Smle mk v

[Peter Laidler]

Thanks lads. I had to chuckle! I hope you did too....... Mind you, it NEARLY happened once. I was a Sergeant (A TA reservist.....) and me and my pal had driven down for miles and miles from the Scottish training areas in a clapped out old Bedford RL and decided to stop at an Engineers Depot in Ripon, late in the evening. The cook sloshed us up something just edible to eat and the Mess found us a room and bed to kip on with sheets and blankets instead of sleeping bags and tents or the back of the truck. We had just the barest of civillain clothes between us and after a shower, went down to the bar for a drink. Only to be told that we had to wear ties and a bloody jacket! We should have known really..... But if we went out into the back room and drank our couple of beers and crisps it'd all be sort of OK unless the Orderly Sergeant saw us - which he did!

Next morning we paid our bill and there was a note from the RSM, telling us to report to him at 0915. Well......, we wanted to be gone by about 0800 and our combats (combat clothing and boots) were filthy. Anyway, we didn't clean up as he was bound to understand the two hard and overworked reservist Sergeants on the Military Training Team. But no....., he didn't understand and went on to tell us about not bringing a civillian tie or jacket with us as well as the usual gibberish they spout!

I was due to be commissioned in the next few weeks and really felt like saying something like '.............' You know what I mean! But I felt a nudge in the side from Sgt 'Lash' Langford as if telling me to '......you've only got a few weeks of this shxx left and you're out of his hair' So it went in one ear and out of the other. Filled up the Bedford with petrol and off we went. Least said, soonest mended!

I wouldn't have minded, but he followed the telling off with a note to my unit at Banbury........... My boss, another paratrooper, Capt Jock Fox called me in, ripped it up in front of me and without another word said '....off you go'

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[arkshooter]

[QUOTE= Only to be told that we had to wear ties and a bloody jacket! We should have known really..... But if we went out into the back room and drank our couple of beers and crisps it'd all be sort of OK unless the Orderly Sergeant saw us - which he did!

/QUOTE]

Reminded me of the "Erol Flynn" character in the McAuslin Novels by George McDonald Fraser. The waiter told Erol he couldn't come in unless he had on a tie. Erol used his pistol lanyard as a tie, and dared the waiter to say anything.