Common Core Skills

[Compressorstall]

Anyone done CCS recently? Haven't been in a position to do it for some time and will be getting tested in the next few days. Any hints??;)

[Yeller_Gait]

Just try and grin and bear it, another waste of a day of your life, but it should be over by 4-30.

Why oh why do they (at Waddington at least) feel the need to start at 7-30; the day is long enough as it is, never mind some c*%p briefing by a policeman who turns up late each time I have been there the last two years.

[johno617tonka]

especially as you can never remember anything that you 'learnt', the next day!

[VigilantPilot]

Two top tips:

(1) Swot up on the aide memoire the night before.

(2) Don't pee the Regiment Sgt/Cpl off too much (arriving late/incorrectly dressed etc) especially if you are with a group of officers otherwise you are likely to have 3 or 4 tablets lit in the chamber as opposed to 1.

[Compressorstall]

Having seen one of my colleagues who used to like attending in greatcoat and SD hat, I don't think I will pee the Regt Cpl off too much. At least I have a couple of days to swot up...where's my copy of 'Survive to Fight'? Are we still using the S6?

[PPRuNeUser0172]

It always p!sses me off that we pamper to the whims of blunites. Turning up late and more tablets..........where do they get off. If only they knew how pointless their trg is eh?

Had a great comment a few years back, I hadn't touched the gun for over a year and after being told to take it apart, my performance was commented on by some Regt Cpl, who claimed that I was a bit rusty at which point I really felt like asking him to come and do my job once a year and I would appraise him of his performance.

Bottom line is, I could be an 'expert' in his job in 7 days, whereas it would take him 4 years to be even considered competent in mine. That is assuming he knew his @rse from his elbow in the first instance (doubtful).

Satisfying to remind the blunt one's where they come in the food chain. Any blunties reading this then I make no apologies, You know who you are, and if the RAFP (acting) Cpl is late next time I am on CCS, I will ask his Sgt to charge him.:mad:

[rock_dove]

Some valid points there DS but to say you could master his job in 7 days?! What about Rapier? Oh! ........................................:}

[Min Decent Ht]

Like many of you, I'm always embarassed to be one of Her Maj's O Corps when a buffoon gets all the drills wrong at CCS, points the hollow end of the bang stick in the wrong direction etc.
What's wrong with a night's worth of revision chaps?? The latest version of 'Survive to Fight' is available, read on, its not hard!!!
CCS 2 years ago: introduced to the SA80 for the first time. Handed one from the armoury, immediately handed it to the Reg Cpl: "never handled one of these before" I said; only the SLR, SMG, SLP, LMG, PPK etc.....
He took it off me and I was told to come back for 2 days of conversion training. Yer right. Went to another unit for 9mm instead. Anyway, better to do that instead of the Wg Cdr with me that day. He accepted his SA80 eventhough he'd never seen one in years/before, and was the 'special' person in the group. Lots of extra instruction required, in front of the troops. Embarassing to say the least; he was a bluntie though.
Bottom line: RAF=military. It may not be your everyday job to drop bombs, kill people and breaking their stuff, but first aid and weapon handling is CCS. Put some revision in, don't let the side down.

[PPRuNeUser0172]

Rock type, sorry 7 days maybe a bit ambitious, 8 probably more like it as you guys knock off for lunch at 11 and don't start back until 3, followed by the fire section at 4. which only leaves you to sign our CCS cards (in non joined up writing) to allow us to be away by 4.30 pm.

Rapier, I thought that had gone and we had relinquished airfield defence to the pro's;)

As for the SA80, there is a reason why it has been dubbed the 'civil servant'............ it doesn't work and you can't fire it.

Real officers use the pistol!

As for revising, I will be practising my nuclear bomb drill before I go next time..........really useful guys!! As is changing my canister in CS gas, I am sure that the enemy will never be as vindictive as some Regt Cpl with his 3 tablets. Oh well at least it makes him feel big and hard for a few moments each day.

