Fareastdriver
I chose that method so as to impress on this senior non-commishioned officer that, despite his apparant attitude, he was a member of a fighting service and as so should be familiar with things that go BANG
As I thought. You were not obliged to cycle all the rounds through the breech as you first claimed. You choose to do so. You also, in an attempt to belittle this SNCO in front of your peers, wilfully ignored the correct drills for the weapon. Not exactly a textbook Load, Unload or Make safe was it?
I'm sure the SNCO, who would likely have handled weapons once a year on GDT, not on a daily basis as you would have in Aldergrove was suitably impressed. It is also possible that as a SNCO he would have had SMG on his green card and not SLR. He possibly had not handled an SLR for several years.
Given the RAFs attitude to the control of ammunition I totally agree with his insistence on individually counting the rounds. He after all would be signing for taking custody of your weapon, 2 magazines and 40 rounds of live ammunition. How was he to know that is what he was receiving if he didn't check it physically?
At Aldergrove did you receive the magazines pre-loaded? Did you hand them back in loaded? Or did you, like us mere mortals, stand in the shelter to the left of the load/unload point and remove the rounds and put them in the little trays, point up so the armourer could check that all the rounds were indeed live and not blanks?
Incidentally having served 2 years in Aldergrove and been qualified on the SLR and SLP and in later years the SA80, if I had seen anyone do what you did and I outranked them, I would have done my damnedest to get them charged.