Officers vs Common Soldiers... what exactly IS the difference...

[Queensman]

An officer will excuse himself to go to the toilet, a solider will excuse himself and tell you what he intends to do when he gets there.

Ye gods and little fishes..... one would hope that an officer wouldn’t ever use the word ‘toilet’ at all.

 

[stacker1]

Of course. It's called hierarchy. Did you not learn about that when you served?

So, just to clarify, you think that in a fund, funded mainly by Officers and Senior ranks, (outside of PRI shop sales) that it's the juniors who should preside over how the money gets spent?

To be honest, it's just dawned on me (it should have dawned on me a bit quicker to be honest ) but you don't really get any of this do you? My guess is that most of what I've posted tonight has gone straight over your head. That's fine.

You crack on ...

A hierarchy to decide what to spend your own money on, that will be the CO deciding then, which i said earlier.

You must have went to the school as the RLC officers who think that because they individually paid in more to the ODPS that they should get a bigger chunk of the cash despite not paying in more collectively. The Cpl Mess has a degree of control over their own money, why not the juniors for their PRI?

What has dawned on me, is that you are following the party line.

 

[stacker1]

Ah!

Is that Trade Union speak for "doesn't look a gift horse in the mouth?". If so, then yes, absolutely.

Gift horse? You mean you would struggle to cope on civvie street?

 

[stacker1]

Not different at all in that it is another example where a lot of people talk brave but when they think it will be used against them pay up.

Not in Stibbons unit, they are all telling the RSM et al to poke his fund.

 

[stacker1]

Yet they had the same opportunity?

Did anyone ask them if they wanted the opportunity?

 

[supermatelot]

I’ve skipped the past couple of pages so apologies if I’ve missed something.

Exactly how much...around, a month are these PRI charges?

 

[Stibbon]

Exactly how much...around, a month are these PRI charges?

Probably about a fiver. More likely £3.
(Yeah I know).
"Robbing the lads" has already been used ...

 

[cymraeg]

Ye gods and little fishes..... one would hope that an officer wouldn’t ever use the word ‘toilet’ at all.

Indeed would rather hope they used shit Station or announced they were dropping the kids at the pool instead

 

[Stibbon]

I’ve skipped the past couple of pages so apologies if I’ve missed something.

You haven't really missed anything to be honest.

So far, we've been able to ascertain that £3-£5 monthly is "robbing the lads", The PRI is actually the CO's "slush fund" and there are no day-to-day perks to being in the army.

Fascinating stuff.

 

[stacker1]

Probably about a fiver. More likely £3.
(Yeah I know).
"Robbing the lads" has already been used ...

If ever there was an indication that someone is out of touch its when they justify stealing money from soldiers due to it being deemed a low amount to that individual.

 

[stacker1]

You haven't really missed anything to be honest.

So far, we've been able to ascertain that £3-£5 monthly is "robbing the lads", The PRI is actually the CO's "slush fund" and there are no day-to-day perks to being in the army.

Fascinating stuff.

Strange how you neglected to mention these perks.

 

[Cromarty]

Always fun to p1ss out the uninvited d1ck ruperts from the ORs' bar when and where such existed.
"Sir, your prescence here is neither requested nor needed."
Our own bods understood. Other twots argued the toss. Even more hilarity.


Sent from my karzi while losing several pounds

We had 2 Midshipmen in our mess for a deployment. We were well over the usual complement, even the gym was turned into a makeshift mess. These 2 were great blokes, very respectful of us and requested entry to the rec space every time. They hated all the Wardroom bullshit. They would even ask to have meals in the JS cafe, which we did on occasion.

They were good at seamanship and other duties but just couldn't understand why being a complete cock was required to be an officer. Maybe it was just because our XO was a massive bell end.

 

[Kroneit44]

Yet they had the same opportunity?

Maybe, but not necessarily. If you’re not a main stream sportsman your opportunities reduce, if whoever is in charge of the fund decides that you can’t have a handout your opportunities take a bigger beating.

 

[Kroneit44]

You haven't really missed anything to be honest.

So far, we've been able to ascertain that £3-£5 monthly is "robbing the lads", The PRI is actually the CO's "slush fund" and there are no day-to-day perks to being in the army.

Fascinating stuff.

If it’s demanded with menace I can’t think of a better description than robbing the lads.

 

[Stibbon]

If ever there was an indication that someone is out of touch its when they justify stealing money from soldiers due to it being deemed a low amount to that individual.

