it cheese?!  Of course!  New it was an extra for a burger, but couldn't remember what it was

Do you still shout out in your sleep?

[Geo the Sarge]

Oh dear, methinks I’ll be spending a bit of time on here. Lee has made a great start with replies, mine will differ at times, purely because we have served in different eras. I consider myself initially in the “old school” bracket. I joined in 1978 well before the PC brigade and H&S sank its teeth into the forces.

Not necessarily a bad thing, however I believe that anyone who really understands the forces way of life will realise that some leeway should be given.

I am fanatically proud of my 23 years of service, good and bad and obviously a huge supporter of our Forces (not of those who lead them.)
I’ll try to cover an answer for all questions.

Is it easy to pull birds in uniform?  

As Lee said previously, wearing uniform in public except for special occasions is usually frowned upon, drinking in uniform in a public place I believe is still technically an offence. What most attracted “the burds” was the fact that the soldier more often than not had money to spend on them, was clean and fit. In most cases there was the element of “no strings attached/no ties”
The above was the cause of most trouble with the local lads in my experience, quite often the locals taking offence to the soldiers pulling the lassies and them kicking off and as was the norm, the soldiers more often than not would come out top, however it was always “they damn squaddies” that were to blame and there would be blanket bans on entering the main drinking places where the women could be found.

Geo

[Geo the Sarge]

How long did you sign up for?  How long left/plans to stay in after? (do you still sign up for a certain amount of time?) Did you regret signing at any point?  Best place you've been posted?

When I joined you chose a 3/6 or 9 year initial signing on term. The longer you signed up for the higher your starting rate of pay. Being a Scot, I signed on for 9 at the higher rate of pay. You had to complete 3 years and then if you had signed on for 6 or 9 you could apply for PVR - Paid Voluntary Release. 12 months notice and you then paid back the difference in rate of pay gained.

Now it's an open engagement with a minimum 4 year term, however some corps - Royal Signals for example have a minimum of I believe, 6 years. This is due to the extensive expense in training these guys. When the internet/broadband/cable era hit the Signals lost so many men due to the huge salaries being offered by the big companies for doing something they had been doing, with less pressure and obviously the savings in training them for these companies was huge.

Geo

[Graham C]

What's the best/most rewarding single thing you've done in your careers?

[Geo the Sarge]

How long does it take to break in new boots?

It's actually a great question Mr T.

There are so many myths, some already mentioned, soaking them in piss, standing for hours in a bath etc.

Through the years Army issue boots were a disgrace and too often we would buy our own. Lee the Fish was spot on, first pair I bought for myself were hi tech Magnums and as he said, wear them till they fall off you.

There is absolutely no substitute for a correct fitting pair which you break in by using and keeping them waterproofed - dubbin was the absolute nuts back in the day. Modern materials have seen huge improvements.

Probably the best boot produced for the Army was the Northern Ireland patrol boot. Calf length and a lot lighter than normal, however treated well they were terrific.

I first started with boots DMS and puttees - that will give the young ones a chuckle

[Geo the Sarge]

What's the best/most rewarding single thing you've done in your careers?

Wow Silo,

Honestly, so many things I'll have to take time on that.

Regards your other Q's:

Ended up not regretting signing up - there were many moments where I had the "what the f**k am I putting myself through this for" feeling

Ballykinler in Northern Ireland was my favourite posting, spent 2 years there. I loved NI and spent a large part of my time there, a lot of it voluntary tours.

Geo

[Geo the Sarge]

Any of you ever been in a fist fight for your life? What happened?

Not sure about for my life, however I've enjoyed a few great scraps over the years, although you wouldn't think it if you saw me - lol

Things were different in my time, you got in a fight, if you were grounded there wasn't the kick him when he's down mentality we too readily see nowadays and of course rarely were knives used then either.

Being the stubborn twat I was then (some would say still am,) I probably took a couple of bigger beatings than I should have for refusing to stay down.

Most great battles were against other units when based together or on some sort of exercise. Ironically whilst there are many stories of the Jocks and English Regiments battling each other, Jock on Jock Battalions were some of the fiercest I witnessed.

Geo

[Geo the Sarge]

First 'proper' week experience?

Is there any bullying?

I was very fortunate Pads. My home life was such that I was already fending for myself, living off the land sort of thing as a constant runaway.

I settled into training fairly easily. In the first week we had our first Basic Fitness Test (BFT) 1 and 1/2 miles squadded run out then an individual best effort the 1 and 1/2 miles back in. I tore it up and finished a good minute and a half ahead of everyone else in a time rarely seen done by a new recruit, I was very fit and excelled at most sports, it made me for most of my Army career.

Geo

[pokerfan]

What made y'all sign up ?

[Geo the Sarge]

Bullying, to be honest it pisses me off that almost everyone I have spoken to about Army life, it's one of the first questions asked.

Absolutely there was/is bullying, I wrote a piece quite a while back:

Is there bullying in the Army? Yes, definitely, it has always been there. I believe there are different  types of bullying, not levels, as I said before bullying is bullying. The most common is from your peers. It’s the ganging up on the weaker individual, the guy who can’t run as fast as the rest of the squad. It’s the guy who can’t take in the lessons being taught as quickly as others. It’s the guy who’s hygiene and tidiness is not as sharp as the rest. The guy that is holding the rest up. This is most common during training. An example:

Jonny has passed his tests and has been accepted into a training regiment. Jonny is a clever lad and passed all the tests easily. Jonny interviewed well and passed all other criteria regards health, crime etc. Jonny only just passed the fitness test during recruit selection. The Army careers officer takes all this into consideration before deciding whether Jonny can be selected to join the Army. Jonnys only weakness is his fitness, however taking all into account and the fact that Jonny will receive sufficient fitness training during his recruit stages he allows him to take his place at a training depot.

