Army Rumour Service

Register a free account today to join our community
Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site, connect with other members through your own private inbox and will receive smaller adverts!

couldnt find a suitable thread so stuck it here.

I was talking to a good friend of mine today who is 20 years younger than me and was in the Anglians saw lots of action in two campaigns yet we spoke on equal terms so it made me wonder .

What is it about the military which makes us bond after differing service patterns , time served seen action or not .

I haven't seen some of my oppos for years for years but we pick up as if it was yesterday , my mate today did 9 years got shot at and shot people , I did 4 regs two T.A and was pissed all the time but there is no hint of power play or one upmanship. Apart from the obvious banter that is.

Now Ive been in in clubs and societies for 20 0dd years at a time, professional institutions for 17 plus city clubs life member of ward clubs etc etc . As you can probably see I am a gregarious joiner.

So why is it do you think that when you leave these clubs youre dead meat to them no matter how long to worked with them ?

Yet a couple of years in the mob back in the 70's opens many doors to me from friends and strangers alike , once you establish credentials verbal or other ...
just what is it that makes us like this .? Even Coppers or Firemen dont have our camaraderie.

I hope this make sense .
 
I know what you mean. At work there are several ex-Service bods and regardless of what each served in or for however long, there is an almost instant connection. No pissing competition apart from, as you say, the banter and it’s almost as if we’ve got each other’s back.
We had a works night out last year and the ex-Services gravitated together and it was almost like being on the lash in the NAAFI or in the pubs in the local town. We probably had the best time out of everyone from work.
 
I only very recently joined Facebook, needs must! Found the page for my old Regt, just as soon as I’d proven who I claimed I was, it started!
The banter, piss take and the mateship all came back, even after 40 years! It’s fcuking great!
 
I was invited by good friends to their cousins birthday two years ago. I'd met him briefly a couple of times. He was RA regular at the time, Lance Bombardier.

We got chatting and had nothing in common. He had zero interest my service, couldn't give a rats arse about NI, thought the SLR (quiet at the back) was shite, he told me he'd fired it on a range day.

He's the only 'modern' soldier that I've ever chatted to and frankly, the conversation we had, had a real impact on me.

Perhaps the age gap was too great (for him) but it did make me sad. I certainly had empathy for all soldiers who joined well before my time.
 
Last edited:
I was invited by good friends to their cousins birthday two years ago. I'd met him briefly a couple of times. He was RA regular at the time, Lance Bombardier.

We got chatting and had nothing in common. He had zero interest my service, couldn't give a rats arse about NI, thought the SLR (quiet at the back) was shite, he told me he'd fired it on a range day.

He's the only 'modern' soldier that I've ever chatted to and frankly, the conversation we had, had a real impact on me.

Perhaps the age gap was too great (for him) but it did make me sad. I certainly had empathy for all soldiers who joined well before my time.
You raise an interesting point; I have thought the same, that a definite disconnect has grown between the BAOR, the cross over generation in the 90s, the blair war generation and the throughly modern new generation, who are a little too cocksure and dedicated to peacekeeping for my tastes.
 
I was invited by good friends to their cousins birthday two years ago. I'd met him briefly a couple of times. He was RA regular at the time, Lance Bombardier.

We got chatting and had nothing in common. He had zero interest my service, couldn't give a rats arse about NI, thought the SLR (quiet at the back) was shite, he told me he'd fired it on a range day.

He's the only 'modern' soldier that I've ever chatted to and frankly, the conversation we had, had a real impact on me.

Perhaps the age gap was too great (for him) but it did make me sad. I certainly had empathy for all soldiers who joined well before my time.
Perhaps he thought you were an insufferable bore?
 
I don’t think it’s the serving patterns, I think it’s the person an individual is. Having served is merely an unspoken understanding of another persons experience.

If someone is an arse it doesn’t matter what they did, people just aren’t going to like them.

Being a civvy doesn’t make you unworthy either (but being RAF does), it really is about the person.
 
I don’t think it’s the serving patterns, I think it’s the person an individual is. Having served is merely an unspoken understanding of another persons experience.

If someone is an arse it doesn’t matter what they did, people just aren’t going to like them.

Being a civvy doesn’t make you unworthy either (but being RAF does), it really is about the person.
I’ve also found that some of the younger lads who are currently serving, seem to find it a bit embarrassing or uncool to talk to some veterans!
 
