Drinking Culture in the RAF Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.
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PN Yes, know what you mean. A couple of us sneaked into a porn film show in some dodgy place down by the docks. When the lights went up half the bloody squadron was there!
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First night in Bruggen we ended up in the local Brothel, not by choice I may add, having piled out of the NAAFI us newbies asked a taxi driver to take us to somewhere where the bar was open and there were a few girls, straight into Elmpt and dropped off we walked into a darkened room and up to the bar, camera flickered into life showing a porn movie, and a load of semi clad women appeared............ the penny dropped LOL and we beat a hasty retreat.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
As I said, like Nutloose, only there for the beer and then led astray by a tanker crew.
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of course you were
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Sounds a bit like the 'Screws of the World' journalist's standard line when investigating brothels, dodgy night clubs etc. 'When we were offered sex, we made our excuses and left!'
Ah, the timber yard somewhere in Singapore...
......I remember that for the denoument of the evening (early morning hours??).
No crappy movies for us - the live thing. Towards the end the rather bored looking girls asked if anyone wanted to be the centre piece of the finale. The co (why is always the co? young and stupid I suppose) lurched up onto the "stage thingy" and fell forward through the flimsy wall into the next cubicle. He sort of bounced back into our bit followed by the top half of naked and very angry Chinee (obviously interrupted on the vinegar stroke) shouting "I going to fl**king kill you" and looking as if he reeeeeely meant it. Cue the crew grabbing to co who was half out of his trou and tumbling down the stairs and fleeing into the night giggling fit to bust. It was a long walk most of the way back to Tengah.
Bugis street is very sanitised nowadays my wife thought it was a bit dull but the food was OK-ish. Oh well.
The Ancient Mariner
No crappy movies for us - the live thing. Towards the end the rather bored looking girls asked if anyone wanted to be the centre piece of the finale. The co (why is always the co? young and stupid I suppose) lurched up onto the "stage thingy" and fell forward through the flimsy wall into the next cubicle. He sort of bounced back into our bit followed by the top half of naked and very angry Chinee (obviously interrupted on the vinegar stroke) shouting "I going to fl**king kill you" and looking as if he reeeeeely meant it. Cue the crew grabbing to co who was half out of his trou and tumbling down the stairs and fleeing into the night giggling fit to bust. It was a long walk most of the way back to Tengah.
Bugis street is very sanitised nowadays my wife thought it was a bit dull but the food was OK-ish. Oh well.
The Ancient Mariner
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I keep reading about how things have become much less boozy in the past 20 years. I left 25 years ago and I thought how tame it had become then!
By the way the Gouthwaite guy was not "pissed", he was found to have traces of alcohol in his blood. He was one of the first batchelors to take advantage of the ability to live out. One of the opinions was that, had he been living in, there would have been peer pressure to keep him in line. I was unaware of a subsequent blitz on drinking but there was a great deal of information made available about the rate at which alcohol metabolises in the body and we were given the ability to calculate at what time to stop drinking after the quantity consumed against the time to airborne. Got very complicated - I could never manage it.
By the way the Gouthwaite guy was not "pissed", he was found to have traces of alcohol in his blood. He was one of the first batchelors to take advantage of the ability to live out. One of the opinions was that, had he been living in, there would have been peer pressure to keep him in line. I was unaware of a subsequent blitz on drinking but there was a great deal of information made available about the rate at which alcohol metabolises in the body and we were given the ability to calculate at what time to stop drinking after the quantity consumed against the time to airborne. Got very complicated - I could never manage it.
"Mildly" Eccentric Stardriver
Roughly three hours per pint of the standard stuff, and even that would trigger the alarms in civil aviation nowadays. Most beers now seem to be about double that strength.
Interesting expression Pontifex: By the way the Gouthwaite guy was not "pissed", he was found to have traces of alcohol in his blood.
Infantry back in the late 80's I think it was an offence to be found with traces of blood in your alcohol.
Ex Caltrop Force was an exercise in California early 1989 to test interoperability. On ex were the 7th Inf Div (light), our hosts in Monterey Cal, 2 Para from the poms, the Canuks sent 3PPCLI and there was us 6 RAR from Australia. Back home in Brisbane, the Officers Mess bar was a place of parade after work - you had to be there and woe betide anyone who wasn't married sneaking out before 6pm. Most session lasted until - well, who reads the time anyway when they are hammered.
Nearly every Aussie unit had an Officers Mess, Sgt's Mess and diggers club. It was part of the culture. When we arrived at Fort Ord - the entire division had just 1 O Club - surprise number 1. When asked why there were so few people frequenting the place (seemed fairly decent) surprise number 2 was you got reported to the base Drug and Alcohol rehab service if you were found in the place more than a couple of times a month.
Of course, that didn't stop us or the poms from being there every night for a few (we were on our mostly best behaviour) - I guess you could say that was a foretaste of the way things are going in today's military. Not quite as restrictive at the US policies, but instead of subbies getting full of the idiot soup and heading out on the town, nowadays they are as likely to grab some energy drinks and settle down to some online gaming. Probably good skills practice for modern warfare...
I got out of the military fairly young - first thing I did was to stop the grog altogether for a year - I could see that I was possibly heading down the wrong (dependancy) path. Still enjoy the odd red wine or beer or two now - just nowhere near the same quantities as when I was young and stupid/pickled.
Infantry back in the late 80's I think it was an offence to be found with traces of blood in your alcohol.
