Minesweeper Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Thursday 8th January 1959 - 50 years ago today - I joined the Army as a National Serviceman at Jellalabad Barracks, Taunton - the Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert's) - formerly the 13th Regiment of Foot. Victorian Barracks - 20 men to a room heated by an open Coke Fire at either end but insufficient for the purpose so that it was still bitterly cold there. Look back on great times with great mates, all initially suffering together. The next day, Friday 9th - painful TAB Injections - but craftily given to us on the Friday so that we could get over the worst on the Saturday and Sunday when we did not have to parade. Undoubtedly a character forming experience and although the Army would not want some of the yobs that we see on the street nowadays, it would do them good and sort them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest catweazle (Banned Member) Posted January 8, 2009 Share Posted January 8, 2009 Your not wrong there, i was one of those yobs (mild by todays standards)so i went to a school at 14 yrs of age run on strict army dicipline.i was there for two out of the three yrs given,I was put in the Brickwork Dpt,i learnd technical drawing and bricklaying,by the second year i was capable of building Old english fireplaces and lots of fancy arches etc with red rubber bricks and excelled at decorative brickwork. I was offered a job on leaving,(you couldt leave with out one)with a large bldg co, where i had to lay thousands of flettons in straight walling.I soon left as i thought it to boring.I did use what i learnt later on when i joined my brother in laws company converting victorian houses into flats.I went in a nobody and left feeling good about myself.I dont know if it would suit everbody as national service did interupt aprentaships.In general i think it was a good thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapper Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 I worked with a bloke who did his two years at Royston barracks in the RAOC. He said it did him good, but he was a natural shirker and had a temper when he didn't get his way. His life revolved around the Lodge and getting what he wanted. The funny thing is he used to stare at one of the production managers at our place and eventually brought in a group shot of him from his NS days and realised the guy had been in his unit. The other bloke was unhappy. He had recognised my colleague straight away but saw his time in the army as the very worst period of his life and didn't ever want to discuss it. My boss at the Melody Maker had done two years in the East Surreys. He had gone in as some sort of teddy boy wide boy and although he was a deeply socialist pacifist member of the Woodcraft Folk etc, he said he enjoyed it and was proud of his days skulking around on foot patrols on the German border with his Enfield revolver and not a lot else. His funniest story was of a trench digging exercise on the Plain or somewhere where one of his colleagues buried his Sten gun and they never found it. I think NS has it's merits, but the thought of giving quality weapons training to some of the scum we have in our country these days scares me...I think there are civil projects they could do, but I'd certainly have some in the military. My own son would jump at the chance...but he's nuts. MB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 I personally think we should still have - even more so in today's society. I think the discipline, respect and confidence gained far out weighs any negatives. It would help give many focus. It must of made men bound in a way that we don't today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minesweeper Posted January 9, 2009 Author Share Posted January 9, 2009 A lot of people have said in the past - "Bring back National Service", thinking that would sort out some of today's "delinquents". But times change and I don't know that it would neccesarily do that. Discipline starts in the formative years - I was caned at School and although I did not like it, it never did me any harm or any of my friends who were perhaps caned more than I ever was. I think discipline at schools is far too lax today but I do not blame the teachers for that. In many cases, their hands are tied by what they cannot do - and that includes minor corporal punishment - or more significantly, the threat of it. As far as I can remember, I only ever had to smack "Old Bill" once - "Great War Truck" was a different "cup of tea" but his mother was more of a controlling influence than I ever was with the threat of hitting him with a rolled up newspaper (more noise than physical damage). I wish there was an easy solution. I hope that I have not strayed away too much from the real subject of this topic - but the bottom line must be - "Discipline must start at home". It has to be down to the parents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snapper Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Absolutely right. I went to an all boys secondary school in Hackney from 1970-1975 and I can tell you for certain it was a place where you learned to live or die pretty damned quick and I do not exagerate - we had two suicides and I was the classmate of two future murderers an armed robber and several other ne'rdowells. I attended one massed identity parade where a girl from a local school who was gang-raped attempted to ID her attackers (she was hooded). I was attacked with a hammer by one of the aforementioned murderers when I was fourteen. The headmaster blamed me for being anti-social. It beggars belief, but all this genuinely happened to me before I was sixteen years old. At a friends school a gang used to mug boys by holding them out of the third floor window and shaking the change out of their pockets. Tom Brown was still with us. So things aren't really much worse today in my experience, it's just that none of the above got into the papers. My father swept all the violence I suffered at school under the carpet and it all began with the end of corporal punishment when the caning master was retired. I don't suggest corporal punishment is a good idea. I got plenty at home and it didn't do anything to stop me becoming a petty criminal with the feral gang of morons I ran with. I drew the line at violence. I've never been good at it. I believe education should come in many forms and some sort of national service is a strand of it. I went into the army voluntarily - big mistake, it was an escape which did not work for me. Jack is right about FOCUS. There are ways of achieving it. I had to wait decades. But we all get there in the end. End of rant. MB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 As far as I can remember, I only ever had to smack "Old Bill" once - "Great War Truck" was a different "cup of tea" but his mother was more of a controlling influence than I ever was ...... Minesweeper, I have just realised who you are.............. :-D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Degsy Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Minesweeper, I have just realised who you are.............. :-D Wake up at the back that man:n00b::rofl: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minesweeper Posted January 9, 2009 Author Share Posted January 9, 2009 How funny! Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Great War truck Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Minesweeper, I have just realised who you are.............. :-D What! You know him! