bobd22

LOl.

bobd22

Back to the Princes they both have the inter service banter between each other as one would expect. Of course I doubt William will ever be allowed to do what Harry is allowed to do.

Domino

not now his BH is expecting......

but it does mean "the family" gain a little more respect, more one of the lads, in the same way as his uncle gained huge respect for his helicopter work......
remember the mollycoddling Charles had whilst driving around in his minesweeper and earlier.

`

Rotor

Ive served and would only consider SAS/SBS/RM to be SF , Para`s maybe sometimes.

bobd22

Well I would agree with you in the main I don't know enough about the RM to have an opinion as the if they should in total be classed as SF. after all you will join a RM unit straight from basic training and you also have ships Marines. But other than that I would not argue with you. Of course the SAS is made up from all units, I also believe that SFSG is now made up from more than the 3 Regts that it was formed from, I would think that they should be classed as SF as they operate alongside and in support of them. There are are RAF Aircrew that operate soley with SF troops and are held in very high regard by the troops, of course they do not do the SAS training but are certainly if not SF very special pilots/aircrew and I'm sure the RN have similar that operate alongside the RM/SBS.

MY view is that there without doubt special people in all arms and Regiments just as there are bankers in them as well.

I am somewhat confused at the idea that I have portrayed my old Regt as SF? I can't see where I have. It is historical fact that they in 2WW operated together with RM and other army units. I mentioned the SAS insignia merely as a footnote and historical fact it is not known by many people even in my old Regt. I only found out as the result of being on a very small ex RAF Regt blog site about a dozen very old boys who served shortly after the war and served on Sqns under Flt Sgt Bob Tait. Seemingly from his original sketch it was meant to be a flaming dagger not winged?

I know that some Pongos say that the RAF Regt big it up as they refer to themselves as "The Regiment" pretending to be SAS, this is not the case it has nothing to do with that, it is just that they are the only Regiment within the RAF and if anyone asked what trade you were (correctly that would be RAF Regiment Gunner) they just say The Regt. The correct nickname for them is Rockapes (long story and a few versions).

Like I say I am proud of my service I know very little of the current RAF Regt as I have been out 19 years now. A couple of years ago I was out for a drink with some lads still serving and it sounded like a very different Regt to what I had served in I didn't recognise a lot of the terminology/jargon they used, but everything moves on.

Domino

yes there are others in the RN that operate with the RM/SBS.
I had the privilege of being asked to join the Naval Bombardment team, who go in to control the bombardment of land targets from the sea. Just imagine having to rely on the professionals throwing an explosive shell several miles, over your head
They operate out of the RM/SBS unit in Poole and are a great bunch of guys, but I turned it down, partly because I didnt fancy passing the RM commando course first but mainly because of acrophobia (fear of heights) and couldn't face jumping out of planes and things to get my wings.
So I just carried on doing it from the ship end where we won awards for a fast and accurate team response.
The first time or two that you do it you can be frightened rigid praying you have told Guns to point the barrels in the right direction.
One ship didn't and the shells that should have hit some spare land on the south coast ended up in a retired Brigadier's pasture.

As with the army the RN has helicopter pilots who also get involved with bombardment spotting - on one exercise he left the mike open and we heard his buddy say "Christ" then a few expletive deleted's as the two shells whizzed past them.

Imagine trying to explain that on an NVQ2 certificate to a prospective employer.

from the words of The Navy Lark
"Whizz"
"Bang"
"OOO Nasty!"

bobd22

I worked on Bofors never did the Rapier looked far too technical for me so I went off to Field sqns, did do a bit on 81mm Mortars not as big as your guns but it was always nice to hear the MFC come back without panic in his voice after the first ranging shots.

Domino

never had anything to do with mortars, although we fitted them to the forecastle of the Singapore Sqdn of minesweepers, one failed to fire and a midshipman looked down the barrel as it fired late
Bofors - single barrel 40mm fitted onto Malaysian Navy patrol boat made a loud noise when firing solid and tracer, took chunks out of a lighthouse.
Rapier, no, but Seacat - was around when one of them took off without any instructions

a 4.5inch twin turret makes a loud noise, shakes all the dust off the ventilation dust off you when sitting in darkness in the operations room.
although the 6inch turrets on cruisers was worse - especially when your messdeck was directly between the turret and the magazine.
more than once we came down to find our bunks full of fluorescent tubes and the plastic covers in many pieces.

hence my earlier comment about a couple of ranging shots, and I wasn't even a gunner

bobd22

We in the early 70's had few Tigercat the land based version of seacat, I saw them on the airfield at Catterick but never worked on them. I believe they were pretty poor and as Rapier was in place by then they sold them of to some African Country Nigeria possibly but not sure. I do remember the Africans coming over around 76 time to be trained up on them. In my time we had the 40/70 Bofors, we got rid of them in 74 when Rapier replaced them and I went onto a Field Sqn. Then end of 75 Belize flared up again and initially they were not allowed to deploy Rapier so the old Bofors were brought out of mothballs and those that had been on the guns formed 3 Sqns to deploy with them to Belize on 3/4 month tours. I loved firing them but they were very dated against fast jets. My very first sqn when I joined it was in the process of trialling Rapier together with the RA. Those of us that were not on the Trials did a tour in NI. On return they brought a kit up to show us and we had to decide if we wanted to be trained on Rapier. It looked very technical to me and you had all these different tones in your ears that you had to react to etc. I didn't fancy it and asked for a posting out to Germany. Strangely enough the Army took back that role about 5 or so years ago and are now responsible for LLAD of Airfields.

Dick Dasterdly

I guess that they consider Harry to be expendable.
I wonder why ?

agoreira

Is it safe to come in? I've got my tin hat on! Lots of lead flying around in here.

bobd22

Got give credit where credit is due he went when he didn't have to go. It is not everyone that would do that. He seems to me to just get on with the job in hand, obviously when not on duty he enjoys himself why not he's earned that surely.

bobd22

Yes take the tin lid off http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VljEsg_94c8

nogard

nogard

I've served, and i agree!
PS. Plus 29 Commando. Good in the field and better NGS than the RN.