I had the honour of being there in the eightie's, the bloke who I went there with, wasn't impressed and got himself RTU'd in the first few day's. I stuck it out, got my licence's. the funny thing about it though, by the time I got back to my unit the bloke who'd been RTU'd had done his, in a unit run course, that really pissed me off.

The instructor that I had first off, an ex-plod, was an excelent bloke, sadly he broke his leg during the first week. So I got a new instructor, a totall w@nker, who's favorite trick was to wait untill you had passed a traffic sign and then ask you what was on it, if you didn't know, he'd ask you to find a safe place to park at the side of the road and send you back for a look. As I wasn't a sprog I didn't play this game. So I did something that caused a real stink, everyone thought that I was going to be RTU'd, well I wasn't. The DVR TRG boss was a bit pissed off, gave me a bit of a verbal. He gave me a new instructor and a gypsy's warning.

I was really glad to see the back of that place.

Toe.

Come on guys name names, i know a few instructors there

Originally Posted by polar69

Come on guys name names, i know a few instructors there

Yeah Ditto, dish the dirt guys !

Incidentally, you all filled in your end of course reports didnt you ? you know the ones that give the boss the "heads up" and get things changed

Looks like anyone wearing stripes or an MGS Uniform is a name!!!

End of course report? Christ, the only end of course admin I had when I was there was washing down your RL and last parading it, they certainly didnt ask your opinion on the training, in those days they didnt give a fcuk.

Welcome to the 21st century :P ( Whats an RL ? )

Bedford 4 Tonne RL. Then came the MK, MJ etc etc for all you variant spotters out there :P

Ah, but the RL was originally a '3 tonner', before EU got its hold on us. (I think!)

Originally Posted by Poacher

End of course report? Christ, the only end of course admin I had when I was there was washing down your RL and last parading it, they certainly didn't ask your opinion on the training, in those days they didn't give a fcuk.

Thaught someone would bite

Hopefully (he grimaced) things have or will change, any bods now should get an end of course critique, which I believe either came as ATRA Policy, or came about from ATRA inspections etc.
All training establishments have there fair share of tw**s, look in the papers this weekend, another stripey caught with his pants down, literally !
DST is no different, if you were a CO would you send your best staff up there ? Nah, you'd keep them for yourself and get rid of the problem ones, or the end of life staff.
BUT THEY ARE NOT ALL BAD, and talking to recent bods there are some real decent and helpful ones.

The civy side, well that's a little different. Most of the old dinosaurs that taught up there are retiring (thank god), theres still a few out there but the numbers are dwindling rapidly. This in turn makes way for new bods to come in, blokes a little younger, more in touch with planet earth. And more aware about what an average crow has gone through to get to this point, some are ex-mill, some not. Thanks to ATRA, and DST management the training ALL staff have to go through has been substantially up-dated, no instructor civilian side is allowed near a sprog till they've done the "TTT" course (ATRA "Train The Trainer") (or whatever it's been re-named as). Plus other mandatory courses.
But yet, there is still the odd knob out there. However you try there's always someone who slips through, and I cringe at times to see what total crap is dished out.
And as a little "heads up" to those who think the trainings poor now, DST is one of Tony Blair's privatisation projects. Anyone been on a train since they were privatised, bet the bugger was late and the service sucked. Now imagine DST with hundreds of pissed off civvies who have just lost their civil service status ! Nough said !

So the point of this essay ?
Yes DST has in the near and not to distant past been the shite hole from hell, I'm only glad I never had to grace it's doors in service. But things are changing, hopefully for the better. There are people working there who try like hell to make it work well, be a place of quality, and a place soldiers will look back and smile at, not look back and grimace .

Flood gates opened, flack jacket at the ready

Originally Posted by Mighty_doh_nut

I went through leconfield in 1989 and was almost suicidal at the end of it.

I spent twelve months in Juniors then a further three months in depot being treated like a turd, onyl to arrive at that swamp to have any amount of drive and ambition stamped out of you by a load of trog tossrags.

There was a RSDG provo Sgt there (Juzenka)???? he was an upity old cnut too

The best part about the place was that the driving instructors went on strike and we were sent home on leave for three weeks.....twice :D

Jutzrenka.........Joobs! He was as thick as a whale omlette.

I was spammed for guard duty once during the week, when the RP shift didn't have enough manpower. Whilst stood on the gate with Joobs breathing down my neck and chunterring about something or other, a relatively fast flying Lynx passed quite low overhead. One of the front crew (can't remember which side it was) was looking down at us and waved. Being a polite young Tom and impressed to f*ck that I'd been waved at by a pilot, I waved back. The helicopter tore off into the midday skies.

Then came a very clear question from Joobs..........."Wha wiz that?"

"It was my cousin" I lied.

"Think yer flash coz yer cuzzins a pilot dae ye" retorted Joobs.

That aircraft was doing X amount of miles per hour at a couple of hundred feet. Like I would recognise the pilot?

Joobs, you were one of the thickest f*cks I ever met in my entire career.