Ex Caltrop Force was an exercise in California early 1989 to test interoperability. On ex were the 7th Inf Div (light), our hosts in Monterey Cal, 2 Para from the poms, the Canuks sent 3PPCLI and there was us 6 RAR from Australia. Back home in Brisbane, the Officers Mess bar was a place of parade after work - you had to be there and woe betide anyone who wasn't married sneaking out before 6pm. Most session lasted until - well, who reads the time anyway when they are hammered.
Nearly every Aussie unit had an Officers Mess, Sgt's Mess and diggers club. It was part of the culture. When we arrived at Fort Ord - the entire division had just 1 O Club - surprise number 1. When asked why there were so few people frequenting the place (seemed fairly decent) surprise number 2 was you got reported to the base Drug and Alcohol rehab service if you were found in the place more than a couple of times a month.
Of course, that didn't stop us or the poms from being there every night for a few (we were on our mostly best behaviour) - I guess you could say that was a foretaste of the way things are going in today's military. Not quite as restrictive at the US policies, but instead of subbies getting full of the idiot soup and heading out on the town, nowadays they are as likely to grab some energy drinks and settle down to some online gaming. Probably good skills practice for modern warfare...
I got out of the military fairly young - first thing I did was to stop the grog altogether for a year - I could see that I was possibly heading down the wrong (dependancy) path. Still enjoy the odd red wine or beer or two now - just nowhere near the same quantities as when I was young and stupid/pickled.
Last edited by Mk 1; 4th Jul 2013 at 07:06.
VINEGAR STROKE !
Not heard that expression in 50 years!
Oh Oh!
Not heard that expression in 50 years!
Oh Oh!
Gentleman Aviator
you got reported to the base Drug and Alcohol rehab service
Questions were asked when word got around that wifey had a G&T waiting for him after work every day!!
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Wot's wrong with brothels?
PN : Where I used to live in BKK the only foreigners were a French guy, ex para, and a great laugh, meself and this moaning English sod who'd met his Thai wife in a whorehouse in Singapore.
A lot of the gals over the way used to work in the 'Happy House' - a mere 5 minute walk away and one minute from Bumrumgrad hospital. (R&R?). So, on Sunday afternoons we'd take a stroll up for beer and watch the fish bowl as the clientel was about 90% muslim. Funny as bits.
Eventually the gaffer decided that we were driving too much business away and paid us to go elsewhere - a real score, being paid not to come back.
He told a Tuk Tuk where to take us, ten minutes away. Never had noticed the place before. It was called 'Campbell's' which cracked us up. Me being a Scot an' all.........Transpired the Mama San was the laundry lady where we lived. Great Fun.
Spent Hogmanay 1997 locked in there with an American pal - they locked the doors at 10pm and the party began. We weren't there for services, but just a 'Hello' (And the beer was super cheap). What a laugh. Pizza and rum for brekkies anyone with a bunch of mostly semi clad duskies?. Some not clad at all. Can't make it up. (And they are volunteers before the sex police and social workers here decide to have a say).
A lot of the gals over the way used to work in the 'Happy House' - a mere 5 minute walk away and one minute from Bumrumgrad hospital. (R&R?). So, on Sunday afternoons we'd take a stroll up for beer and watch the fish bowl as the clientel was about 90% muslim. Funny as bits.
Eventually the gaffer decided that we were driving too much business away and paid us to go elsewhere - a real score, being paid not to come back.
He told a Tuk Tuk where to take us, ten minutes away. Never had noticed the place before. It was called 'Campbell's' which cracked us up. Me being a Scot an' all.........Transpired the Mama San was the laundry lady where we lived. Great Fun.
Spent Hogmanay 1997 locked in there with an American pal - they locked the doors at 10pm and the party began. We weren't there for services, but just a 'Hello' (And the beer was super cheap). What a laugh. Pizza and rum for brekkies anyone with a bunch of mostly semi clad duskies?. Some not clad at all. Can't make it up. (And they are volunteers before the sex police and social workers here decide to have a say).
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
TT, on one trip, this Calvanistic Scot (not a co-pilot) asked his crew where to go.
To a man they said the "Wankee" massage parlour in JB. They made the name up on the spot. Off he trotted to, where else, the Wankee massage parlour!
To a man they said the "Wankee" massage parlour in JB. They made the name up on the spot. Off he trotted to, where else, the Wankee massage parlour!
English sod who'd met his Thai wife in a whorehouse in Singapore.
I spent a few years on exchange with the Air Force of one of our European neighbours where alcohol was stored unsecured behind the bar in the crewroom and night flying always ended with a few beers for aircrew and groundcrew together. Likewise ceasework on Friday. There was never any intention of getting drunk, it was just a social gathering and a great mixer for all ranks. A refreshing change from Brit drinking "culture"!
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"the Officers Mess bar was a place of parade after work"
Very much the case.
I noticed a change in the drinking culture of the Aust Armed forces
around the same time the RAF stories on here portray. But up until
the late 80's in any unit I served in, mess at lunch and afterwards
in quantity for Regular army seemed to be standard.
Very much the case.
I noticed a change in the drinking culture of the Aust Armed forces
around the same time the RAF stories on here portray. But up until
the late 80's in any unit I served in, mess at lunch and afterwards
in quantity for Regular army seemed to be standard.
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Well I have just spent a week in Munich on business and I have just proved that my drinking culture and work hard, play hard ethics still exist big time 
But I am looking forward to the flight home later today
Some great posts here, thanks
But I am looking forward to the flight home later today
Some great posts here, thanks