The under valued matelot.

No Secret, I reckon your a bunch of over rated taxi drivers, with the odd good looking wren, but hey, I'm too good looking to care.

I reckon Jack is getting a raw deal at the moment, (nothing new there). I've just been looking at a site that states the dates from when medals should be issued from and too....sad I know, I tapped in "big tits" and it came up with this MOD site.

Now I distincley recall being on one them grey funnel taxis, charging into the waters of a port in yugoslavia, in the words of the brave fcuker in whitehall "to see what would happen" Cheers cnut.

At the time the yugoslavas had said something along the line of "come near us and we'll sink you" it wasn't words that could be muddled.

So there we were, all booties on board were on the upper deck crouched behind GPMG's etc...death or glory, whitehall style.

Luckily enough there was a tremendous pea souper that night, I couldn't even see the end of my barrel, let alone anything else, neverless we charged into yugoslav waters....brave men in whitehall wanted us too.

Within minutes the scared opposition (yugoslavs) had launched three patrol boats at us, they where only little ships but unfortunatley they had missles the size of double decker buses on them, x2 each.

So whilst brave whitehall warrior was snoring in his wankchariot I was clutching my GPMG, clacksons going off with collision warnings because we where all racing towards each other and couldn't see a thing because of the fog.

We all missed each other, probably due to the shite equiptment we were using. We stayed on station after that for a while, I watched impotent as dubrovnic or whatever it was called was shelled, very strange feeling watching. and eventually the British Govt. bothered to say they were involved. This must happen so much with Jack, especially the submariners.

sorry about the spelling.

 

Think you've got the same keyboard as me ! But a polly who says "Send a warship" usually has no conception what he's letting 250 odd blokes in for. He tells his boss "We have a presence in the area", and turns in, glowing with the knowledge that it'll reflect on his importance in the media the following day, but hey, if the shit hits the fan, he ain't going to be anywhere near the brown stuff. Politicians, diplomats - call them what you like - if they knew what they were letting Jack/Tommy/Rupert in for, they still wouldn't have a clue what they were asking better men than they'll ever be to do, no matter how impossible the task.

 

Sorry, bit confused.

Were you not aware that this kind of thing could happen (and has happened to generations of servicemen and women before us) before you signed on the dotted line?

I certainly did, I don't like it, but I knew it could (and has) happen.

 

If you look up my dit about HMS BEIHAN on RRPedia you will see how it was proposed to send Jack minesweeping as a 'civilian' in a 3-piece demob suit towing sweeps from an LCT that could only drag them along the bottom at 4 knots. Fortunately, this bizarre scheme was called off.

 

An aside I appreciate, but I wouldn't categorise diplomats as in any way similar to politicians.

I recognise that many of them have historically come from a more privileged background than many of us, but that has evolved over a number of years.

Many diplomats have a very clear understanding of the constraints and difficulties which characterise the places that the services are required to operate in. Some operate under significant threat on a more routine basis than many servicemen do.

 

Quite. Many underestimate the potential of a Ferrero Rocher to get stuck in your throat.

 

Fair point.

 

A few days after joining Dartmouth, I mustered with my fellow trainees to listen to yet another boring speech by some high-ranking visitor. It went something like this:

"Can you hear me at the back? Good. Now pay attention... By embarking on your chosen career, you are declaring that you are ready to KILL other people! Are YOU ready to kill other people?"

(Brief pause to let this sink in. Cut to startled young naval cadets eyeing each other nervously (what, kill people like him?) as visions of wearing a nice uniform and simply sailing around the world chatting up beautiful girls suddenly evaporate.)

"Furthermore, you must be prepared to DIE because other people will be trying to KILL you! Are YOU prepared to die?"

(Further pause as we all wonder whether we've made some horrible mistake. He has a good point.)

"Make no mistake gentlemen. That's what YOUR COUNTRY expects of YOU and that's what the Armed Forces are all about. If you have any doubts, then I suggest you have chosen the wrong profession."

The high-ranking visitor was Mountbatten and I've never forgotten the gist, or the impact, of what he said.

 

[/quote]
A few days after joining Dartmouth, I mustered with my fellow trainees to listen to yet another boring speech by some high-ranking visitor. It went something like this:

"Can you hear me at the back? Good. Now pay attention... By embarking on your chosen career, you are declaring that you are ready to KILL other people! Are YOU ready to kill other people?"

(Brief pause to let this sink in. Cut to startled young naval cadets eyeing each other nervously (what, kill people like him?) as visions of wearing a nice uniform and simply sailing around the world chatting up beautiful girls suddenly evaporate.)

"Furthermore, you must be prepared to DIE because other people will be trying to KILL you! Are YOU prepared to die?"

(Further pause as we all wonder whether we've made some horrible mistake. He has a good point.)

"Make no mistake gentlemen. That's what YOUR COUNTRY expects of YOU and that's what the Armed Forces are all about. If you have any doubts, then I suggest you have chosen the wrong business."

The high-ranking visitor was Mountbatten and I've never forgotten the gist, or the impact, of what he said.[/quote]

I wonder if anyone delivers a similar dit these days - doubtful. It appears that some new entrants these days are not even aware that they have to go to sea as part of their RN job, let alone potentially kill/ be killed for their country.

 

As I remember from a similar talk at Dartmouth we'd lost a fair few people the following day.

 

My first week at BRNC the film was In Which We Serve. Same idea.

 

As a general rule , you may differentiate between diplomats and politicians by remembering that Politicians normally only f--k up in their own backyard but Diplomats do it on a worldwide basis. The UN is the best example of this.

 

I think the general point was pretty standard. I remeber when we went back th BRNC after our Mids year in 66 we were congratulated as being the first year since the end of WW2 not to have lost some one in action during the Mids year. Sort of brings it home to you.

I remebr checking all my RNR gear during the Cuban Missile Crisis in case there was a callup, and there were a few times after that when the international state made you think a bit more about why you were really there.

 

Went to action stations late 1 night, a young lad would'nt go up to the chaff launchers. "Come on now lad off you go" said the chief. "but i'm scared" he replied. The chief, all fatherly like says " we're all scared son, you just have to get on with it and keep your head down". " no, no, its not that, you don't understand chief, i'm scared off the dark!!!" Oh For F**K Sake.
Gave us all a good laugh and broke the tension well.

 

Wet_Blobby, what year was that if you don't mind me asking?

 

If they can close Joannas in Pompey then the future of the Royal Navy must surely be questionable,never has such a fine institution , in the words of Winston Churchil who said of Joannas never in the field of human conflict have so many packed in to shag so few,may the tree rest in peace

 

Here here the tree the tree it was so very much a part of the RN I was kicked out of there 3 times in 78, god bless her

 

Shite with dates me but, it was when Yugoslavia was still called that instead of Bosnia/Serbia etc...

At a guess 91. Were you on Fearless at the same time?

 

Yes mate. '91 would be about right- the deployment we went to Sebastapol amongst others. I worked out we were on there at the same time in the HMS Fearless thread, but cross posted, sorry.

 

i think the tree was kicked out then but finally the imperial doors where closed never to stick any matelot to a carpet again, sorry im to upset first boobs ,then Joannas what next thinking of which what was the place on osbourne road called in pompey,the concrete toilet upstairs