Potential RM Officer, looking for help & advice. :-)

[Artist]

macster

Wern't having a Pop at you. Why should I? What you said is just what I would have said. The Owd mapreading/compass work is often forgotten by aspiring Wannerbies when they talk about CDO training.

Lets face it when your out on Dartmoor or Woodbury during your Cdo training at 0200hrs in the morning with a map in one hand and a compass in the other with no Training team in attendance trying to suss out where you are and where to go next can and is a right bugger iffen you arn't to sure of your Mapreading/Compass Skills.

As to Marital Sports. Or is that Martial Sports? Go for it. I myself have a Black Belt in Beer Swilling. Got to watch that you don't drink to much Guiness or Hydes Black mind. Black Skidmarks on your shreddies are a bugger to get rid of. So stick to Lager or a light Bitter.

Artist

[harry hackedoff]

My black belt in origami has never come in usefull
So, Mister Miyagi, you want me to catch flys with chopsticks? Is this to improve my reaction times?
Er, no, Harry san. I`ve ran out of fly spray
Good luck Leigh , keep us in the loop mate

[Grimey Vibes]

My black belt cost me £15 from burtons and don't even fit now, so its useless. My trousers never stay up now

[Littlegreen]

Leigh,

Don't worry about the sub 7 min miles. Not many people in recruit or YO training can maintain that pace. Maintaining a 7 min mile pace is more than enough. Don't get wrapped around the axle in terms of trying to learn too many military skills before you need to. The training team expect you all to arrive without the first idea of how to be a soldier or an officer. YO training encompasses recruit training, JCC, SCC and much more, starting right from the basics. Much better to get things right that the POC and AIB expect from you, rather than trying to get ahead of the game. Learn to sleep on a chicken's lip, and if you master that you'll be laughing kit bags! Good Luck!

[Ajax86]

Alright ladz (hope that dont sound gay lol), i was told about this website by someone from another website who shares an interest in the Royal Marines. I too am hoping to aspire to become an officer in the RM. I was ready to go this year but i developed Compartment Syndrome from over training and ive had to wait a long while to be sorted out, in fact i only had my op yesterday!! (poxy NHS ey!).
I have a mate whos in the RM, and yeah martial arts, boxing, anything that puts you under pressure because your in a confined or tense situation helps. Realisticly, it helps you keep calm under pressure, your experience on this matter depends on how well trained you are and how long you have trained. I myself, started full contact Karate when i was 7 and moved on when i was 10. At 10 i started playing rugby and i still am, when i was 16 i took on Jujitsu until 18 and i have been boxing and gym training since then, im 19 now, i'll be 20 soon. Back on he RM stuff (slipped away there and i couldnt be bothered to delete it, sorry :p), im sure you know that its all mental strength to be honest. Without it, you wont succeed and thats a fact, but im sure you know this. Im sure youve been told to keep up to date with current affairs??? As your still at uni, examinations shouldnt be a problem for you as, i would imagine, your're used to meeting deadlines, i kills alot of my mates at uni lol! All they wanna do is go out on the trash!
By the way, i hope you haven't missed out on that!
I do share you enthusiasum to join, its all i want to do, ever since i was young, ive always felt and wanted to be something like a soldier/marine, fireman, police officer, something like that because i know i would eb good at them. Its all i want to do and i cant wait for my chance to have a crack at it now, because i simply refuse to give up, its my dream and i want it badly. I wish you all the best anyway, i hope we can help each other in anyway we can.
Thanks.

[adidev]

Never ever become an officer in the Royal you miss out on all the good times.I personally feel that osffichers although they are obviously Royal Marines ,they are not real marines in the sense of they never get the wacko life style that comes with being a bootneck, the shear looniness of Royal and the antics you get up to it is a lovely and grand life.
As an osfficher well,you are never truly accepted by the other ranks and quite frankly it always seemed a lonely life to me.
Just an observation on my part

[Littlegreen]

Wrong, wrong and wrong.

