When I handed in my kit . . .
Avoid imitations
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
Posts: 14,573
Received 422 Likes
on
222 Posts
Shy Torque.
I could never understand young officers deploying to the field with SD caps.You could not even wear it from the crew-room to your aircraft.
There was a wide choice:primarily the beret: easily rolled & stuffed in a pocket. Then that horror,the side cap,always badly worn & with a
badge that did not distinguish an officer from a warrant officer. And when camouflage two-piece flying overalls arrived,a camouflage
baseball cap,also easily stowed.
My SD cap was new in 1968 and lasted until I retired in 1979; it never once went on a field deployment.
Cafesolo
Join Date 2018
Age 84
Location:
Urcal,Almeria.
I could never understand young officers deploying to the field with SD caps.You could not even wear it from the crew-room to your aircraft.
There was a wide choice:primarily the beret: easily rolled & stuffed in a pocket. Then that horror,the side cap,always badly worn & with a
badge that did not distinguish an officer from a warrant officer. And when camouflage two-piece flying overalls arrived,a camouflage
baseball cap,also easily stowed.
My SD cap was new in 1968 and lasted until I retired in 1979; it never once went on a field deployment.
Cafesolo
Join Date 2018
Age 84
Location:
Urcal,Almeria.
I did say my "working" SD hat. I kept my best one for best.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Thread Starter
FED, in '64 we could only borrow the RAAF Flying Suit and there were not enough to go around. Can't recall if they came from RAAF Suppliers or a batch loaned to an RAF Storeman. Same with jungle boots; ours were new but we had to hand them back.
On a ground tour at Wittering a VERY keen supplier recalled all ground tour aircrew kit. I cut my badges off and took the stuff back. P'd off storeman as it was now scrapped and of course I got a new issue the following year.
On a ground tour at Wittering a VERY keen supplier recalled all ground tour aircrew kit. I cut my badges off and took the stuff back. P'd off storeman as it was now scrapped and of course I got a new issue the following year.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Thread Starter
SB, no idea, I do know he was a flt lt and the fuss was not that he was wearing an SD Hat but that the RAF Officers did not have a field service cap. We only got cabbage kit in 81 or 82 in UK.
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hanging off the end of a thread
Posts: 32,880
Received 2,825 Likes
on
1,205 Posts
Got mine in 76 when I arrived at Odius, it was redesigned post Falklands to have a quilted separate liner and was thinner jacket wise, this was because the older lined jacket they found once it got wet it took forever to dry, something they found impossible in the Falklands, so the thinner unlined jacket was introduced that could dry easier, but I held onto my lined jacket as it was warmer.
Wander00 wrote:
Sounds like a fine chap! Berets might be OK for onion-sellers, but they are distinctly un-officer like! I threw mine away after OT and never wore one again for the next 30 years. Same went for that flashers' mac thing which someone stole one lunchtime in College Hall...
I understand the need for SH aircrew to wear berets so as not to be easily spotted by the opposition's players, but for the rest of us - dear me no!
(No. I'm not really being serious. But I do hate berets!)
There was B Squadron IOT flt cdr in the earlyish 80s who always wore an SD cap rather than the beret the rest of us all wore.
I understand the need for SH aircrew to wear berets so as not to be easily spotted by the opposition's players, but for the rest of us - dear me no!
(No. I'm not really being serious. But I do hate berets!)
Avoid imitations
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
Posts: 14,573
Received 422 Likes
on
222 Posts
I understand the need for SH aircrew to wear berets so as not to be easily spotted by the opposition's players, but for the rest of us - dear me no!
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hanging off the end of a thread
Posts: 32,880
Received 2,825 Likes
on
1,205 Posts
And swagger stick.
One of the few benefits of doing the CSRO course at Mountbatten was the 'deficiency chit' issued on completion of the E&E phase - although we were cautioned not to all 'lose' our watches as that would be seen as 'taking the p***'. I can't remember having to use it as there weren't any problems clearing at Brize. Having just done a house clearance of my parents' house, I found lots of my stuff including KD, DPM, S6 respirator . . . and I kept my Pencil Box! If I'd known how useful a Douglas Protractor was for sailing chart work, I would have kept that as well.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
Thread Starter
My first issue of cabbage kit did indeed include puttees but I never unravelled them as we didn't have either the boots or lessons in wearing them. I was also issued a bag in which to carry my kit. A clear polythene bag that proudly carried during exercises. Rather than wear the tatty Mark 1 NBC suit I bought my own tuxedo version (Mark 3) in a shiney smooth material from Exchange and Mart.
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hanging off the end of a thread
Posts: 32,880
Received 2,825 Likes
on
1,205 Posts
My first issue of cabbage kit did indeed include puttees but I never unravelled them as we didn't have either the boots or lessons in wearing them. I was also issued a bag in which to carry my kit. A clear polythene bag that proudly carried during exercises. Rather than wear the tatty Mark 1 NBC suit I bought my own tuxedo version (Mark 3) in a shiney smooth material from Exchange and Mart.
Still got my large aircrew hold-all (and padlock!) - it's a bit big for week-ends! Also still have the "trunk, metal, officers" but that now serves as a herb garden for she WMBO. Only things required at Brawdy on leaving were watch, leg-restraints and g-trousers.
Bill
Bill
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hanging off the end of a thread
Posts: 32,880
Received 2,825 Likes
on
1,205 Posts
What do you expect from a bus driver 
What happens if you don’t actually have a clothing book? Mine was last seen in Army HQ Stores during my time at JHC. It’s been AWOL for at least 4 tours since then and nobody seems to have batted an eyelid on clearing.
Very interesting thread for a civvy MetPerson, thanks to all.
A brief encounter with 1BR Corps stores when I went to be kitted as a forecaster for their deployment exercises [we wore name badges and shoulder slip-ons "Met plus cockerel thing"]. Almost everything fitted, but I am a shortarse and there were no trousers to be worn with any semblance of dignity.
"Don't you have anyone vertically challenged in the army?"
"Yessir, he was in for trousers only this morning!"
Fortunately Mrs LB is handy with scissors and thread, but the dropped crutch was beyond remedy.
And an anecdote of the converse of not handing in items. Pre- WWII the QM of a RA Mountain Battery in India, foreseeing the out break of war, managed over a period of time to indent for every component, hide, and ultimately assemble a complete extra mountain howitzer. This gleaned for "Tales of the Mountain Gunners", a fine military read.
A brief encounter with 1BR Corps stores when I went to be kitted as a forecaster for their deployment exercises [we wore name badges and shoulder slip-ons "Met plus cockerel thing"]. Almost everything fitted, but I am a shortarse and there were no trousers to be worn with any semblance of dignity.
"Don't you have anyone vertically challenged in the army?"
"Yessir, he was in for trousers only this morning!"
Fortunately Mrs LB is handy with scissors and thread, but the dropped crutch was beyond remedy.
And an anecdote of the converse of not handing in items. Pre- WWII the QM of a RA Mountain Battery in India, foreseeing the out break of war, managed over a period of time to indent for every component, hide, and ultimately assemble a complete extra mountain howitzer. This gleaned for "Tales of the Mountain Gunners", a fine military read.