Go Wolfie. Power to the people!!

 

[stacker1]

Go Wolfie. Power to the people!!

Its amazing what people will say to deflect from the fact they are okay with stealing from soldiers when they deem it a small amount.

 

[woopert]

What can I say.

Mess rules (and the regulations which enshrine them) are based on the historical assumption that an officers mess will be a facility serving a small, tight-knit community whose members' interests (by which I mean, being decently fed, watered and accommodated) overlap - as they did in (say) the Napoleonic era.

It takes a complete failure of imagination to think that's the perfect template to overlay on the kind of mess you have described.

Such failures of imagination, sadly, are pretty much a given - it would seem - of our military culture.

The problem there was, a large mess with a big membership and being in Germany. It felt a bit "prison camp-ish" because you couldn't just drive/hop in a train home or to see friends in or out of the service. Plus it was ex-RAF and spralling.

The mess had a mezzanine level with the old "ladies drawing room" in it that had a balcony overlooking the main sitting room (which had a parquet dance floor under a big rug). The upstairs wasn't really used any more and the main "god we are bored what shall we do?, Oh I know Gav's about to do something mental this will be fun" it seemed like a good idea at the time activity involved finding new and ingenious ways of kamakazi-ing off stuff because there was literally nothing else to do. It all got a bit silly when we piled the cushions from the easy chairs into a pile and started diving and back-flipping off the balcony. Barely a piece of furniture survived, and a couple of windows got smashed in the process along with a few minor injuries. It was this and bricking up the door to a fellow subbie's room that led to the meeting being called. We called for more freedom in the YO's annexe to have a kitchen so we could have a more relaxed self-catered approach to life and not have to dress for dinner if we wanted to make it ourselves, and to be allowed to socialise in the annexe and run our own bar and so on. We got a "common room/lounge" with a microwave, a kettle, a fridge and a toaster, meals still had to be "taken" in the dining room, no bar (we stocked up on a few cans) and any parties still had to take place in the mess and be signed off by the PMC. That, apparently, was the CoC "listening". It took a change of personalities at the top of the HQ/mess heirarchy but they did relax eventually the year I was posted back to Aldershite.

 

[Fat POM]

Maybe, but not necessarily. If you’re not a main stream sportsman your opportunities reduce, if whoever is in charge of the fund decides that you can’t have a handout your opportunities take a bigger beating.

I appreciate your point. I used to take the guys from the troop on expeditions. I also used to benefit as a Regimental/Corps sportsman. A case of seizing opportunities.

I am not aware, that when I was serving of guys being forced to contribute to PRI funds. Normally it was funded by the sale of t shirts, sweat shirts and the like. Some units had actual shops run by pads wives. One unit ran a bus that was rented out at a profit.
If some one had been forcing my guys to make illegal/forced contributions I would have been advising them strongly of their rights before creating a ruckus in the SSM'S office.
If this is what is happening today, that guys are being coerced into paying a levy then it is wrong and a failure of leadership.

 

[javaguzzisti]

Cheeses H Keerist, your mob was clearly mired in the Edwardian era!!

Give us a clue: county infantry, arty, cav/peeples regt of Track or one of the Corps?

O - and decade(s)

Agreed, I enjoyed the Snco's mess generally.

 

[Tappet]

Since when?

Apart from the shiny front bits of a dining room, medal room, drawing room and bar that resemble the faded grandeur of a once well-heeled Victorian seafront hotel, the rest of the mess is usually gash. If anyone was ever unfortunate enough to have to get their head down in Stallag-Buller in the 90's the pipes rattled all night keeping you wide awake and spewed out luke warm water with a brownish tinge in your sink, the windows didn't fit in the frames and fell out when you tried to open them as the heating came on with the ferocity of a thousand suns around tea-time before you simultaneously froze when it went off at dinner time because to the advocates of the miracle of concrete that built the fukcing place in the 1960's, insulation was for pussies. Oh, and the rooms would have given a submariner a severe case of claustrophobia.

I had the misfortune to stay in the Worthy Down Officer's mess, just after leaving (invited by a friend to the AGC Xmas (I think) ball. Some time in Winter, anyway.

The rooms had no heating (it had broken a week or two before), all single beds, and the ablutions were the shared 'Jack and Jill' type, between 2 rooms (each had a door to the bath/loo). There was no shower, just a perished rubber connector that went onto the two bath taps one end, and a shower head the other.

The water was Orange.

It was so grim, I had to trap off with a fattie to stay warm.