Gentle advice for recruits.

[Mr_Kiwi]

Sloppy seconds? I'll pass thanks, I find just sitting back and listening does me fine haha

[Chas]

No 'Brown Nose' pong that I notice Gents

Seriously and this is really important when
you join you must get your personal admin
squared away. This is what differentiates RM
from Perce. Everything from kit to personal
hygiene. It can't be emphasised too much
and passing through CTCRM depends on it.

Chas.

[Sully]

True enough Chas and that's recognised by the fact that 'crabby recruit' routine is probably the worst individual punishment you can have at CTC - I'd rather be flogged senseless with a knotted rope than do that.

I was never on that one so I can't remember too much about what it entailed but it was muchos cleaning and extra parades.

Down a bit from that was 'kitbag' routine if you do something daft like leave a locker unsecured. I did and what with that, not hoiking my kitbag around when I met my mum on parents day (two extra weeks) and group or vicarious punishments as room i/c and section commander, I did about 8 weeks on kitbag routine - not fun but it improved my 'yompability' no end

Chas - dotage my arse

[GreenFlag]

Sully or Chas - What does the 'crabby recruit' routine involve ???

[fodd]

Crabby recruit when I was a nod was a punishment for poor admin and hygine and involved reporting to the duty Cpl in various different rigs from drill rig, fighting order, marching order normal cs95 rig etc and you had to report every 3 hours for as long as you were on crabby recruit.

[GreenFlag]

Crabby recruit when i was a nod was a punishment for poor admin and hygine and involved reporting to the duty cpl in various different rigs from drill rig,fighting order, marching order normal cs95 rig etc and you had to report every 3 hours for aslong as you were on crabby recruit.

Cheers Fodd!

[Starwon]

and you had to report every 3 hours for aslong as you were on crabby recruit.

Every 3 hours

[Chas]

Parades similar to my day reporting in different rig
ad infinitum.

If personal hygiene was involved the offender was
instructed by the Squad/Trp. Sgt. to go to the water
tank where his Squad/Trp. was duly assembled.

Order 'strip off- jump in with carbolic soap in hand.'
Section by section then,once he was well soaped up
scrubbed him with the long handled bristle brooms
issued for hut cleaning.

This happened in my recruit squad in a fair and watchful
manner under the senior NCO. No bullying was involved
and once an offender had been scrubbed by 30 of his
peers, it was a lesson he never forgot. Neither I hasten
to add did we the scared NOD participants in this ritual.

Chas.

[GreenFlag]

Well after that i dont think anyone would forget to get their personal admin sorted Definately one way to learn to get yourself sorted but to be avoided if possible !

[Sully]

Every 3 hours

Aye...as in every - day and night

It wasn't that common so I wouldn't worry about it too much. Lads being idle or trying to cut corners seemed to be the ones to pick up crabby recruit. Listen to the DS (training team) - their way is by far the easy way (however it may seem at the time) and remember..........they have the all seeing eye

Good idea starwon getting used to ironing and polishing. "Hope for the best - plan for the worst" is what I say these days but then there were no forums and I had no previous contact with the military so it was all a bit of a shock to the system. I didn't have a scooby about ironing when I joined up....and ended up getting very little sleep.

[Chas]

Green Flag,

The discipline is nothing like as severe as in
my day. Modern youth would never accept
what we put up with. Members of Parliament
postbags would be full with complaints from
mum on behalf of her 'Little Johnny.'

Lympstone was a hutted camp. 24 men per
hut bunked in double tiers. Individual lockers,
lino floor, pot bellied stove in centre of the hut.
Always burnished as were coal buckets. Never
used even in winter. Section Cpl. had a small
area blocked off from us Nods near the heads.
Lino was cleaned with mansion polish and a
bumper. Bristle brooms were used to clean the
walkway to the ablution unit. The heads were
immaculate as I know since I had to clean them
with a toothbrush for a minor infringement .

You matured very quickly and also there was a
crime called 'Dumb Insolence' whereby if an NCO
thought you had eyeballed him you could be then
marched off parade/whatever and placed in cells to
be subsequently charged with Dumb Insolence.

We never suffered or endured bullying. Some 98%
originals passed their CCse without undue problems.
We had no pain killers and just hacked it.

CTC is probably the finest training camp of all the NATO
forces in Europe. The facilities are second to none.

Autres temps autres moeurs.

Chas.

[Sully]

We never suffered or endured bullying. Some 98%
originals passed their CCse without undue problems.
We had no pain killers and just hacked it.

We did (although I'd rather call it character-building - if you can't put up with a bit of hassle then you shouldn't be wearing a green lid); our figures were less than a third (11 out of 38 ); but we did have painkillers It was still worth it though

[Ty]

Makes total sense. I think as a society we are getting weaker every year. Sheltering the sick and the weak defeats the purpose of survival of the fittest, which is what nature intended. Technology can try to account for so much, but in the Marines, it's about experience, and physical toughness. Reminds me of that movie Soldier, with Kurt Russell. New age soldiers are not always better then the older ones.

I read a report on tribes in Africa and south Mexico that have NO shin splits, hurt knees or any other common running injury. And what do they wear ?, nothing. No shoes, no shocks. In fact one that entered in a very rigorous marathon simply tied some rubber from a tire to his foot, and won the race.

I started running a bit barefoot, and found it did strengthen my feet. However just about every doctor goes against this. If you think back to ancient times, you had soldiers that marched across nations wearing no support sandels. The human body is many aspects re-grows stronger then it was before, such as broken bones. If you toughen your body at an early age, it helps I believe.

Anyway thats enough of my rant. In short, yea, Artist, and Chas, them blokes came from a better, and harder environment. Nothing against the Marines of today, but perhaps a better training, physically speaking was done back then.

[Mr_Kiwi]

I think its a definitive yes to that question.
You look at climbers of the early days, no gore-tex clothing, fancy carbon fibre and titanium ice axes. Just a few woolen shirts, some leather boots and a bundle of rope.

I think the change in society has come about by means of new safety equipment and measures. What I'm trying to say is people of this generation (born in the 80s) have been brought up in a world obsessed with safety so its been instilled in us from a young age to find the safest way to do things. Which leads to the majority of us being 'soft' when compared to the blokes brought up after the war. Its become instinctive for people of my generation to question 'Is that safe?' before doing something rather than just cracking on with it. Or at the least trying to find the safest way of doing things, beit running shoes or a new family car.

Well I hope that made sense

[1664Kro]

Screw safety, embrace insanity, it works for me !
BTW I got love for you if you were born in the 80's
The 80's
LA LA LA LA