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minesweeper Posted January 9, 2009 Author Share Posted January 9, 2009 Cheeky Devil - I'll set your mother onto you with a rolled-up Newspaper! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Degsy Posted January 9, 2009 Share Posted January 9, 2009 Cheeky Devil - I'll set your mother onto you with a rolled-up Newspaper! That brings back memories, my Grandmother bred Irish Water Spaniels, that was her method of discipline, as you say noise. no physical damage and it worked (on the dogs)......... never had any effect on me:rofl: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtistsRifles Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 My Dad always kept a 38 pattern belt handy at home and if we came in in trouble it was used. Didn't do me (mainly) or my sister any harm. At school we had the old wooden board rubber thrown at us - and if that didn't work first time the teachers would use the yard long board rulers in lieu of the cane applied to the posterior, And if THAT didn't work then you went to see the head and, next days assembly got 6 on the hands or 12 on the backside. No one ever got to the next stage which was suspension...... Too much namby-pamby State interference these days I think..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 At school we had the old wooden board rubber thrown at us - ..... At my school the Physics teacher used a length of bunsen burner hose, weighted in the end. I understand it was quite effective, must have left quite a mark on the backside :shake: Never experienced it, in fact don't remember being reprimanded, my idea was to keep a low profile, . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Bill Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Bringing this topic vaguely back in the military direction, my science master in the late 1970s used to line up various implements on the front desk at the beginning of the lesson with the threat he would break one by the end. There would be a plimsole, a ruler and a paddle with handle. Funny thing is, it was always treated as a joke and we all had the greatest respect for the guy. This went up when we found out that he had been a POW in the Second War. I found out that he had been a Wellington bomber pilot so I asked what he thought of them. 'Didn't fly high enough or fast enough' was the short answer! From another source, I picked up that he had escaped from camp and stolen a motor cycle only to be recaptured on the Swiss border. From such stuff are heroes made. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest catweazle (Banned Member) Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 Sounds like our deputy head,he reminded us that the angel of death was hovering low over us before each lesson.He was a tough old bugger captured at Tobrok.He was the hardest teacher of them all,we new exactly where we stood,and respected him enormously.We had a new ideas teacher,treat them as little people not children type. It didnt work he just had the mickey taken out of him,Shame really when threats of violence suceeded over kindness,Strange lot us humans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony B Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 One of my old teachers, told a story of his landing on D-Day. A German jumped in front of him at a range of about six feet. He let fly with all six shots from his Webley revolver and mised. At this point they both looked at each other, and ran in opposite directions. Another had German officers billited in his house when he was about 10 years old. One day he was working on the kitchen table when one of them asked what he was doing. He replied very rudley telling the German to mind his buissnes. The German complained to his mother, who clipped him round the ear for being rude. By the way, he had been making crystal radio sets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Degsy Posted January 10, 2009 Share Posted January 10, 2009 We had a deputy head similar to CWs, highly respected unlike the head who was a complete pillock. Physics master known as The Mekon ( from Dan Dare in Eagle comic) dead ringer for him but had been a fighter pilot in Western Desert, when we wound him up he would scream at us 'when I think of all my friends that went west in the east and I look at you lot' at this point it was always too much for him and he would subside over his desk sobbing. We were heartless little sods. Met him many years later on opposite sides in a cricket match and found him to be a real gentleman but needless to say didn't remind him of earlier days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtistsRifles Posted January 13, 2009 Share Posted January 13, 2009 Bringing this topic vaguely back in the military direction, my science master in the late 1970s used to line up various implements on the front desk at the beginning of the lesson with the threat he would break one by the end. There would be a plimsole, a ruler and a paddle with handle. Funny thing is, it was always treated as a joke and we all had the greatest respect for the guy. This went up when we found out that he had been a POW in the Second War. I found out that he had been a Wellington bomber pilot so I asked what he thought of them. 'Didn't fly high enough or fast enough' was the short answer! From another source, I picked up that he had escaped from camp and stolen a motor cycle only to be recaptured on the Swiss border. From such stuff are heroes made. Steve That story brings back memories - when I was in my apprenticeship with Ford we had to do two weeks at college every month and one of the teachers there was a short little bantam of a guy very short tempered. He had a strange way of walking - all hunched up which made us curious as when teaching he was ramrod straight. So we made enquiries as the saying goes and found out he had been a tail gunner in Bomber Command during the war - firstly on Stirlings then on Lancs. Next lecture period, being young and stupid, when he walked in the entire class of 20 leant back in the chairs and imitated machine guns. Totally floored him for a few minutes and then the penny driopped and we spent the rest of the lesson talking about the merits or otherwise of the aircraft he'd flown in and so forth. I wish I could remember all he said as it was truly fascinating. Really great old chap - never saw him after we completed the course there a year later and moved to the local Polytechnic. He stood us all a round in the SU bar when we finished to celebrate too. Oh yeas - the reason he walked the way he did was apparently down to the parachute harnesss he'd had to wear when flying..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enigma Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 No one on the forum noticed it was my birthday last Dec. (OK, the birthyear isn't correct but the day was). :n00b: :??? :-( :nono: :argh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest catweazle (Banned Member) Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Catweazles dont have birthdays as they live in any time,as you once revealed the possability of being one i am afraid your exempt.:shocked: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enigma Posted January 16, 2009 Share Posted January 16, 2009 Catweazles dont have birthdays as they live in any time,as you once revealed the possability of being one i am afraid your exempt.:shocked: Ah, that may explain it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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