Suspect you've pushed into an area you don't know very much about. Tread carefully.

[Littlegreen]

Adidev,

Feel free to chat here, or PM me if you disagree.

[Artist]

Never ever become an officer in the Royal you miss out on all the good times.I personally feel that osffichers although they are obviously Royal Marines ,they are not real marines in the sense of they never get the wacko life style that comes with being a bootneck, the shear looniness of Royal and the antics you get up to it is a lovely and grand life.
As an osfficher well,you are never truly accepted by the other ranks and quite frankly it always seemed a lonely life to me.
Just an observation on my part

Load of rubbish! I've had some brammer runs ashore with blokes holding a commision. Be they up from the ranks or straight in as a YO.

Artist

[Sully]

Littlegreen, I don't think you can describe a fella's recollection as simply wrong. You could possibly say that it's not like that now, or maybe that he came across the wrong officers. On the assumption that Adidev was a bootneck, which I have no reason to doubt, then it is an area (his personal recollections) that he knows everything about, and you know nothing yet presume to. You could explain why an officers life may not be as described instead of a one/two line slapdown. Why should he tread carefully? I respectfully suggest you save that attitude for the day job, otherwise the message is in the medium as somebody a lot brighter than me once said.

Incidentally, for what it's worth, his recollection and general impression accord with mine. I met an officer who probably only indulged me (and dropped his guard) because I went to university with one of his school mates and he said that on his first troop posting he had got in trouble with the RSM/Adj for being too friendly with his charges (with whom I know he was popular and respected, notwithstanding the concerns of the said RSM/Adj). Perhaps times have changed, the Corps today is something I know little about, I hope they have.

[druadan]

Officers are a mixed bunch. In my short time in the Corps I have served with two who were popular with the lads, often up for a decent run ashore and one in particular who had a strange habit of standing outside the kebab shop at 4am throwing chips at civvies And he'd still turn to with us on time, albeit as shiters as the rest of us On the other hand, the other few who I would say I know well enough to make an accurate judgment of their relations with the ORs far preferred the gentleman's club of their own Mess and would never be seen ashore. These were invariably the ones who kept more of a distance at work as well, and as a result seemed out of tune with their Troop, which impacted badly on morale and how well everyone worked together. From the point of view of a junior Marine, the best officer is one who can have a laugh and be approached easily by the lads, but still maintain the required level of respect from those he commands. I think this is the kind of Officer who also lives the 'Marine' lifestyle to the full as you describe above.

[harry hackedoff]

Hear Hear

[adidev]

Littlegreen I have a right sad on for you mate, what is this message of yours to me saying "wrong wrong wrong.
Suspect you've pushed into an area you don't know very much about.Tread carefully"
Now what the hell are you talking about 'an area that I dont know much about' Well,Hmmm.I did serve in 41/40/41/45 cdo. casvacked back to the UK walked out of Eastney gates and never called anyone else sir again in my life.I would think that that would qualify me to speak
"Tread carefully: that sounds like an expression you have read in some comic of how DIs talk to recruits.
The only 2 pigs that I got on with were a couple of our stripeys going for a short term commish flying choppers .The rest generally were patronising to O/Rs and wouldn't be seen dead with them in the street.I did respected one offish-er but that was because I was in action with him and he was the CO and did a good job.
Artist your comment of "Load of rubbish" etc not sure if you are qualified to be none judgemental about offishers ,you were a printer and from an ops of mine ex sigs who did the same job, he recons it was pretty laid back and very un pusser.You were probably ex sigs yourself and apart from the pigs flunky, sigs were the closest O/R to pigs, an unholy alliance, where borders of command were not to pusser.Anyway I suspect that you have your rose coloured glasses on when recalling corps history lots of us do as time passes
Hackedoff or Mr MacDonald to be precise, from what I learned about you from other Royals emails, is that you were RMR rubber dagger man who was super pusser with a high metabolic speed working with the RMA Perth.
Well, not to criticise RMR blokes because I never really met one ,your comments of "hear hear" in agreement with Littlegreens comments are a bit rich coming from a Saturday and Sunday marine who has not served full time in the Royal Marines.You may have won and earned the Green Beret but if you have not served full time with the mob then you also cannot have any perception of how it really is as a bootneck both in war and peace.
Please correct me if I am wrong about your service record and I will apologise straight away but thats the gen I recieved from UK bootnecks it would also explain why you told me to pull my head in for sayin pongos stink in an earlier post.All the bootnecks that I served with would have have been in complete agreement with me.
Finally Littlegreen I have no desire to pm you on this subject, if you have fair comment about what I said about pigs then do share with all the site and by the way I have said I was a Royal marine but who did you serve with? I eagerly await your answer.