[Roadster280]

Far be it for me (as a retired pongo) to have a pop at an orificer in the RAF, but:

There's certain basic standards to be adhered to in the military, of whatever colour uniform (or even nation). Some of the more obvious ones:

Polish your boots.
Iron your kit.
Cut your hair. (Dutch excepted :} )
Wear your hat.
Salute officers (if not commissioned)
Return salutes (if commissioned)
Know how to save your comrades life with basic first aid.
Know how to fire and clean your personal weapon.

It's hardly rocket science. Those that feel above these minimal standards, and then complain about slipping standards in the forces should, I feel, have an inward look every now and then. Particularly those with a commission.

[clicker]

7 days maybe a bit ambitious, 8 probably more like it....

Does that include weekends?

[woptb]

Sanchez, you could always try setting an example.Do you think the blunties look at you & think "my hero" or arrogant c0ck who can't even handle his personnel weapon!
Less self love - more humility!

[Severance]

It's hardly rocket science. Those that feel above these minimal standards, and then complain about slipping standards in the forces should, I feel, have an inward look every now and then. Particularly those with a commission.

Agreed. It's challenging enough to get my lads to trip along for their annual CCS without my 'superiors' bleating too. Once a year guys, unless you're deploying; in which case you may find it handy.

[212man]

"some Regt Cpl with his 3 tablets. Oh well at least it makes him feel big and hard for a few moments each day."

One tablet makes me feel hard for three days, so God knows what three tablets does to you....:uhoh:

[PPRuNeUser0172]

212man:ok:

wotpb

would that be personal weapon or is what you describe something more sinister. The only personnel weapon I can think of is JPA:}

will buck my ideas up and start setting an example.............

[snapper41]

CCS would be a lot easier to bear without all the Regt tea/NAAFI breaks built in; get rid of them, and get it over with an hour earlier!

What did wind me up last week was having to do IRT prior to deploying, and watching/listening to all the same stuff I'd done on CCS the week before. Is this really needed?:confused:

[BEagle]

I can understand why your guys still plink away with the SLP, get a First Aid refresher and a firefighting refresher.

But NBC?

"YOU HAVE SENSED HAN NUCLEAR HEXPLOSION" - throw self down in mud with arms tucked underneath and wait for the next Rock-bollox.

"THE SECOND BLAST WAVE HAS PASSED!" - remove bits of people, vehicles, vessels and structures from the armour-plated NBC suit about your person, then do the 'GAS GAS GAS' thing and trudge off to the respirator test facility - 'Gas Chamber' is non-PC - to enjoy Sgt Psycho and his little pellets....

Who has all the WMDs all ready and primed to deliver nuclear nasty? Al Qaeda? The Taletubbies? Certainly not Saddam, eh Tony?

I would have thought a bit more gun, sorry, 'weapon' time and first aid/fire fighting would have been of more use than fartling about with canister changes and pretend combopens.

Lord, how I miss my S10!

[snapper41]

[QUOTE=BEagle]
Who has all the WMDs all ready and primed to deliver nuclear nasty? Al Qaeda? The Taletubbies? Certainly not Saddam, eh Tony?
QUOTE]

Maybe North Korea, after today's news?

[theedmancometh]

We have what seems to be a very similar course, called Core Military Skills (includes First Aid, Basic fire fighting, rope work, civil defence type stuff, exactly the same NBC drills [taken from the British Forces], shooting etc).

After its recent introduction, everyone from the CAF down has to do the initial one week course, and a two day course annually thereafter. I had the ACC (an Air Commodore) on my initial course, and he actually enjoyed it.

Although a tedious course, with little relevance to my trade, it did remind me I'm in the military. Also allowed my to brush up on my shooting, which was a useful catchup, and a good change of scenery.

Sure you have to put up with a Provost for a week (Air Security over here), but it's only another crap Air Force pre-requsite, just like Drill and having to salute Officers. Even if some of them are royal pratts.(ABSOLUTELY nothing personal intended towards any PPRuNers, just speaking from some personal experiences).