A few years ago I took a group of young RAF SP to a local residential care home as there were a number of 'veterans' there, including several from WWII.

I have to say, engaging with them was a challenge. We arrived in our service dress and most were junior officers and a couple of NCOs; all were volunteers. One old chap - ex Army - apparently - wouldn't talk to us because (1) we were RAF and 'never there when we were needed' and (2) because we were officers, and referred to us as disparagingly as the 'Brylcreem boys'. Others were just too senile to have any meaningful conversation with; one WWII veteran just cried when he saw us.

With others, the gulf was just too great. One chap, who had done his national service in the RAF in the early 1950s, talked about an air force that no one would recognise (straight out of 'Get Some In'). He spoke of 'fizzers',' glasshouse', 'tea and a wad', bromide in the tea, the pox doctor etc in increasingly lurid detail.* We manfully listened to him until he caught the eye of a young women helicopter pilot. She talked to him (well, listening to his jumble recollections of two years in a Maintenance Depot in Stafford) until he forcefully put his hand on her thigh. She handled it well and one of the staff came up and wheeled him away 'for his medication'.

As we left in the minibus, one of the NCOs chirped 'That was fun, boss!'. Never again...

* I suspect that he is on ARRSE...
 
The funny is for the dirty old bugger^

Reminds me of a dit I may have already mentioned on here. A few years back I met an old Fallschirmjaeger here in Germany ( he'd done some serious hand to hand stuff on the Dutch/German border in 1945). In the course of the conversation he tried to drink me under the table and make lewd suggestions to my then girlfriend.
I couldn't bring myself to be offended as although he didn't stand a chance in Hell, one couldn't help but admire his optimism and persistence. Plus I am a hat.

I have mixed feelings about his parting comment, though:- "I'm glad I never had to kill a Brit."
 
A few years ago I took a group of young RAF SP to a local residential care home as there were a number of 'veterans' there, including several from WWII.

I have to say, engaging with them was a challenge. We arrived in our service dress and most were junior officers and a couple of NCOs; all were volunteers. One old chap - ex Army - apparently - wouldn't talk to us because (1) we were RAF and 'never there when we were needed' and (2) because we were officers, and referred to us as disparagingly as the 'Brylcreem boys'. Others were just too senile to have any meaningful conversation with; one WWII veteran just cried when he saw us.

With others, the gulf was just too great. One chap, who had done his national service in the RAF in the early 1950s, talked about an air force that no one would recognise (straight out of 'Get Some In'). He spoke of 'fizzers',' glasshouse', 'tea and a wad', bromide in the tea, the pox doctor etc in increasingly lurid detail.* We manfully listened to him until he caught the eye of a young women helicopter pilot. She talked to him (well, listening to his jumble recollections of two years in a Maintenance Depot in Stafford) until he forcefully put his hand on her thigh. She handled it well and one of the staff came up and wheeled him away 'for his medication'.

As we left in the minibus, one of the NCOs chirped 'That was fun, boss!'. Never again...

* I suspect that he is on ARRSE...

Crabs never could take a joke....;)
 
I’ve also found that some of the younger lads who are currently serving, seem to find it a bit embarrassing or uncool to talk to some veterans!
My best mate is an ex-gunner, he did 83 to 99 so copped for lots and lots of NI tours plus Op Granby. His old Battery has been placed into suspended animation so him and some of his mates from the unit were invited over by the Regiment to watch the parade, have a few bratties and get lagered up.

He said the young lads just didn’t “get” him and his mates and the careers they’d had. They just couldn’t envisage Army life pre Telic or even pre Herrick. Some it was generational but sadly there seemed to be a bit of “my war was better than yours”.

My FiL has had similar experiences at the Light Dragoons Association gigs he’s been to; ignored by the young lads (fair one, no one wants to talk to the oldies), who has no concept of what has gone before. FiL served 63 to 87, did a number of Ulsters, trained the Australians in Malaya in prep for Vietnam, spent two years accompanied in Iran training the Shah’s army and retired as RQMS RAC Gunnery School.

A solid soldierly career from Junior Leader to WO2, but a lot of the young lads hadn’t even heard of his predecessor Regiment. Different times...
 
Top