Originally Posted by Command_doh

Hmmm, well, that would be telling wouldn't it. Seeing as I don't think we are supposed to mention real names. But if I said he was a tall chap, fond of telling improbably bullshit laden - stories about every part of his life/experiences, spoke with a brummie accent, had eyes that seemed to focus in different direction and had an aversion to taking any kind of order and participating in PT would it ring a bell?

Would love to know what unit this was, as I reckon he must have done a dozen by now (Would have thought he would have been flagged after the RFA ammo incident), he was also a AI with Cadets and took some hooky pyro on their camp, don't think he was kicked out for that!

An OCDT, in the days of DETAPO. For some reason he had (or thought he had) been given a command appointment in a provincial det. On an ex he was fucking rude to an attached Canadian officer (ex-inf, had been blown to shit in kandahar, med down graded and had been told told to re-role as INT), who for the purposes of the ex was his OC. He even went so far as to try to question the Canadians judgement in getting injured - apparently incured pulling his boys out of an AFV under fire - and pontificating about all things INT despite not even being trade trained. This pissed of the lads no end, words were had to no avail and some bright spark realised that as a OCDT he was subject to AGAI action by, well pretty much everyone. Unfortunatly the RSM found out so the word came down that on no account was anyone to even think about it.
Apart from having a silver spoon firmly inserted in his rectum and the people skills of a corpse, It turned out he couldn't shoot for shit and was as unfit as fuck.
Last heard of inviting some of the juniors from his det to lunch at the C&G club. There were a few raised eyebrows but in a triumph of hope over experience the guys thought that maybe he was just trying to be decent. As this lunch date corresponded with some duty or other in town they were in uniform and turned up expecting to get changed only to find themselves being paraded around and introduced to daddy's friends as "my soldiers". I would imagine the club was as unimpressed as they were.

When i transfered to my local infantry unit i was in the waiting room ready to have an interview with the Recruiting OC when an RLC TA soldier walked in and sat down next to me, he was wearing a SAS beret with RLC capbadge. It was the first time i saw any RLC bloke with said beret and so asked him about it.

He then rattled on about being attached to 21 but on passing selection didnt like the cocky attitude of his fellow badged comrades and wanted to transfer, he claimed he knew all the PTI's at malta barracks personally as they were bezzers. I couldnt clarify any of this but had my doubts considering he was a chubby bloke. He did transfer and turned up to a few drill nights, the recruiting staff at my unit must of sensed a bullshit and told him he had to take training weekends 7,8 and 9 before going to catterick. I asked him why he had to go back to billy basics if he had done some sort of selection for 21, he didnt know himself but said he didnt mind to prove a point and said catterick would be easy stuff for him.

On not seeing the bloke for ages and having completed my CIC i asked some guys about him and it turned out he biffed out on a TAB on one of the weekends. After being abused by his fellow recruit had a meltdown and asked to be taken of the rest of the training weekends, then returned to my unit handed in all his kit never to return again.

I did a hang gliding course many years ago in the Brecon beacons, there were a bunch of normalish odds and sods from all over the army, and one chap from either 21 or 23.
He turned up every day in various bits of uniform and gash faux military kit (DPM T-shirts that kind of thing), and always had a little day sack with maps, binos etc in it.

anyhoo, a lot of hang gliding involves sitting around on hills waiting for the right conditions, so we'd all be there in our civvies, eating lunch and chatting, but not our super soldier.

He'd grab his lunch and his day sack, put his binos around his neck and set off for the nearest high ground where he'd sit on his own for hours, until the weather became favourable for flying.

I don't know what he learned from setting up an OP overlooking Merthyr Tydfil, perhaps he was just keeping his skills up.

Also, I don't believe that he uttered more than a couple of words over the entire duration of the course, you've got to keep up the mystique.
Funny little man.

Originally Posted by the_creature

When i transfered to my local infantry unit i was in the waiting room ready to have an interview with the Recruiting OC when an RLC TA soldier walked in and sat down next to me, he was wearing a SAS beret with RLC capbadge. It was the first time i saw any RLC bloke with said beret and so asked him about it.