[Spit the Dog]

Arrive a few minutes late, in a flying suit...then announce..."Sorry I'm late Corps, I've forgot me gas mask, what time we going in the gas chamber and by the way, theres no bullets in me gun!" Good Luck.

[Vim_Fuego]

Never believe the gits you work with who, having just done CCS, proceed to wind you up that it was an absolute milk run/walk in the park/they let you cheat on the exam experience...
I got put through the wringer then put through again!!! Bloody boiling hot day as well.
I think, with all the pre-deployment courses we endure anyway at the moment and with the need to pinch at every penny that perhaps CCS could:
a) Be reduced to once every 18 months.
b) Really, really be looked at and as somebody mentioned earlier perhaps take out much of the nuclear content and concentrate more on the first aid and perhaps a bit of crisis management...I mean, it could be you that is caught up in the next mass act of terrorism in this country.

[South Bound]

IMO there is a balance to be struck.

Firstly I don't believe that people are exposed to weapons training and first aid enough. I fired on a 100m range this year for the first time, at the same time firing live rounds for the first time in 8 years. I think we are getting better at this but we are deploying all our people with their personal weapons at the moment and everyone should be completely comfortable and confident in handling and firing them. Once a year in the SAT range is not enough to achieve this - where are the opportunities to work on marksmanship? CCS is such a rush to fit everything in.

Secondly we need to look at the relevance of some of the content. Perhaps putting the NBC element on a 2-yearly cycle might help. Get the rules of engagement video redone to make it relevent to ops - as it stands it is useful for the guard force but does not address thorny issues like facing mobs of unarmed locals having a riot. Oh and make all the B:mad: y speakers turn up on time and be enthusiastic!

[Compressorstall]

Thanks for all the advice anyway. I ended up doing the course today and I saw some hard working Rocks running a course that was just a bit tired. The skills they went over are skills we should all have now, but it wasn't too bad.

[rock_dove]

Sanchez, The Rapier comment was a (somewhat crass) attempt at sarcasm, because I am fully aware of the Rock Apes forced relinquishing of the Rapier to the RA. Im no Rock Ape, was just trying to use your comment to poke some fun at our slanted foreheaded RAF Bretheren. Didnt work obviously, i'll just get me (NBC) jacket!:O

[cooheed]

CCS would be a lot easier to bear without all the Regt tea/NAAFI breaks built in; get rid of them, and get it over with an hour earlier!

What did wind me up last week was having to do IRT prior to deploying, and watching/listening to all the same stuff I'd done on CCS the week before. Is this really needed?:confused:

Been watching this thread with amusement and will just throw in my tuppence worth (for what it's worth)! CCS is, as you are all aware, a HQSTC mandated annual soiree to keep them happy that they are providing the good old 'duty of care' for their military personnel. How it is delivered comes down to personalities and not content.

Agreed no real nuclear threat but you guys must be aware of ROTA or are memories of Chernobyl and Bhopal and the likes that distant as well as the threat of dirty BC devices.

Unless they are making their own show, the only duplication on IRT from CCS should be ROE and weapons.........

I'll batton the hatches ready for the incoming...:)

[WE Branch Fanatic]

Don't you do a live shoot every year?

[vecvechookattack]

Can someone put me out of my misery please. What do Core Common Skills consist of? What do you have to do?

[ZH875]

Can someone put me out of my misery please. With Pleasure, but I think I am at the back of a very long queue!!:)

[althenick]

vecvechookattack,
It s just a guess here but to you and me it would be the prerequisite courses for going to sea (assuming your GS)
1/ Sea Survival
2/ NBCD+DC
3/ Firefighting
I dare say the Crabs and Pongoes have their own variant which involves becoming Rambo for a day.

[WE Branch Fanatic]

CCS is an RAF thing, I think a PPRuNe search should be informative......

It was. See here (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=213876&highlight=core).

althenick aeyou thinking of the BSSC?

[althenick]

WEBF

I left in '96 - Those were the courses I got, Though I dare say they're called somthing completely different now.

[sirsaltyhelmet]

It always p!sses me off that we pamper to the whims of blunites. Turning up late and more tablets..........where do they get off. If only they knew how pointless their trg is eh?


