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The Legends that make the Navy what it is!

flynavy

flynavy

Lantern Swinger
So we've had the worst boss and the worst people to work with but how about some of them that you joined up with, that was constantly in the gossip at stand easy..........Like 'ShovelFace' (gunnery instructor) at HMS DAEDALUS in the late 80's.
when you were on tuesday morning divisions he could pick you out from 200 yards with the old "you there 3rd platoon second from the back third one in.....STOP TWITCHING!" etc.

if it was January or February and one person did'nt have their jumper on everyone would have to take their jumpers off!

I remember one time when there was a suspect package on the base (the base was used during the second world war and the runway was littered all around with old ieds) he came upto said suspect package and promptly tied it to his push bike and rode out to the furthest point on the base! and waited there for the bomb squad to turn up!

he would pounce on you at any given oppurtunity and would give himself a bollocking on divisions if he got the order wrong!

Gawd bless him
so what about all the others out there like charly farly at RALEIGH in the late 80's too another gunnery instructor.......?
 
We had Chief GI Meads at Raleigh.He was soooo funny.he taught Drill by "Bionics" a la 6 million dollar man(slow motion)along with the soundeffects.he did this as we were told on numerous occaisions "Cos i'm a fcuking Clever Barsteward".On Capt Guard selection we had a right numpty who couldnt march to save his life.This bloke was declared unfit by GI Meads as he suspected him of having the Plague and told numpty to go to the sickbay and report ill,while we did the Selection.We did indeed win.Last heard GI Meads ended his days on the Maingate at Vernon.
 
Sticking with GIs, then, Mercury in the late 60s or early 70s (but I could be wrong as I was at Mercury on numerous occasions) had CPOGI Cornelius....... 5' 6" of snarling fury on parade. He had a great bushy beard and a head that he shaved himself, probably with a rusty knife. His ruddy and pock-marked head looked like it had seen service as a football and he must have been the ugliest Chief I ever met but was witty and friendly when the black gaiters came off.
 
There was a Yeoman at Mercury in 89, Chris Rickard was his actual name, but he was known to we trainees as either Shovel-Hands Rickard or The Man With The Magic Sideburns, for obvious reasons - he had the biggest hands I've ever seen on a man, and sidies you could lose a badger in. Needless to say, big Chris was very Old School. One of the lads in our class failed his Fleetwork exam on his first try, after Chris had told the whole class he'd "punch the fcuking lights out" of anyone who dared to fail his exam. Sure enough, Yeoman Rickard turned up at the Mercury Bop the night after this lad failed and invited him outside to discuss his exam results. Fair pop to the Yeoman, after giving him a good shoeing, he took the lad under his wing and made damn sure he passed his resit.

I forget the guy's name but in 89 there was also a PO at Raleigh who had the words "Cheers Cnut" tatooed along the side of his hand. Raised more than a few eyebrows every time he saluted.
 
on the subject of shovelface was he at raleigh early 80's circa 83 coz if its the same fella i concur that geeza could spot a gnat without his whitefront tucked tight at 1000 paces
 
The M.A.A. at HMS NEPTUNE in the early 90's lived in Rosyth and used to get a lift to Faslane with a PO (SA) .Well one day the PO(SA) was late due to an RTA , he picked up this''joss''and not a thing was mentioned about being late .They get to Faslane and the ''joss'' says in my office to the PO(SA) and troops him and himself for being adrift. I dont know the final charge but it must of been funny watching the M.A.A. marching himself in to the skippers table . ....A LEGEND .
 
Scribes said:
There was a Yeoman at Mercury in 89, Chris Rickard was his actual name, but he was known to we trainees as either Shovel-Hands Rickard or The Man With The Magic Sideburns, for obvious reasons - he had the biggest hands I've ever seen on a man, and sidies you could lose a badger in. Needless to say, big Chris was very Old School. One of the lads in our class failed his Fleetwork exam on his first try, after Chris had told the whole class he'd "punch the fcuking lights out" of anyone who dared to fail his exam. Sure enough, Yeoman Rickard turned up at the Mercury Bop the night after this lad failed and invited him outside to discuss his exam results. Fair pop to the Yeoman, after giving him a good shoeing, he took the lad under his wing and made damn sure he passed his resit.
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Top man is Chris concur about his hands, massive! I've crossed his path a few times since he went outside. The man just loves the RN even now he's a civvy. I heard a dit about him when he was working as a security guard before he started with Flagship. The company had flag poles outside and when Chris was on watch he would make up the flags ready for breaking before hoisting them. At 0800 (0900 between 1 Nov and 14 Feb!!) he would smartly break them, well this caught the eye of one of the directors and he was so impressed Chris was given the job of teaching all of the guards so it happened this way every day.
Seriously though, he's been very ill over the last 3 years but I think he's stable now. I last saw him on the telly last November involved in some Semaphore message relay between the coast and London to do with T200
 
Back in 82 i was drafted to Mercury Sickbay.One day the ssnow fell very heavily.I struggled to get onboard and eventually after 2 and a half hours(on my motorbike!) i made it.Bloody good job as well.All those that didnt bother got weighed off!The queue outside jimmys table was huge around 80 odd were trooped for being adrift.Apparently there was a threshold of a precentage of the Ships Coy that managed to get on board so those that didnt were deemed not to have tried hard enough.
 
I know an RPO Wren (as they were) that trooped her brother for being adrift. Also trooped at least one of her boyfriends. Funnily enough, didn't keep them for long.....
 
Geoff_Wessex said:
Vasco said:
Geoff_Wessex said:
... the ugliest Chief I ever met but was witty and friendly when the black gaiters came off.
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Gaiters?

WE know what you mean ....
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Errrr - were they "anklets"? If so, I called them the wrong name for a lot of years!
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I thought they were black (almost knee length!) gaiters too? Tell me Vasco, what should I have called them? Incidentally I think they sell the same thing now, in shops selling bondage gear, not that I would know about such things. :oops:
 
Geoff and Nozzy; they are called 'gaiters'. Vasco's humour is too subtle to carry well in cyberspace.

I laughed Vasco.
 

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