The last of the 'old style' SWOs I remember was Joe Coley - SWO at Khormaksar in the mid '50s and the epitome of the breed - near naked skull, 'razored' cap peak, boots that would dazzle you at 80 paces, pace stick ever 'at the ready' - frightening for we young aircrew NCOs.
The classic talent of verbal abuse was, for me, however, best shown by an RSM at the Cheltenham Tattoo in the 60s. We had done a winching demo in the Tattoo arena and had to be Land Rover-ed back from our Landing Site for the Final Parade. Our driver was a young Army lad and rather overdid the speed as we turned into the arena, which was spotted by the Parade RSM (all gold and glitter with ENORMOUS 'Tate and Lyles'). Once the parade was complete, he bellowed for the young driver's Sgt to present himself and proceeded with a bollocking which contained no repetitions, deviations etc. and pointed out the deficiencies in this NCO's supervision of his driver's training!!
A privilege to see and hear!!