Do you really consider CCS to be pointless?

[vecvechookattack]

Reading the link it would apear that CCS is on a similar tack to our BSSC and ISSC. The BSSC is a one day course and the ISSC is a 5 day marathon.

BSSC is easy - Sit in a classroom, jump down an escape schute into a liferaft, go to the lake and then jump into a liferaft...tea n stickys and go home.

ISSC is a different kettle of bones. Fighting fires, plugging holes in the ships side (and bottom) NBCD, crisis, mayhem and derision.

[WhiteOvies]

Actually enjoyed ISSC last time I did it. Mind you for the DRU they said: "so you're a WAFU, stay in this section, do what you can, and stay out of the way of the dabbers." Which I did. CCS on the other hand was a pain in the arse but it may just have been the RAF Reg guy who ran it.

[South Bound]

CCS just about to change for the RAF - will soon be an additional full day of first aid, I think equivalent to the Army Battlefield first aid course. Anyone want to bet that the full day won't be good enough for the H&S people and we will have to do some more to keep them happy?

[WE Branch Fanatic]

VVHA

BSSC is five days as well, you're getting it confused with the one day sea survival bit..........

[vecvechookattack]

Yeah, I must be. I thought the one day jumping around course was the BSSC....apologies if Im mistaken....I really ought to do it again sometime.

[Lara crofts pants]

I've read this thread with interest.

The bottom line is that CCS is something that we all have to do, so just accept the fact and get on with it. It's only once a year for Gods sake. People who whinge about it are, in my experience, not very military type people and are more at home behind a desk or route flying than running around with a gun.

The Regt guys at Lyneham have a good attitude towards CCS and try to make the day as painless as possible. If, however you turn up with "attitude" then you are asking for trouble, and serve you right if you get dicked around a bit.

If you had to book your CCS day through JPA, then that would be something to whine about.

[arthurwellington]

Lara Crofts Pants

I'll second that. It's usually the whinger who fires the spring out the arse end of the rifle and needs talking through First Aid. Personally I find the annual First Aid refresh quite useful.

That said, the tick test is a joke and by the time the 20th person has extinguished the fire in a bucket the novelty wears a bit thin.

Arthur

[dallas]

I agree with Lara Crofts Pants (how many times have I got to write that sentence in a lifetime). CCS isn't necessarily my favourite day of the year but I do think we need it and the formula is about right. I do feel sorry for the Regt instructors who have to teach it day-in-day-out but most do a good job.

We do have other distractions that are less worthy of taking people away from their primary duties and although IRT/IDT etc seem to have been rationalised, there was talk of a pre-det sand shovelling test; it's only apparent reason for being seems to be to redress the balance following the recent loss of other pointless pre-det training. If going out-of-area was simple, everyone would want to do it :hmm:

[Maple 01]

What I never quite grasped was the point behind the relatively recent introduction of pre-deployment training for the Falklands that involved tents, sleeping out, singing songs around the camp fire etc - I mean by that time I'd already done three tours and knew how to live in an ISO! (no namby-pamby MPA for Maple) So what was it all about and has it stopped yet? Now if it had been an intensive drinking course I'd have understood

And to all those that had to sit through my IRT brief on Afghanistan - sorry

[RayDarr]

Sorry if I missed the point, but I always thought that keeping myself alive, and making sure my mates stayed alive was my Primary Duty. Therefore, we should start our military/air force/matelot lives by learning this stuff, and refresh it so regularly that it is second nature. After that we can all run off and be ship/tank/airframe drivers.
Good joke Sanchez, you are "aving a larf" right? Nobody can be that much of a c**t and be serious. I know that the Rocks are not as glam as you guys who fly supersonic aluminium rocket ships, or whatever you do, but if things ever get seriously cocked up, I'd rather have a Regt gunner close by me than a stuffed jet jocky with no jet.
Have fun out there.

[airborne_artist]

CAS has noted comments about unsuitability of CSS for pre-deployment trag, and the following will become the new syllabus:
1. Sleep on a bed in the garage.