Jonny begins the training and at first copes well with the lower level fitness at the beginning of his training. Jonny excels in the weapon lesson, the map reading, the first aid etc. Jonny begins to struggle with the fitness, we are now 6 or 7 weeks into training and we are running as squads, the squad needs to travel 8 miles within a certain time and Jonny is holding them up. Jonny’s section are in competition with the other sections of his training platoon for the best section prize, Jonny is preventing them reaching there goal………………….get the picture.

It’s the last task in the competition and it’s all to play for. Jonny’s section currently lead the competition but there’s only a couple of points between them and 2 section. 2 section don’t have a Jonny. In this scenario I have seen two things happen. Jonny picks up a mysterious injury the night before and can’t compete………….no he doesn’t, his section give him a beating and ensures he cannot take part next day. The other scenario is that Jonny does compete, tries his heart out but unfortunately lags behind. 2 section win by a few seconds and take the title, Jonny takes a beating, it’s his fault, if he had kept up we would have won it. If Jonny had kept up with the pace however and they still lost Jonny doesn’t get beaten, they are all responsible, they aint gonna beat themselves. It happens. However consider this……….


Jonny has got through all that and Jonny is now with his Regiment. He excelled in the first aid classes and continued these once joining his unit. Jonny is now the team medic.

They are on operations and they have an eight mile tab to their objective. Jonny is not as fast as the rest of the guys, the guys go at his pace, they are a unit, every man has a specialist task, the machine gunner, the sniper, the radio op, the mortar man. Every one of them is an infantry soldier however they all bring an added dimension to the team. For a successful operation they all need to get there together. It’s an ambush!!, they fight their way through it and chase off or kill the enemy. There’s a casualty, one of the guys has taken a bullet in the leg. Jonny is the medic, Jonny tends to his wounds and administers morphine, Jonny arranges the medivac. Jonny saves his life, this guy who a year earlier gave Jonny a beating because they lost a race in training. Sometimes competition can be a bad thing. And by the way, Jonny is a British soldier so he continues on and treats the enemy casualties as well.


The second type is the power crazy guy, not necessarily a tough guy but he holds the rank. Give me any bother and you’re in trouble. I abuse my power, I’m a Corporal or a Sergeant and because of this you’ll do what I tell you. It starts off with simple stuff, making you do press ups in the middle of a puddle when there is plenty of dry ground around, making you run with the rifle above your head, no reason for it you haven’t done anything wrong, it’s just harder that way, that’s all. You aint gonna go running into battle with your rifle above your head I can assure you so why make you do it? These are the guys who if you correct their mistakes or go one better than them they don’t like it. Your of lower rank, you shouldn’t beat me, I’m going to punish you. In all honestly this is frowned upon in the Army and if reported these guys are dealt with. But that’s the problem, the soldier fears grassing him up for fear of further consequences, if not by the NCO but from his mates. The guy responsible for the bullying of the brother of the forum member I believe was one of this type.

The 3rd type is what we’ve just seen recently, soldiers in particular jobs who are basically given license to bully. Usually it’s the Physical Training Instructor or a member of the Regimental Police. The Gavin Williams case has just finished and the accused have been found not guilty. They killed the lad, they are responsible for his death. Why did they escape punishment? because they were following orders? What a load of bollox. The Adjutant who ordered them to carry out the beasting should have been in the dock with them and they all should have been punished. I accept they did not mean to kill the lad, however they are responsible. No different than if I was driving my car and reached down to change a CD, not concentrating on the road and a child steps out and I hit and kill them, I’m guilty. I should and would be punished.

Beasting has been a part of Army life probably from inception. It’s not nice, most soldiers have suffered some sort of beasting at one time or another, it does not make it right. I was offered the post of Provost Sergeant in my regiment at one time, I turned it down. I didn’t want to have to change the way I was expected to treat soldiers who had stepped out of line. The thing I don’t get also is that during their careers they all most probably suffered some type of punishment drill. I bet they cursed the sod that was doing it then so why go on and do it yourself.


Then you have the out and out thug. This is the guy who, whatever he done in life would be picking on people, usually the big guy that has other limitations and thinks he can make up for it by bullying others. The guy who can’t be bothered to get off his arse to go to the Naffi for his fags so gets the weaker guy to go for him, he won’t refuse, he’s afraid he’ll get a kicking. The guy who is with his mates in the pub, whilst they are chatting up the girls he’s picking fights, he’s not a nice guy, no point trying to chat up the girls he hasn’t a chance. It’s his deficiencies, he’s usually ugly, he’s obnoxious, he’s got nothing going for him but he’s big. So he punches people and he feels superior. He’s a wanker.

Geo

[Geo the Sarge]

Are initiations standard in the army?

Rarely seen or heard of initiations tbh. I think what you may be reffering to is things like the old "Regimental Bath"

Basically you have a soldier who is deemed to be unclean, doesn't keep himself or his kit clean, he becomes a liability. Red Dog can explain better than I ever could the importance of cleanliness when living in close knit groups.

A Regimental Bath was where said individual would be dragged to the bath/shower and scrubbed using any cleaning substance or tool available. Vim/bleach/shampoo/ scrubbing brushes/bass brooms

There are stories of bass broom handles ending up in rectal areas.

Geo