Regiments

[davo141]

serves me right for trying to help!!!

what clown reopened the post then ... tut tut tut

[Rogue Chef]

My old mate Nick Jupp used to enjoy a close relationship with the Budleigh and Salterton Light Bicycle Assault Troops!

[Artist]

Used to know a guy who was in the 56th Foot and mouth regiment.

Artist

[London Boy]

Always the RAF Reg if you like perimiter wires and chad phots in front of pimped out wimik's.

Curious, I was never anywhere near any perimeter fences. You're getting the RAF Regt mixed up with the RAF Police I'm afraid. And in my day the RAF Police and on certian stations the MOD police did a perfectly satisfactory job of patrolling perimeters.

Also in my day we only had good old fashioned landrovers in various versions in a rather fetching shade of green.

[sneaky beaky]

Can someone please tell me what the RAF Reg. actually do?

I thought that they defended RAF airfields but to hear some of the stories they are actually on a level with the SAS/SBS!!

What would be the correct definition of the roles of RAF Regiment?

Sneaky

[London Boy]

Can someone please tell me what the RAF Reg. actually do?

I thought that they defended RAF airfields but to hear some of the stories they are actually on a level with the SAS/SBS!!

What would be the correct definition of the roles of RAF Regiment?

Sneaky

Sneaky, click on the tabs "Roles" and "Force protection" in the top banner menu here http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafregiment/ and that will tell you exactly what the RAF Regt does.


A lot of the banter and slagging from Paras and RM in person and on this and other websites stems, I believe, from the fact that the RAF Regiment belongs ot the RAF and have always incorrectly been regarded just as airbase guards. But also because since the 60s when 2 Sqn got its Para role, the RAF Regt as a whole has been taking on more and more specialist roles. For example, - a little known fact - during the 1981 riots in London - I was sent with a unit from 2 Sqn RAF Hullavington to RAF West Drayton where we remained on standby over a weekend for riot duty.


Another example, a few years ago my old Sqn (2 Field Sqn Airborne) became the first British armed forces unit to gain the Jungle Warfare Specialist designation

Here's an excerpt from the following site: http://www.rafregiment.net/modern_day_raf_regiment.htm
"The RAF Regiment's 2 Squadron, based at RAF Honington, will be the first unit in the British military to achieve the new Jungle warfare Specialist qualification. The Squadron, which is the elite airborne unit within the RAF Regiment, is currently in the jungles of Belize, central America, working towards the Jungle Specialist qualification. To do so 2 Sqn is required to survive and operate continuously for a period of 28 days in an environment that is considered by many warfare experts to be the toughest in the world."


And that Sneaky is just one aspect that is about as far removed from patrolling airbase perimeter wires in the UK as you can come!
Grnated airfield defence is one job when overseas, but only one job and only overseas.

There's plenty to read about the specialist and SF nature of certian aspects of the RAF Regt.

Now, in support of the slagging of the RAF Regt. There have always been, in my day and now, gunners in the RAF Regt who seem to think they are super soldiers and on a par with the Paras and RM, which clearly isn't the case. The Regt training I did at RAF Catterick in 1980 was tough but a
piece of piss compared to what RM and Paras were doing in 1980. If RAF Regt training has become tougher I can't judge. But I'd put my life savings on the fact that Para and RM training is still miles and light years tougher than that of the RAF Regt.

That said, if that sort of bragging, which you get in all regiments anyway, keeps morale and confidence up especially in a conflict zone, then where's the harm. During the 80s and 90s as a police officer in Chelsea in centrla London I had plenty of quite violent run-ins with off duty Irish and Scots guards wrecking pubs and basically being drunken arseholes and to listen to them you'd think they were all SAS or the most elite para-cavalry members of the French Foreign Legion.

Also one interesting and telling fact I was told in 1982 by an SAS cpl was that of all British armed forces units the RAF Regiment has the highest percentage of recruits to SAS training. Whether that is still true or not I don't know, but back then he was an instructor, that had joned from 2 Sqn, so he'd have known. What unit has the highest percentage of
passing SAS training he didn't say.

Guarding airfields? No, I never did that, not even once. When we weren't away from home or on exercise we had no operational role on UK airbases. We spent all our time training and preparing for exercises and overseas deployments. And occasionally playing invasion forces to test station defences, which was usually the SRF (staiton reaction force) made up of the rank and file from all sorts of trades

Operational protection (i.e. not simulated wartime protection) of UK airbases in my day was performed by the RAF police and MOD police.

[gunner75]

hear hear above post and pmsl (excuse the text speak) to
'chad phots in front of pimped out wimik's'

But you are right. Training wise Regiment is (physically) stroll in park compared to RM and Para. I was fortunate (or unfortunate?as in farkin ard work!!) to earn the red lid then later on in life go and do the gunners course. Same old shout sh*t n shine though!

[Rover]

Just love this part!

Here's an excerpt from the following site: http://www.rafregiment.net/modern_day_raf_regiment.htm
"The RAF Regiment's 2 Squadron, based at RAF Honington, will be the first unit in the British military to achieve the new Jungle warfare Specialist qualification. The Squadron, which is the elite airborne unit within the RAF Regiment, is currently in the jungles of Belize, central America, working towards the Jungle Specialist qualification. To do so 2 Sqn is required to survive and operate continuously for a period of 28 days in an environment that is considered by many warfare experts to be the toughest in the world."

All that and not even an 'active enemy' and only 28 days!!

Sneaky, so next time you are swimming in the South China Sea.

Rover

[London Boy]

Jealous?

[Rover]

Jealous! No.

I do find it interesting that there is now a 'Specialist qualification' in 'Jungle warfare'.

Bearing in mind that there are still people around who have experience from the jungle.
The 'forgotten' 14th Army in Burma, not to mention the Chindits.
The Malayan Emergency, Borneo Confrontation not forgetting the Malay Peninsula.

There are still people who can remember their 'operational' time in the various jungle campaigns undertaken by the 'British military'.
I doubt very much that any of them thought of those times as being a 'specialist qualification'!

All seems to becoming American in outlook, specialist qualification in the film The Green Berets---speaking English.

So jealous of 2 Sqn RAF, not at all.

Just remember all those who have gone before.

When 2 Sqn achieve their 'new' qualification, as a toast to their success may I suggest a good Claret.

Rover

[London Boy]

Actually, friendly banter and slagging aside, I tend to agree with you. I also found it rather strange that this specialisation appeared in, I think, 2003. Especially in mind of as you say Borneo, and later Malaya. And of course Belize where Rocks have been serving for decades!

It does seem to be a case of calling core skills, "specialisations" and running courses in them and awaridng badges in the American style.

As regards claret, I can't touch the vino old boy, gives me a migraine don't you know. But I'll drink a large Bushmills to them!

[Rover]

Large Bushmills sounds good.

Rover

[Artist]

Large Bushmills sounds good.

Rover

So does a Pussers Rum...in moderation of course!

Artist

[Rover]

Artist,

I think LB is slightly younger than you or I, so does not understand regarding 'Claret'.

Was once thinking of calling my house' Moderation', but then again perhaps not.

Rover

[London Boy]

Artist,

I think LB is slightly younger than you or I, so does not understand regarding 'Claret'.

Was once thinking of calling my house' Moderation', but then again perhaps not.

Rover

Well claret was slang for blood where I came from. And even one glass make me ill...claret that is...not blood

As for being younger, I'm 47.

Moderation? In all things dear boy!