2. Replace the garage door with a curtain.

3. Six hours after you go to sleep, have your wife or girlfriend whip open the curtain, shine a flashlight in your eyes and mumble, "Sorry, wrong bed."

4. Renovate your bathroom. Hang a green plastic sheet down from the middle of your bathtub and move the showerhead down to chest level. Keep four inches of soapy cold water on the floor. Stop cleaning the toilet and pee everywhere but in the toilet itself. Leave two to three sheets of toilet paper. Or for best effect, remove it altogether. For a more realistic deployed bathroom experience, stop using your bathroom and use a neighbor's. Choose a neighbor who lives at least a quarter mile away.

5. When you take showers, wear flip-flops and keep the lights off.

6. Every time there is a thunderstorm, go sit in a wobbly rocking chair and dump dirt on your head.

7. Put lube oil in your humidifier instead of water and set it on "HIGH" for that tactical generator smell.

8. Don't watch TV except for movies in the middle of the night. Have your family vote on which movie to watch and then show a different one.

9. Leave a lawnmower running in your living room 24 hours a day for proper noise level.

10. Have the paperboy give you a haircut.

11. Once a week, blow compressed air up through your chimney making sure the wind carries the soot across and on to your neighbor's house. Laugh at him when he curses you.

12. Buy a trash compactor and only use it once a week. Store up garbage in the other side of your bathtub.

13. Wake up every night at midnight and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a saltine cracker.

14. Make up your family menu a week ahead of time without looking in your food cabinets or refrigerator. Then serve some kind of meat in an unidentifiable sauce poured over noodles. Do this for every meal.

15. Set your alarm clock to go off at random times during the night. When it goes off, jump out of bed and get to the shower as fast as you can. Simulate there is no hot water by running out into your yard and breaking out the garden hose.

16. Once a month, take every major appliance completely apart and put it back together again.

17. Use 18 scoops of coffee per pot and allow it to sit for five or six hours before drinking.

18. Invite at least 185 people you don't really like because of their strange hygiene habits to come and visit for a couple of months. Exchange clothes with them.

19. Have a fluorescent lamp installed on the bottom of your coffee table and lie under it to read books.

20. Raise the thresholds and lower the top sills of your front and back doors so that you either trip over the threshold or hit your head on the sill every time you pass through one of them.

21. Keep a roll of toilet paper on your night stand and bring it to the bathroom with you. And bring your gun and a flashlight.

22. Go to the bathroom when you just have to pass gas, "just in case." Every time.

23. Announce to your family that they have mail, have them report to you as you stand outside your open garage door after supper and then say, "Sorry, it's for the other Smith."

24. Wash only 15 items of laundry per week. Roll up the semi-wet clean clothes in a ball. Place them in a cloth sack in the corner of the garage where the cat pees. After a week, unroll them and without ironing or removing the mildew, proudly wear them to professional meetings and family gatherings. Pretend you don't know what you look or smell like. Enthusiastically repeat the process for another week.

25. Go to the worst crime-infested place you can find, go heavily armed, wearing a flak jacket and a Kevlar helmet. Set up shop in a tent in a vacant lot. Announce to the residents that you are there to help them.

26. Eat a single M&M every Sunday and convince yourself it's for Malaria.

27. Demand each family member be limited to 10 minutes per week for a morale phone call. Enforce this with your teenage daughter.

28. Shoot a few bullet holes in the walls of your home for proper ambiance.

29. Sandbag the floor of your car to protect from mine blasts and fragmentation.

30. While traveling down roads in your car, stop at each overpass and culvert and inspect them for remotely detonated explosives before proceeding.

31. Fire off 50 cherry bombs simultaneously in your driveway at 3:00 a.m. When startled neighbors appear, tell them all is well, you are just registering mortars. Tell them plastic will make an acceptable substitute for their shattered windows.

32. Drink your milk and sodas warm.

33. Spread gravel throughout your house and yard.

34. Make your children clear their Super Soakers in a clearing barrel you placed outside the front door before they come in.