[adidev]

Whoops !! I have just read an earlier posting by you Littlegreen concerning YOs.
So that probably means that you are a pig! If that's the case then you wouldn't have a clue as to what O/Rs thought about you ,and you could be rightly fooled by them.The acting ability of bootnecks around pigs was academy award stuff.Officers in general were best avoided at all times as they could be troublesome it was always the NCOs who really rang up the numbers when it came to the sharp end. Company officers it would seem to me just passed on the orders that came through the radio from higher ups with a few add ons from other ranks to make it work.
Oh man I could tell you tales of officers and cock ups,I could also tell you how officers were given medals for sweet F/A except for the fact that they were officers it fair made you want to throw up at times.
The company commander ensconced in a rock hut that a RPG wouldn't have dented whilst we had the crap knocked out of us defending and fighting our way out of the ambush that we were in,guess who was awarded a medal for his bravery? youve got it- the company commander of course, and he never fired a single damned shot in action.It was about that time I realised that me and Royal had to part company.And it was so' it was not so long after that little biffo we had thank god I was free.Yipee.
I reiterate the best place to be in was in the ranks, a great place to be for mates and good times.And best of all you could be a total animal and be paid for it.Officers did'nt do animal well
The best of the best.
"Royal Marines to your duties march"

[Littlegreen]

I don't want to start a bun fight, but I feel reasonably well qualified to talk on the features of life in the ranks. I started my career at 16, and I'm a Corps Commission officer. I had a great time in the ranks, and when I commissioned, my boss at the time told me some things about the camaraderie between officers. I was unconvinced, but now having seen both sides, he was right. If you've never been part of mess, then you couldn't possibly understand the level of antics. I'm not going to tell tales out of school, because some of it is all quite sensitive as I'm still serving. Needless to say, on of best aspects of the job is the social side, and officers are just as capable of joviality as ORs, only it would hardly be prudent to let the men you command see you acting up would it? That's the whole point of the messes, both officers and seniors.

You've obviously been on the receiving end of one or more poor quality officers. The comments you've made however are highly unreasonable. This forum has quite a number of young Bootnecks, and prospective entrants. It is unhelpful if they start their career with your kind of poison in their minds. It is that kind of attitude which makes the new subalterns job even harder. Theirs is one of hardest relationships to forge, both with the Troop, and especially their section commanders and Tp Sgt. He does not need to be prejudged in any way. I have some very fond memories from my first command, and I did feel very close to my lads, but even as a Corps Commission officer, and arguably BECAUSE I was, some relationships were harder than others. I know that not everyone always agreed with me, but I know that everything I, and my fellow subalterns did was in the best interests of the men I commanded. It was said to me by several very able COs, Officers, RSMs and SNCOs that the real measure of a troop commander was how his Tp Sgt helped and assisted him. Clearly every rule has exceptions, but behind every struggling Troop Commander is poor and unhelpful Tp Sgt.

Finally, you are in no position, whatever your previous experience, to extol the virtues or otherwise of a career as a Royal Marines Officer. You are certainly not in a position to dish out advice in that area.

LG