Ask US anything about life in the Forces

[millidonk]

What is DV?

Stands for Developed Vetting which is the clearance you require to access Top Secret material.

one thing I always thought was cool, I used to work on something that was so secret that even the name of it's classification level was a secret. (if that makes sense)

My dad was in the army (still is) so I also know what it's like growing up In the military should anyone have any questions.

[millidonk]

lol @ revising. navy fish.

[Marky147]

Morse code was fun, plenty of broken stuff in the classrooms during that part of the course

I was pretty golden and got up to 20 words a minute lively, but a few of the guys got stuck early doors and got pretty bent out of shape with it all. I think I hit a wall for a week or so around 20 and then cruised up to 30 without too many more problems.

Then there was Mavis Beacon to get your typing up to scratch, I think it was 40wpm minute was the minimum required during the foundation part of the course.

All seems pretty dull in comparison to jjandellis, Geo and Lee who were obv putting in proper graft...

[leethefish]

Only one guy in our battalion was allowed to grow a beard ....the mascot

2nd battalion the royal Anglian regiment..... nick named the "poachers".  The guy used to dress up like a poacher for functions shotgun over his shoulder!

For the rest of us clean shaven everyday .....or extras (extra duties)


No rules on tattoos apart from if it prevented you doing your job .....self inflicted injury.

[Marky147]

Only one guy in our battalion was allowed to grow a beard ....the mascot

2nd battalion the royal Anglian regiment..... nick named the "poachers".  The guy used to dress up like a poacher for functions shotgun over his shoulder!

For the rest of us clean shaven everyday .....or extras (extra duties)


No rules on tattoos apart from if it prevented you doing your job .....self inflicted injury.

Yeah, think we were the same with tats actually, and I had a huge palaver with my Divisional PO in basic training about shaving!

I am really hairy generally(apart from my nut now obv), so would shave in the morning and by lunchtime would have a shadow. My instructor rips into me about not shaving in the morning, and how that is my first warning etc.

I wait until he has finished, inform him that I had shaved and throw in that I'm shaving at 4am so it's effectively evening at lunchtime... Went down well [  ]

Anyway, next day I have to shave in front of him and he says he will inspect me again at lunchtime. Gets to lunchtime, shadow is on the way and he realises he made a mistake. No sorry, just a 'You hairy f***ing monkey Herron!' and away we go

[Marky147]

Comedy!

[pokerfan]

The spitting image Frank sketch was a classic.

[marcro]

Great thread!

Did you feel as though you were adequately kitted out when sent out on missions?  From what I heard the kit we give our troops are behind the times when compared to how the Yanks equip their soldiers?

[leethefish]

Great thread!

Did you feel as though you were adequately kitted out when sent out on missions?  From what I heard the kit we give our troops are behind the times when compared to how the Yanks equip their soldiers?

As little as 8 years ago that was definitely the case. 15 years ago we were the real poor men.  We used to swap our sqn or tour t-shirts with the Yanks, who would give us Leathermens, gucci camp cots etc in exchange.  They absolutely loved our t-shirts and we made them pay top dollar for them lol

But now the boot is pretty much on the other foot. They have had cutbacks; alot of their kit is not quite as good as ours.

Now when we go on tour we literally have kit thrown at us!  Cannot complain about the kit at all now, its impressive.

i was in Celle Germany when they introduced combat 95 gear ...my company was chosen to trial it at the time the kit was the bees knees in comparison to the rest of the battalion!

[leethefish]

Great thread!

Did you feel as though you were adequately kitted out when sent out on missions?  From what I heard the kit we give our troops are behind the times when compared to how the Yanks equip their soldiers?

As little as 8 years ago that was definitely the case. 15 years ago we were the real poor men.  We used to swap our sqn or tour t-shirts with the Yanks, who would give us Leathermens, gucci camp cots etc in exchange.  They absolutely loved our t-shirts and we made them pay top dollar for them lol

But now the boot is pretty much on the other foot. They have had cutbacks; alot of their kit is not quite as good as ours.

Now when we go on tour we literally have kit thrown at us!  Cannot complain about the kit at all now, its impressive.

i wan in Celle Germany when they introduced combat 95 gear ...my company was chosen to trial it at the time the kit was the bees knees in comparison to the rest of the battalion!

lee ......if there is any buckshee kit going can you get my lad any ....
webbing or a smock he loves it !!
size small
cheers dude!

[marcro]

Great thread!

Did you feel as though you were adequately kitted out when sent out on missions?  From what I heard the kit we give our troops are behind the times when compared to how the Yanks equip their soldiers?

As little as 8 years ago that was definitely the case. 15 years ago we were the real poor men.  We used to swap our sqn or tour t-shirts with the Yanks, who would give us Leathermens, gucci camp cots etc in exchange.  They absolutely loved our t-shirts and we made them pay top dollar for them lol

But now the boot is pretty much on the other foot. They have had cutbacks; alot of their kit is not quite as good as ours.

