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Post by phil on Oct 18, 2009 9:29:48 GMT 12
There is little after hours culture on base at all, but then that is not surprising as so many people own their own homes in Marton/Feilding/Palmy, so they just go home. MQs are pretty empty, and people don't live on for very long once they posted to base.
The amount of car pooling that goes on now probably adds to this. You can't really stay and hold up the rest of the car pool.
Even armament happy hours wind up pretty quickly after 1630!
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Post by phil on Oct 17, 2009 16:18:40 GMT 12
I find MSS OH to be a fairly soulless entity.
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Post by phil on Oct 17, 2009 8:45:18 GMT 12
The take the glove off when they go up to receive their brevet and trophies, they put it back on again before marching back to their parade positions. It lets them shake hands with the RO.
Yes, we all noted the 'Top Gun' thing too - that was the headline from a newspaper article at the time of the parade.
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Post by phil on Oct 16, 2009 9:29:13 GMT 12
Waiuoru is a bit run down, as the army spent a few years trying to decide whether they were going t okeep it manned as a perminant camp, or cut it right back to a place they use to visit for training (like Tekapo). I think the decision has now been made to keep it, and there are programmes in place to tidy it up.
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Post by phil on Oct 15, 2009 20:48:30 GMT 12
www.army.mil.nz/culture-and-history/nz-army-history/historical-chronology/1827.htmThat's a pretty good link, although it doesn't really name places. Looks like 1863 is a pretty good date for the regular force, although there were acts passed in 1845 relating to raising local militias, which can be likened more closely to the TF. I thought this bit to be interesting: 1885 4 May Cabinet agreed to “sanction the expense of 1000 well-trained men, one fourth to be Māori, for active service in Afghanistan ….”. The offer of New Zealand troops was never taken up by the Imperial Government in London.
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Post by phil on Oct 15, 2009 20:42:36 GMT 12
I didn't realise it was that early, I thought it was still the British army at that stage, plus a lot of local militias, and units like the fencibles and forest rangers.
My Great, great + Grandfather (the first of our family to arrive in NZ) came on the Ship the Inchinon (sp?) in about 1856 and served as a Fencible. He was a retired British soldier who had served on the North West frontier before settling in NZ.
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Post by phil on Oct 15, 2009 20:18:50 GMT 12
To back up the fact that Waiouru is considered the home of the army, they established their Marae there.
But as for where it started, I'm not sure. When did the NZ army actually come into existence?
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Post by phil on Oct 15, 2009 19:54:58 GMT 12
Command and staff is tri service at Trentham.
The army may not have started at Waiouru, but they have been there long enough now to establish the tradition, and it is pretty much the home of the army, even though most of the army don't actualy work there full time, they all start there, and have done for generations.
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Post by phil on Oct 10, 2009 23:19:49 GMT 12
Great pic Gavin, was this the recon model without guns. No. None have guns any more. It's only a 10 minute job to fit and remove the guns anyway, actually it takes longer to do the paper work.
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Post by phil on Oct 8, 2009 9:00:00 GMT 12
They were used, to promote New Zealands foriegn policy by participating in FPDA and other commitments. It's all about projecting national power, and that's what they did.
2 SQN flew them full time in Australia, and 75 spent months each year flying them in Asia and Australia.
That's using them. That's showing our regional neighbours and trading partners that we are active members of the community and a country to be taken seriously, both militarily and diplomaticaly.
Just considering 'using them' as dropiing bombs on bad guys is pretty narrow minded and ignorant of the NZDFs purpose as a tool for projecting national power.
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Post by phil on Oct 7, 2009 17:13:16 GMT 12
What about the Macchis?
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Post by phil on Oct 6, 2009 6:06:39 GMT 12
The rank is honorary, and 'expires' in 2011.
There is nothing stopping him joining the RF, under normal conditions of service, as anything he likes (and is capable of/holds the educational pre-requisites for). He's just as eligible to apply to join the RNZAF as anyone else.
We have guys in their 40s joining (and I think there was a 50 yo on R1 this year - refer one of the airforce news articles).
Just because he holds the honorary rank of SQNLDR at the present, hardly precludes him from signing up later on as a 'normal' recruit/OCDT and going through the system.
But given the rather large pay cut it would entail over his current earnings, I agree the reality would make it unlikely.
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Post by phil on Sept 17, 2009 17:35:10 GMT 12
He started as a helicopter pilot, didn't he? And he's a graduate of the Empire test pilot school, so I guess he can fly pretty much anything...
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Post by phil on Sept 12, 2009 18:43:30 GMT 12
Just starting the wind down of the fleet, as far as I know.
I haven't heard what the ultimate fate of the Iroquois is to be.
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Post by phil on Sept 12, 2009 18:11:43 GMT 12
Iroquois 3812 had it's last flight yesterday. Flown by ACC and CO3, Steve Moore and Wax Mardon.
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Post by phil on Sept 12, 2009 16:01:01 GMT 12
What, the paddling pool? Or the five star accommodation?
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Post by phil on Sept 11, 2009 11:55:01 GMT 12
No one said either the FRS1 or FA2 was a crap fighter.
They were both extremely capable fighters, especially the FA2 with it's look down shoot down Blue Vixen radar and BVR AMRAAMs.
Comments were made by someone about it's poor payload when taking off vertically, and you can't argue the toss on that point.
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Post by phil on Sept 11, 2009 6:48:36 GMT 12
Umm.. no it wasn't, that was the Sea Harrier FA2.
The FA2 was an evolution of the British FRS1, and not of the BAe/MDD GR5/AV8B collaboration.
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Post by phil on Sept 10, 2009 9:59:51 GMT 12
Well someone mentioned Sea Harriers, and who do you think would end up maintaining them? Me. So from the point of view of a current serving person who would end up working on whatever type could be purchased, I'd say it is a bit relevent. Of course I know you realise my post was firmly tongue in cheek.
FWIW, I love british aircraft, from a distance.
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Post by phil on Sept 10, 2009 7:05:05 GMT 12
Whilst I don't fully agree with the remark about British manufacture, Well given the choice between working on a 40 year old british design and even a relatively old (F16/F18 era) American design, I know which is significantly better designed from a maintenance perspective. The british seem to start with an obscure component in the middle and then build an airframe around it, bolting things on with odd sized fastners (like penny slot). To complicate matters, many older british airframes seem to be hand built by 150 year old craftsman in flat caps, who make each one slightly differently, hand forming components and making small changes not shown in drawings and IPBs. Americans on the other hand seem to have leant something from Henry Ford, and mass produce identical airframes designed to be maintained by the lowest common denominator.
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