Unusual Defect

[tankhunter]

Oh well..........me and Peter on our old PARA pay were duped for many years as we thought. Good cause subsidising the REME and AAC so don't feel so bad now

Hey Gil I an recall a case of a Mess Collegue with 3 Para in B.A.O.R, when I was with them. He had an ND (Negligent Discharge) on the Range. & as per Proceedure dictated. The weapon was cleared & removed from Him. Tagged & Packaged up & came to Me for an Armourers inspection/examination. As he stated the weapon had gone off by itself.

As He was also a fellow Senior NCO & a very decent Chap. He came to me in a bit of a state, knowing what might happen if the weapon actually were not defective!......

Well, aid inspection/ examination thoughly carried out by yours truly. & you guessed it, nothing wrong whatsoever with the Rifle (L1A1) So.......What to do I thought?......
After stripping the trigger meh housing components out. I proceeded to 'Play' with the sear bent on the hammer, & also the engagement bent of the sear. Introducing 'wear' to these parts. So that when you cocked the rifle, SOMETIMES the bearly engaging faces of those areas would allow the hammer to fly forward. Imitating uninitiated firing!........
I did this so it wouldn't do it every time, but you COULD get it to do this a few times.

My report stated that with tollerances at the minimum end of the scale on both components. Combined with wear to them also. This would/ had indeed caused the Weapon to Fire 'Inadvertantly'!...................Case dismissed, & aforementioned SNCO was dropped from potential serious consequences to his Career.
Not a thing I would do normally naturaly. But this chap was a VERY decent Bloke & looked after his Men excellently. He was also under great strain with serious Family difficulties. & we in the Mess felt for Him.

I warned him that if anything EVER happened like this again (Which I put my hand on my own heart & state, it wouldn't) I would not be able to dig him out again!...

Result was, I never had to buy a beer in the mess again. & when he was moved into the QMs dept, to the clothing store. I never went short of woollie Pully's Or Para Smocks!
I had an excellent spare set of issue clothing, that was tailored to perfection also!....

Not really the thing to do of course. But this case was the exception to the rule. & I never had to resort to anything like that again, Thankfully!

So Gil, HIS PARA Pay was VERY well received in Beer to THIS R.E.M.E Armourer! LOL

---------- Post added at 04:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:19 AM ----------

Hey Tankie, I know your out of the mob now but did you see the NEM for the armed forces? The top earners are Army Air Corps pilots and there welcome to it for the job they do. Next up was the RLC Ammo Tec! WTF, an ammo storeman gets paid higher than any other trade in the military!!

BP, The extra pay for ammo techs is because they are at risk from blowing themselves up all the time. Rendering Inert, all the 105mm Shell cases we are always asking for. To convert into mess Bells with the Punisher motief cut out & filed into the side!....LOL

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[Gil Boyd]

Yes we have all done that for people and hoped and prayed, noone ever looked any closer at unravelling the truth.
The good old days where one had the power to change individuals lives by being in such an important position such as Armourer....................or in your case QM's Stores.
Hope you still have the smocks, they are like "rocking horse poo" and make some good money.
I was recently presented by the author, a £40 definitive book on smocks of the Airborne Forces, and never realised in any depth just how many and how valuable certain smocks were, followed by one on Airborne Special Forces Headress.
I know also, so we don't hijack the thread that there is one on the Bren variations which I think someone spoke about a while back.
Great stuff