Common Core Skills
TAC Int Bloke
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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
And to all those that had to sit through my IRT brief on Afghanistan - sorry
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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.
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.
Red On, Green On
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New syllabus for CCS
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.
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.
Thread Starter
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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...
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...
Red On, Green On
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Just because I'm chairborne doesn't mean I'm a fat f
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.
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.
Red On, Green On
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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.
Red On, Green On
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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 
Alba
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Originally Posted by 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.
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.
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CCS Validity
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 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.
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
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.
Last edited by SaddamsLoveChild; 20th Jul 2006 at 21:16.
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Originally Posted by SaddamsLoveChild
Dirty Sanchez - Ok I am going to bite - SNIPPED
Suggest you visit the EjooKayShun Senter instead of the Rock Depot next time!!!
More LAter;
'J' Bloke!! ..
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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-
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-
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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!
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!
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sa80 drills
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?
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?
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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
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