He then rattled on about being attached to 21 but on passing selection didnt like the cocky attitude of his fellow badged comrades and wanted to transfer, he claimed he knew all the PTI's at malta barracks personally as they were bezzers. I couldnt clarify any of this but had my doubts considering he was a chubby bloke. He did transfer and turned up to a few drill nights, the recruiting staff at my unit must of sensed a bullshit and told him he had to take training weekends 7,8 and 9 before going to catterick. I asked him why he had to go back to billy basics if he had done some sort of selection for 21, he didnt know himself but said he didnt mind to prove a point and said catterick would be easy stuff for him.

On not seeing the bloke for ages and having completed my CIC i asked some guys about him and it turned out he biffed out on a TAB on one of the weekends. After being abused by his fellow recruit had a meltdown and asked to be taken of the rest of the training weekends, then returned to my unit handed in all his kit never to return again.

Spooky, how long ago was this and did he have loads of tattoos, spider on the back of the neck (iirc)?

p.s. hope the recovery is progressing.

Originally Posted by pandaplodder

Would love to know what unit this was, as I reckon he must have done a dozen by now (Would have thought he would have been flagged after the RFA ammo incident), he was also a AI with Cadets and took some hooky pyro on their camp, don't think he was kicked out for that!

Well, I think nails were firmly hit in skull regions in your last post. The full story of how he managed to ever get to full screw in RMP never got back to the RLC, but the infantry unit he briefly joined before us wasted no time in reducing him to the ranks. Obviously, the first thing you do when meeting your new CO and associated Officers on your new trade class 3 is angrily demand when you will be given your tapes back and rant about all and sundry. Nearly a decade later....no promotions. Funny that.

The best thing about our lad is his instinctive ability to lie to everyone about everything, fabricate his previous experiences or just make it up, and generally be a real danger to himself and others.

I mean, who turns up to a weekend in the field with about 10 M16 magazines, gets banned from firing due to being unsafe and has to be closely supervised when handling ammo due to fears he might steal it?

As for cadets, that's just worrying, and most likely negligent on their part.

Originally Posted by Goatman

When I worked at LAND there was a case of a Phase 1 trainee (Reg) who caved his his section Corporal's head in with a pick axe whilst out on the Plain.
.

I was on that exercise. It was all over the fact that the Screw kept asking him to get the brews on. Circa 2002/2003

We had 4 guys do a one weekend civvy parachute experience thing. All turned up the next Drill Night in tee-shirts reading " B Coy Parachute Display Team". Piss taking bastards.

Originally Posted by the_creature

When i transfered to my local infantry unit i was in the waiting room ready to have an interview with the Recruiting OC when an RLC TA soldier walked in and sat down next to me, he was wearing a SAS beret with RLC capbadge. It was the first time i saw any RLC bloke with said beret and so asked him about it.

He then rattled on about being attached to 21 but on passing selection didnt like the cocky attitude of his fellow badged comrades and wanted to transfer, he claimed he knew all the PTI's at malta barracks personally as they were bezzers. I couldnt clarify any of this but had my doubts considering he was a chubby bloke. He did transfer and turned up to a few drill nights, the recruiting staff at my unit must of sensed a bullshit and told him he had to take training weekends 7,8 and 9 before going to catterick. I asked him why he had to go back to billy basics if he had done some sort of selection for 21, he didnt know himself but said he didnt mind to prove a point and said catterick would be easy stuff for him.

On not seeing the bloke for ages and having completed my CIC i asked some guys about him and it turned out he biffed out on a TAB on one of the weekends. After being abused by his fellow recruit had a meltdown and asked to be taken of the rest of the training weekends, then returned to my unit handed in all his kit never to return again.

now you mention it i've met a couple of blokes like this on courses etc (one REME and the other AGC i think)who are attached to 21 or 23 but are actually badged SAS (no really, they are. pukka gen no wah like) but just didnt like the arrogance/attitude of the unit. very noble of them i thought, although plastic SF must really be cunts as these obviously arent isolated cases. when you ask why they dont transfer unit completely it always seems like there's nothing else local to them. which is a shame.

Originally Posted by Roger_The_Cat

Only 3 weeks? Half of the publicity around Who Dares Wins was centered around how he was a TA Paratrooper in real life.

Now, now , now............... to be factual. I'm not clear on his 10Para training schedule. I can say with great certainty that Mr Collins attended a BPC at RAF Brize Norton. He broke his tib & fib on his penultimate qualifying jump. He was a model student throughout that particular course.