So did my Mess Dress. I took a Puma up to Catterick to do a week's lugging guns around for IIRC 15th Field Regiment RA. Chatting to them on the blower the previous week they mentioned that they 'Dined on Tuesdays'.

On the Tuesday I, and Paddy Walsh were in Mess Kit, as were all their officers.

I was cheesed off when they wanted my pencil box back and wouldn't just sign it off. I really didn't care about the rest of the stuff as I seem to have gained extra flying suits, boots and gloves as time went by. Most of that kit is still in the loft and I'll fit back into it.....one day :-)

Compare and contrast that with the Yanks. When I said goodbye to them (following an exchange) they asked me what stuff I wanted to keep and were not in the least bit interested in what I did or did not have. I was literally offered the harness/life jacket affair that we used to wear and the oxygen mask etc but I decided the days of those sorts of parties were probably long gone. I kept all the flying suits, flying jackets etc and still have the helmet. As well as fitting into the flying suits, one day, I think I'll get the helmet modified with a microphone.

All this will look great at the flying club, especially when I climb into a Cessna 172 :-)

In Borneo in 1966 we were lumbered with the Aertex tropical flying suits. They would really make life miserable when you were shuttling around the jungle clearings.

The alternative was the Australian Flying suit made out of lightweight breathable Nomex that the Royal Air Force refused to stock.

The Army did so a signalled request for one to Brunei and two days later out it came on a chute from a Beverley.

Everything that went out of a Beverley was Class C stores so I didn't even have to sign for it.

It lasted until I was tourex in Singapore five years later.

Primarily the beret? Good grief, man - were you selling onions?

;)

I did say my "working" SD hat. I kept my best one for best.

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.

Having two S.D. hats was quite useful at times.

"No , he just must be somewhere else in the building, his hat's on its peg."

PN. Re the Falklands bomb, if it was the incident in the makeshift medical facility, the officer concerned, OC No 1 EOD, was awarded the QGM for his action.

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.

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.

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

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!)

Actually, TT, it was the spurs!

Hope all's well with you?

The clue as to our whereabouts was that we were sitting at the front of a socking great helicopter. Even wearing green and brown cam cream on our faces (don't ask) didn't hide that fact.

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.

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.

We had them too, but not up to ones knees.

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

Beagle
So you think that the airmen who serviced your aircraft are 'onion sellers', do you??