Paratroopers, Thats A Joke

[Tab]

There was an article today in the Daily Telegraph reporting on the state of The Parachute Regiment. It was revealed that for some time now that the soldiers that pass the P Course are being sent straight to the Parachute Regiment with out have to do their jumps or before they get their WINGS. The Reason for this is the RAF does not have the planes to train them, things are getting close were there will be more non trained paratroopers than trained.

[SO19]

Aye its a shambles alright.

(I posted it here with the article)
viewtopic.php?t=11560

[para]

Sometimes if they are needed operationally they do their jumps after the OP otherwise they sometimes have to wait, about a month.

I got my course right away

[Tab]

I often wonder what would happen if one of those soldiers took the MoD to court for Breach of Contract and loss of earnings, as he can't get his jump pay until he done his jumps. At one time you never joined the Regiment until you had every thing in place, there is no guarantee that some people will refuse to jump, it is not unknown.

[got1]

Back to throwing themselves off the "Airborne" 3 tonner (sorry 4 tonner now) .

[Paratrooper01]

I still think soldiers should do their jumps course before passing out of depot, like they used to.

Agreed, it is a shambles. The RAF needs to sort things out asap even if it means going abroad to do the required jumps.

[Greenronnie]

It's all down to money, as per the norm nowadays. However the RAF don't help things by constantly squandering large amounts of money on completely unneccessary niceties. It's about time the RAF got a grip on how they run things, if the Army ran military parachuting rather than the RAF (as is the case in most Armies around the World), then I'm sure there would be less bullshit involved.

[Hantslad]

I gather there are a fair few "penguins" in the regiments. ie paras without wings. Some of these lads fought like ninjas in Iraq. Just because there is a shortage of aircraft, the blokes shouldnt have to spend their time pissing about in the depot. Imagine how demoralised and unenthusiastic they would become?

[Greenronnie]

Nobody gets called a "Penguin", just plain "Joe". It's not the lads' fault, they would rather have done their wings before passing out more than anyone, and it makes them no less of a soldier for not getting the opportunity to jump before going on Ops. However, the headshed need to get a grip of this before it gets out of hand. What happens if we suddenly need to do an operational jump and half of the Bn aren't qualified?

[Tab]

You can't tell me that if the RAF really needed to find an aircraft for all these jumps that they couldn't find one. Or all our politicians using them to go away on holiday as they can't be seen to be using an ordinary airline on the grounds of security. There was a time that you would not be allowed near the Regiment until you had done your jumps, as there are always a few that will refuse to jump even after all they have gone through. Now I wonder what would happen if the Regiment refused to take them until they had been fully trained. Once the Regiment had been taken of operations due to man power shortages I think some one would then pull their finger out and actually do some thing about it.

[Big Cheese]

First off this isn't the RAF's fault. f you wanna blame anyone head up Whitehall!

I think some of you need to realise what the RAF AT fleet is actually being tasked to do these days.

In case you haven't noticed they're stretched to the limit, with regular commitments to Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans.....do I need to go on?

Also, as far as I'm aware the hercs actually come under UK Land Command (including budget), although being apart of the RAF. If I can I'll try and confirm.

Finally, as far as I'm aware there's only ever 1 Bn within the para role at any one time.

[Artist]

A young lad from my neck of the woods was in Iraq with his unit and did his thing without wearing his wings. One bloody good lad so he is. Thankfully he has done is jumps now and told me he now feels like a real Para at long last.

Seems that the attached ranks such as Gunners, Engineers and suchlike have no problems doing their jumps. How come anybody?

Artist

[Tab]

I think the problem is Artist is the demands being made on the infantry, that as soon as they have passed out of basic training then they are required to fill the holes in Battalions where so many have left to join the private Security companies. If an aircraft is not available straight away then they are posted till Battalion gets a UK posting and they can be then spared to the jumps.

[Greenronnie]

Everyone is feeling the strain as much as the Reg, the last course was cancelled due to previous courses not completing. It's just more obvious in the Battalions because everyone is meant to be Para trained (which is not the case in the support arms).