Now when we go on tour we literally have kit thrown at us!  Cannot complain about the kit at all now, its impressive.

Glad to hear this.

[Geo the Sarge]

Great thread!

Did you feel as though you were adequately kitted out when sent out on missions?  From what I heard the kit we give our troops are behind the times when compared to how the Yanks equip their soldiers?

As little as 8 years ago that was definitely the case. 15 years ago we were the real poor men.  We used to swap our sqn or tour t-shirts with the Yanks, who would give us Leathermens, gucci camp cots etc in exchange.  They absolutely loved our t-shirts and we made them pay top dollar for them lol

But now the boot is pretty much on the other foot. They have had cutbacks; alot of their kit is not quite as good as ours.

Now when we go on tour we literally have kit thrown at us!  Cannot complain about the kit at all now, its impressive.

Spot the difference:

Geos head protection and body armour 1979

Click to see full-size image.

Lees 2012/13

Click to see full-size image.

Geo

[Geo the Sarge]

Does it sometimes feel like this sort of life puts constraints on your freedom? Most people can do what they want in their free time, like jet away to Spain for the weekend on a whim. Seems like prison in regard to lack of liberty. Then again suppose oil-rig worker and lighthouse keeper are just as fcked.

Fair points, however no idea why you always seem to put things forward aggressively.

Absolutely the restrictions are many and very annoying. Had many leaves cancelled due to being called back for other things, to cover firemen and binmen strikes for example. Quite recently a number of friends, recently returned from ops had leave shortened to assist at the Olympics after the G4S debaucle (incidentally their accomodation was camp beds in a multi storey car park). As an Infantryman, our annual leaves were usually dictated to you around ops and training etc so rarely did they tie in with school holidays to be enjoyed with the kids etc.

Like to put things straight on the gambling side of things, what was prohibited was things like private card schools. Reasons for this was the potential trouble that could be caused, i:e soldiers owing large debts to each other, not paying up and the potential retribution this may lead to.

In our NAAFIs/messes there would be fruit machines. On ops we would run sweepstakes/radio bingo etc. All controlled usually by a Senior NCO. It's not like we couldn't go to casinos and play poker/roulette etc or take a trip to the bookies. Horse betting is quite a big pastime for many service personnel.

Tattoos were fine as long as not offensive or in ridiculous places like the face. However if it went wrong and required medical treatment and taken off duty due to this then you could be charged with missing duty due to self inflicted wound.

Beards were generally not allowed, believe it or not mostly due to hygiene reasons, hair attracts lice and the like when in dirty conditions potential to cause disease.

Another reason is the wearing of gas masks, nowadays they are rubber and create a vacuum when placed on the face, a beard was found to break this vacuum and therefore be liable to gas leaking in.

For a lot of Regiments, mine included, we had a tradition where only the Pioneer Sergeant could grow a beard.

Geo

[Geo the Sarge]

What are your opinions on allowing women in frontline combat ?

In your experiences what, if any, roles do you think are suitable for women in the military ? (Keep it clean boys!)

Please don't be all P.C. about this, anyone who is putting their life on the line has a valid opinion about who there working / fighting alongside.


Finally, would you recommend a military career to your daughter / sister / granddaughter?

P.S. Just to clarify I'm not trying to provoke a feminist debate here, I just genuinely interested in what you guys think.

Great questions lady.

I'll try to answer  being as un-pc as possible.

Women do now serve in the front line, however it is avoided if possible, purely for morale reasons. From an Infantry point of view, we had many females attached to us, mostly in admin jobs. The soldiers tended to be very protective of their female colleagues. We had many females attached to us that were as fit and strong as a lot of their male counterparts. The devastation of losing a close male colleague would be nowhere near the death of a female under your protection, much the same as whilst we hear of so many deaths of men due to war/terrorist attacks etc, when women or children are killed it causes outrage and quite rightly so.

There is of course the danger that in a long period on ops in close confines that females may be put at risk of sexual assault. It will take a very long time for front line soldiers to accept that is fine to have women in the front line and it's not because they aren't capable, in a lot of cases they truly are.

Until we stop getting involved in operations that are unwarranted and things settle down to be predominantly home defence I wouldn't recommend the Army to anyone.

Geo

[MintTrav]

to cover firemen and binmen strikes

I have often wondered how soldiers feel about doing that kind of work. I can think of lots of possible attitudes to it:

- pleased to be helping the general public out of a fix
- unhappy to be undermining a strike
- pleased to be undermining a strike
- a nice change from the usual stuff
- it's good to be doing something useful instead of training
- it's a waste of the investment in my training
- indifferent - it's just another part of the job

No doubt there's a bit of all of those and others, but what is the predominant view among the soldiers who have to do it?