Spekesoftly,

That chap in your photo is smoking, and in uniform too, disgraceful! Where on earth did you find such an image, the airman in it should be on a charge!:=

FB:)

'Sergeant, take that man's name!'

Snap FB

Sgt Wilson's reply: "I don't need to take his name Sir, I know it" ;)

Really Wilson, when I ask you to take a man's I expect you to write it down so you know you've taken it.:)

I also wonder what Pte Fraser would make of all this.

.
On the subject of name taking, (pardon the thread-drift), in a former life as a Parks & Wildlife ranger, I was counselling a miscreant who was inclined to be a bit difficult.

A Senior Ranger, who happened to be passing by (an ex-Bobby, BTW) rushed up and said to him...
"I'll have you know, sir, I'm empowered to take your name!"

I'm still laughing about that one.
.

Trim stab sounds like a park ranger.. Dressed in a Gestapo coat and Jack Boots.

Keep Off The Grass! Or you vill be shot..

No Smoking in Uniform! It is verboten.. And I vill tell you off..

Pick up your dog's mess! You grubby little man..


Jeez, first rate plonker. :=

In my day one was discouraged from going off base in uniform due to the IRA threat so not much chance of the general public seeing chaps in uniform smoking.

Mind you, one was positively encouraged to go to the scruffs bar at any time of day or night after a 9 hour sortie plus 4 hours brief/debrief, have a round ie 4 or 5 pints and then drive home. And as there were only 5 married quarters on base, we all jollied off onto the public roads. Double standards? Different culture in those days I know.

I've got embarrassing memories of going into a shop to buy some fags in Ripley, Derbyshire while manning a Green Goddess during the 1977 Fireman's strike. I was in my RAF uniform complete with yellow painted tin hat.

Everyone turned round, looked at me, started clapping and parted to let me get to the front of the queue. Quite a humbling moment.

p.s. trim stab..... get a life. :ugh:

I am now ashamed to be on the side than won WW2 !
I've seen far too many photos and film clips of dying aircrew being given a cigarette by medics as they are carried away from their battle damaged Bomber on a stretcher after landing.

What a disgrace to our country and no wonder no one wanted to give these men and their filthy habits a memorial for several decades !

:)

It does make me feel ashamed when people I've worked with try to pull this stunt, thinking they deserve better treatment or a reduction in price from a family owned small business. Despite the fact they've stayed in the UK working behind a desk.

There's plenty of other occupations who contribute just as much to society, who we could not do without. Yet they don't walk around in uniform just to get special treatment.

I never ask for discount because I don't think I've done anything special. I'd feel embarrassed to cash-in on the bravery of others.

Ah, come on techie, he only wanted to buy a packet of cigarettes.;)

Shack, I'm guessing your ;) indicates you know what techie is on about, and I'd like to back him up.

What he's talking about is the habit that is creeping over from across the pond. The American public, racked with guilt for the despicable way they treated their guys returning from Vietnam have swung the other way, so that now every clerk in the Pentagon who's never set foot out of the US gets a round of applause and thanked for his or her service.

I've said this on here before, and got roundly condemned for it, but I am right behind gr4techie on this one. Serving in this country's armed forces should not make you feel entitled to any special treatment -I except of course those returning from Afghanistan, etc, minus bits of themselves, who are entitled to all the respect and practical help we can give them. But as for the rest of us expecting to be applauded and expecting discounts for just having done our jobs and been reasonably well paid for it - well count me out.

TTN, hear, hear. Absolutely right

Trim Stab......Judgmental or what!!!!....Grrrrrrrr....
 

You are talking a crock of sh@t. What makes you think he was going to smoke in uniform with his hat on and outside the confines of a building or vehicle?? You are a first class prat....What has.... 'where he was going to smoke the cigarettes' got to do with you? Mind your own f@cking business and wind your measly neck in you supercilious git! :E:E:E:E:E:E

DD,

No say it as it really is - don't dress it up in diplomatic language!

I totally agree with you.

ACW

Since you've taken my original post and turned it to your own ends, I'll make it clearer. The serviceman concerned was not trying to get to the head of the line, nor was he asking for a discount. He was trying to BUY a packet of cigarettes, which is perfectly legal. My point was that in some other countries not only would he have been served, but probably served with a smile. I'm not saying we should give preferential treatment to every serviceman, nor treat them as gods; just be normally courteous. OK, the young lady made a mistake; not the end of the world.

Trim Stab
Location: Heart of Darkness


Says it all really.

Bang on Target Tankertrash,

I was stationed at Ramstein in the early eighties and the mawkish uber apologetic sentiment was embarrassingly cringe making. Broadcast on AFN, actors and so on were recruited to make a farrago of "feel proud of yourselves after all" type ads. And you're spot on, it contrasted acutely so with the scenes and sentiment reflected whenever the Vietnam era was the subject.

FB:)

FB

I spent 4 years at Ramstein and recollect that the majority of those AFN radio vignettes were about Fraud, Waste and Abuse of public (US Govt) money and facilities (amd invariably the military police were made to look foolish); the other recurring theme was advice from the US (Army or Air Force?) Master Fitness Trainer - Maj Hank Schwader - about drinking water during and after taking physical eaxercise:ok:

Mister B