35. Make your family dig a survivability position with overhead cover in the backyard. Complain that the 4x4s are not 8 inches on center and make them rebuild it.

36. Continuously ask your spouse to allow you to go buy an M-Gator.

37. When your 5-year-old asks for a stick of gum, have him find the exact stick and flavor he wants on the Internet and print out the web page. Type up a Form 9 and staple the web page to the back. Submit the paperwork to your spouse for processing. After two weeks, give your son the gum.

38. Announce to your family that the dog is a vector for disease and shoot it. Throw the dog in a burn pit you dug in your neighbor's back yard.

39. Wait for the coldest/ hottest day of the year and announce to your family that there will be no heat/air conditioning that day so you can perform much needed maintenance on the heater/ air conditioner. Tell them you are doing this so they won't get cold/ hot.

40. Just when you think you're ready to resume a normal life, order yourself to repeat this process for another six months to simulate the next deployment you've been ordered to support.

[Compressorstall]

Wow AA

Did you have a bit too much time on your hands? All this started from asking if anyone had done their CCS recently! We need to work on these skills and it gets you out of the office for a day and a chance to wear your DMS and puttees again...

[Toddington Ted]

AA

You haven't been reading "Love my rifle more than you" by Kayla Williams have you perchance?!:}

[airborne_artist]

Just because I'm chairborne doesn't mean I'm a fat f:mad: cker - just means I'm faster on Google than most - lifted it from a site Stateside.

Talking of Boots, Direct Moulded Sole, and Puttees, here's a picture of AA from The Telegraph of August 8th 1981, wearing said foot/ankle wear.

http://www.hrmconsultancy.net/images/personal/telegraph1.jpg

[Maple 01]

And very smart you look too - bring back the puttee

[Compressorstall]

Aah, the joys of the para bergen and the L1A1 Self Loading Rifle. Reg or TA hill-walker?

[airborne_artist]

In fact they were true FNs - with no carry handle above the breech, and without firing pins, for Selection use only. TA, hence the Artist in the moniker. ISTR that the Bergen was Regt issue only, but I could be wrong on that. Certainly possible to get >100lbs into it when required.

[Compressorstall]

The SAS Para bergen and the joy of bergen blister...

[airborne_artist]

Blisters from a Bergen - a new one on me - though I avoided blisters on my feet by wearing a pair of RN Officer's tropical socks underneath a stout pair of walking boot socks. I'm still the only graduate of BRNC to get badged :ok:

[cooheed]

I've read this thread with interest.

The bottom line is that CCS is something that we all have to do, so just accept the fact and get on with it. It's only once a year for Gods sake. People who whinge about it are, in my experience, not very military type people and are more at home behind a desk or route flying than running around with a gun.

The Regt guys at Lyneham have a good attitude towards CCS and try to make the day as painless as possible. If, however you turn up with "attitude" then you are asking for trouble, and serve you right if you get dicked around a bit.

If you had to book your CCS day through JPA, then that would be something to whine about.

JPA bookings??.....................Itsa coming!!:ok:

[FOMere2eternity]

CCS can be a giggle too if you listen properly. Last week I was told by the instructor that Diana was patron saint of landmines...

:O

[SaddamsLoveChild]

Dirty Sanchez - Ok I am going to bite - you are the reason the rocks get pissed off they are just doing the job to the best of their ability and as dictated by some STC mandarin. I love it everytime some arrogant aircrew mate like you pisses them off cos it makes it easier for me. Your responsibility is to your mates in the most basic of senses, if they have a heart attack or are in an RTA with you then you just might be glad you listened (they will be).

Once your trusty steed is shot out from underneath you and you are footracing it across the bondoo you just might be glad that you spent some time getting to know your green skills. If I have to come to get you, putting me, other troops or anyone elses in danger then I hope you are good enough to evade the orange boiler suit and penknife treatment or at least be alive long enough to make it worth our while. Ive been shot at and mortared and only my underwear tells the real story.......I am not a rock, have a brevet and know from experience that the only way you get proficient with a weapon is to use it, there should be a full day on the range for anyone going OOA other than the FI.

