And of course the Uniform is Blue Grey because some bean counter realised there was a whole lot of material in storage that the Tzar had ordered for his Imperial Guard, but the deal fell through with the Russian Revolution see him off.

Drifting a bit but I had a Police colleague who accidentally ran over a lad on shift. He became known as Virus. F*cks PC's.
Similarly anyone vertically challenged can expect to be known as Laptop, a small PC.

I knew a guy in the RAF, surname Tupper who was known as Woppi.

Our blue uniforms from the Russian Revolution - a QI myth, I'm afraid. The original RAF uniforms were much lighter in colour, but these were replaced with what we have now around 1920.

Here's an extract from the RAF's own good book on culture and heritage:

Here is a piccy of the original colour of uniform:

http://www.britairforce.com/images/r..._1918_lb_a.jpg

Is that BEagle's first uniform.... :E

But surely the original colour set a precedent of the blue grey that was just tweaked a bit from the original shade, based on experiance gained from the first version.

Shortly after East Pakistan was given its present name in 1971, a Nav surnamed Daish commited some blunder or other. His boss, a Cornishman of celebrated wit, berated him in front of the other Navs, coining one of the best nicknames ever:

"You're a Bungler, Daish!"

Rather large female Ops SNCO that was nicknamed the Oppopotumus
Rather large rigger called the Jillderbeast (no prizes for her first name)
Mate with the surname Leah, he was called Princess

How about a C130 pilot I knew, "Trackless", because his legs were so short his backside obliterated his footprints.

A newly arrived mech on my Sqn in Germany who had no charisma whatsoever was given the name 'Kelvin'.

He was a tad miffed when he found out it wasn't anything to do with being cool! :E

I gather that in the mid seventies there was a WRAC warrant officer who lived in the RAF Aldergrove sergent's mess. She was apparantly quite big, fat and ugly and was known as the Kangorilla Kid.

One evening a (strangly) inebriated member grabbed a bottle of whisky from the bar and declared.
"This is for the one that has her!"
To this she grabbed another bottle and said.
"And this one's from me."

Then there was 10BA at the former Wiltshire air base, so call for being the smallest screw on the line :\

"Crab" does indeed come from an associated antiseptic insecticide unguent, as I was told many years ago by an ancient two-and-a-half "looker" by the name of "Darkie" Holroyd, who must long since have gone to the big crewroom in the sky.

The full version - which was still current in my early service - was "crabfat" which was indeed the nickname of the specific issued against pubic lice, ie crabs.

Its colour was precisely that of the then (whenever that was) RAF uniform, be it the current blue/grey or the transient ex-Russian sky blue.

I think it was in the same conversation that one discovered the delightful French phrase for crabs (of the pubic variety): "Papillion d'amour" - butterflies of love!

Peppermint Jam, well remembered, forgot about the Jillderbeeste!

10 Gauge (metal thickness) - thick as f**k and hard to work with.

NI late 90s - very nice lady aviator tagged "Pegasus"! Those who knew her will get it straight away, for those who didn't she was orthodontically challenged...

Old Fella
 

Once had an engineering officer of similar physical characteristics, know to one and all as 'Drag'.

Sqn Cdr at Gutersloh in the 80s was called 'LOMBARD'
Lots of money but a right d*ckhead.

TAPS. Thick as pigsh*t.

The Stn Cdr of a certain station Somewhere in England was also known as 'Kelvin' - or more properly, 'Kelvin Rucksack'.

An absolute zero who everyone has had to carry at one time or another....:\

There was also a Flt Cdr navigator, affectionately known as 'Admiral Zig Zag' - Admiral because he once did an exchnage tour at BRNC as whatever the fish heads call a flight commander and Zig Zag for his navigational skill. As one pilot once put it, after yet another heading change to regain track (long before the days of FMS or AP NAV mode), "Doesn't he know a number smaller than twenty?".

Teeters

I recall Darkie Holroyd from Church Fenton, second half of 1969, when I passed through there on a HSP course (forget the number); he tried to teach us navigation, among other things, and I remember him as quite an intimidating character.

Another instructor, civilian met man, was known as "Brian the Snail" (Magic Roundabout reference), partly because of a passing resemblance to the gastropod and partly beacause he was a bit slow (in his subject delivery).

Mister B

Another nickname for a certain Flt Cdr was 'Castor'....

It thinks it's a wheel, but is easily pushed about!

Just to add to the confusion regarding the origin of the name "Crab" I heard yet another one that is quite reasonable.

In both the Army and the Navy there is a limit to how many paces a formation can move sideways but the RAF has no such limit. Thus they became known as Crabs...

Just passing on what I heard... ;)

Editing for retarded spelling... :uhoh: