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Post by expatkiwi on Aug 31, 2012 12:13:06 GMT 12
When I told CAP cadets here in Arkansas about bedpacks, they didn't believe me, so I demonstrated making one, then showed them both the "flight test" and the "drop-kick test". The latter was a particular favorite of Sergeant Gus Warner at R6/82.
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Post by expatkiwi on Aug 31, 2012 12:16:20 GMT 12
I was on R3/87, and things were pretty tight then too. Still getting yelled at (I think was on the cusp of that sort of thing was changing...), still had bedpacks (tried to explain to the kids what they were, and their importance, to no avail..) And still had SLR's! None of those namby pamby plastic guns for us, oh no, laddie.... PS anyone have a photo of a bedpack, just for old time's sake? Here you go, Jonesy... Attachments:
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Post by jonesy on Aug 31, 2012 12:31:11 GMT 12
Thats a great photo! Thanks for that. Very much doubt I could make one like that today....can barely get the duvet straight enough!
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Post by phil on Aug 31, 2012 12:43:50 GMT 12
Thats a great photo! Thanks for that. Very much doubt I could make one like that today....can barely get the duvet straight enough! Same here. We had bedpacks in 96, and still got yelled at. Windows had been replaced with aluminium joinery by then, so no brass latches to polish. I don't recall bedpacks on basic enge, except perhaps for the occaisional standby inspection.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 31, 2012 13:03:52 GMT 12
Yes for my Basic Engineering Course the bedpack was only a once a week thing, thankfully.
Beagle, were you at GSTS in the days when they did a whole year there? Today that would be worse than a prison sentence.
That photo brings back memories. Yes I'd struggle now making a bedpack too.I wonder when they were invented, probably some ancient British Army thing no doubt.
Is that a trophy on the Duchess?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 31, 2012 13:09:42 GMT 12
By the way till I got to GSTS I had never ever heard of a chest of drawers being called a duchess, and had no idea what a counterpane was. Are they real words or just RNZAF jargon? I have not encountered them since either.
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Post by expatkiwi on Aug 31, 2012 15:01:29 GMT 12
Yes for my Basic Engineering Course the bedpack was only a once a week thing, thankfully. Beagle, were you at GSTS in the days when they did a whole year there? Today that would be worse than a prison sentence. That photo brings back memories. Yes I'd struggle now making a bedpack too.I wonder when they were invented, probably some ancient British Army thing no doubt. Is that a trophy on the Duchess? It is, but it wasn't mine. This pic is of a friend's rack. He won the award at Graduation.
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Post by phil82 on Aug 31, 2012 16:06:19 GMT 12
take it a pint at the bar was a thrupence Ah... now you're taking the piss Beags, but to answer your question I have no idea what beer cost, in any Club or Mess, at any time because if you wanted to drink, you paid the going rate, which was immaterial in the general scheme of things. I was 'in' from the late 50,s all of the 60s and 70s, and part way through the 80s, and I had better things to do than count beer money!
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Post by raymond on Aug 31, 2012 17:36:16 GMT 12
Beagle, were you at GSTS in the days when they did a whole year there? Today that would be worse than a prison sentence. In the 70's GSTS (Adult entrants and females) was at Wigram and the "Boy entrant school" was at Woodbourne. They did away with the boy entrant stuff (under 17 I think). GSTS eventually moved up to Woodbourne. Had a friend do the year thing he didn't mind too much and had a good time (secret parties and that sort of thing). I decided to do the GSTS thing for 3 months
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Post by beagle on Aug 31, 2012 17:45:23 GMT 12
Me Dave. I was R5/80, just a quick 3 months A year, I think I might have gone crazy. Ending up in a corner sniffing brasso. We used to use this thick blue stuff for cleaning the windows with, anyone remember what it was called.
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Post by davekiwi on Aug 31, 2012 18:05:03 GMT 12
Me Dave. I was R5/80, just a quick 3 months A year, I think I might have gone crazy. Ending up in a corner sniffing brasso. We used to use this thick blue stuff for cleaning the windows with, anyone remember what it was called. Window-lene (?) and newspaper being da best way to clean windows. heh - Guss Warner -- didn't run into him at GSTS, but did when doing Basic Engineering. Remember being in hospital - concussion from "kissing the ground" whilst playing rugby and the damm bugger still trashed my room coz it wasn't in "inspection state". Didn't matter that I was actually in hospital .....
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Post by phil on Aug 31, 2012 18:06:55 GMT 12
By the way till I got to GSTS I had never ever heard of a chest of drawers being called a duchess, and had no idea what a counterpane was. Are they real words or just RNZAF jargon? I have not encountered them since either. Me too.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 31, 2012 20:38:02 GMT 12
The stuff we were given to clean the floors was not blue, it was an icky grey-white and was called Attaway, something else I have never encountered since. They don't polish the barrack floors now, I'm told they have carpet.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 31, 2012 20:45:52 GMT 12
We had F/Sgt Gus Warner, sort of a cross between Battery Sgt Major Williams from It Ain't Half Hot Mum, with all the bull and bluster, and Paul Tuttle Senior form American Chopper, with all the atitude! He seemed to thrive on his job, which was mainly scaring people and yelling.
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Post by beagle on Aug 31, 2012 21:47:48 GMT 12
we were talking about windows, not floors Dave. you can still buy attaway
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 31, 2012 23:23:29 GMT 12
Sorry. Yes Windowlene for the windows. Is that what you are thinking of? It wasn't 'thick' when I used it, it was liquid.
I remember how No. 1TTS took on the strong smell of Windowlene every Thursday as we polished all the external and internal windows and that building's strange air conditioning system pumped the smell round the whole building. It was illegal to use toilet paper with the windowlene but paper towels were fine.
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Post by expatkiwi on Sept 1, 2012 2:26:53 GMT 12
We had F/Sgt Gus Warner, sort of a cross between Battery Sgt Major Williams from It Ain't Half Hot Mum, with all the bull and bluster, and Paul Tuttle Senior form American Chopper, with all the atitude! He seemed to thrive on his job, which was mainly scaring people and yelling. He could also be a very caring person on occasion. Some of us noticed in R6/82 when he used a shower that he had a set of lips tattooed on his right butt-cheek. It made for a new verse in the song "Woodbourne Blues"...
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Post by paddy on Sept 1, 2012 11:28:06 GMT 12
I did my recruit course 1n 73 at Wigram. On Thursday inspection you soon learnt to leave something small but obvious wrong. They spotted that and went away happy. I specialised on leaving Brasso on one of the window fittings or a pair of underpants in the laundry sack. One guy's bedspace was IMMACULATE and they spent 10 minutes going over it. They finally got him by pulling out his drawers and found dust on the runners. Re bedpacks, we stole the empty fruit boxes from the back of the mess, broke them up and used the wood to support the bedpack as all the blankets were different sizes and it was impossible to get it square otherwise. At the end of our course we got to polishing the copper toilet cisterns where the paint had fallen off. The Barracks might have been shabbby but they were immaculate shabby!
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Post by expatkiwi on Sept 1, 2012 13:50:38 GMT 12
The Barracks might have been shabbby but they were immaculate shabby! I couldn't have put it better myself!
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Post by beagle on Sept 1, 2012 17:18:49 GMT 12
Just a swell the spoutings were not copper or they would have had them polished as well
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