Its a day out the office and a chance to meet others from across the Stn, of course if you are a w:mad: r and dont want others to realise it then I completely understand your reticense.

If you dont want to be a team player.....go fly civvie, and stay away from me.:ok:

[Now a 'J' Bloke!!]

Dirty Sanchez - Ok I am going to bite - SNIPPED

So sactimonious ...and crap spelling.

Suggest you visit the EjooKayShun Senter instead of the Rock Depot next time!!!
:ok:
More LAter;
'J' Bloke!! ..:cool:

[GreenWings]

Aaah, CCS. Joy of joys. As one of HM's O Corps, I make sure that I set the example in CCS. Yes, its a nause, but a few short minutes revising what *should not* be new information to you will pay dividends. The tick test isnt exactly difficult and handling a weapon, well, again, it isnt the most taxing hting in the world. But if it is, we have all still got our CCS Aide Memoirs, havent we chaps?

To be fair to the Rocks that have to go through this EVERY SINGLE WEEK, give them their dues. In my experience, they have all been pretty good at the teaching and lecturing. How many other people out there manage to put a smile and laugh into the same old presentation about the same old stuff week in, week out. It makes what is a very prescriptive and occasionally irksome day bearable. Do you really think that they enjoy having a bunch of uninterested numb nuts rock up and sit there blankly for a day?

It is time, though, that the system changed. We all do CCS every year, or are supposed to. Many also do IRT at least once a year. Many of the topics are the same, so why not combine them? Have a 2, 5, or 10 day course depending on your unit or war role, go and do the training and get all the ticks in the boxes, including getting gassed properly - hurrah - and live shooting. None of this practice the NBC drills and stand around talking about it cos the Gas Chambers broke, and SAT range because range time and bullets are too expensive.

If we are going to do it, then do it properly and prepare people properly to go on ops without making them do stuff twice. Currency on IRT can be gained by doing a 1 or 2 day refresher every year. That way there is no need to faff around getting IRT courses booked when you get a no notice deployment or have to do yet more CCS style MST in the Falklands when you've already done CCS and IRT and know which bit goes bang and have a green bit of paper to say so.

AA - liked the new CCS plan. It might just work. Cheers also for the TVAM GW vid. Spot on!

cheers. -GW-

[Roadster280]

FWIW,

I was asked by a friend if I would like to join the shooting team. I found range days on the shooting team to be a WHOLE LOT different to the annual tick in the box event. They were enjoyable. And guess what? I learned to shoot accurately. Much more so than basic training and the annual testing.

Like anything else in the world, what you get out is a function of what you put in.

I did like AA's quote from the US though!

[Chillwinston1]

Right guys a bit of advice please. Got ccs next week and while the first aid, written exam should be ok the rifle drills may be a bit of a shocker.
The only time i have done them was at IOT (3 years ago) and i haven't seen a rifle since (my fault as well as the training systems). As such some crash revision is badly needed. Am i best off by just confessing my sins to the REGT Flt and hoping one of the guys is kind enough to offer a bit of tuition/revision beforehand or are the drills in hard copy somewhere so i can refamiliarise myself?

[Yeller_Gait]

Winston,

There is no problem at all saying that you have not touched a rifle for 3 years, they will give you the time you need and it is not a race. You just need to know the drills so that if you do have a stoppage on the range, you will be safe.

Y_G

[serf]

Why has it taken 3 years to get to a SH OCU?

[Chillwinston1]

Why has it taken 3 years to get to a SH OCU?

Start IOT, then hold, EFT, then hold, DHFS, then hold!!!

Seems to be a familiar pattern. Just like all the guys and gals i joined with as a DE spent as much time holding as training!!!:*

[Number2]

Not much has changed since the 80s then!

Dirty Sanchez,

With comments like 'Real officers use the pistol!', you really are a tool.

Don't forget your badges for CCS! Wouldn't want to go to war without them!