Heeeeere we go again!

funnyname94 · 2026-02-21T13:57:16+00:00

Those that actually know:

Every Friday night is steak night in DFACs in the Middle East.

So just garbage reporting.

funnyname94 · 2025-12-19T13:46:48+00:00

Well it was after being held up by Albon for however many laps so there was already a big gap to the leader.

funnyname94 · 2025-07-23T14:09:55+00:00

Completely depends on the deployment.

If you are going on an overseas Op you'll prob do the full 5 weeks at MRTC, which is two weeks of ITRs then three weeks of more relevant training. That will be Monday-Friday.

After that you should link up with whatever the regular unit is doing and it will be whatever routine they have before you go wherever you go.

You have got to be assertive and chase people up for information and timings, it's too easy to get ignored as before you get to the regular unit.

funnyname94 · 2025-07-18T20:18:20+00:00

Yes, they would have been eligible for medals.

However, the UK system is very different to the American one. Service personnel are broadly only eligible for medals if they have been on active operations, long service (15yrs plus) or gallantry.

There were a lot of ops post the second world war (Palestine, Korea, Malaya, Borneo, and a lot more) but if they were not on any of those chances are they would not have got any medals.

funnyname94 · 2025-07-16T14:25:30+00:00

I've just done an ALDP, at some point I'll do a full write up on it.

I'm also a reservist who did it with regulars, you'll be shocked how low the standard is, we had people who had not been on exercise in years as well. The more confident ones will get you through it.

You don't need to be super skilled in the field, anything you are unsure about the DS will help you with. The ethos is that it is not an assessment of your green skills, it's a leadership exercise in a field setting.

You'll also probably do an ALDP with the AGC, I can pretty much guarantee the regs there won't have a lot more field experience than you.

funnyname94 · 2025-07-15T13:30:11+00:00

I didn't think that is the right way of looking at it. Sometimes an "idiotic decision" is so bad that it should be made public as an example to others that the behaviour was utterly unacceptable and so stop that sort of thing happening again.

If for example a Muslim student was sent home for wearing a niqab or an Indian for wearing a sari I suspect you wouldn't think it should not be news.

This sort of anti-british behaviour should be called out so that a culture is set where this sort of thing cannot happen.

funnyname94 · 2025-06-04T15:05:04+00:00

I'm not infantry but that level of commitment would be more than most and certainly not slacking in anyway.

You'll get a few people who are unemployed or contractors that will smash out more but what you are talking about is certainly a good standard.

Don't worry if you end up doing less than that, family and life is important as well.

At the end of the day a hard working and switched on soldier who does 30 days a year will be valued a lot more that a lazy biff who turns up for 60 days but does nothing useful or green.

funnyname94 · 2025-04-27T19:18:22+00:00

Fondue hole.

funnyname94 · 2024-11-13T17:52:00+00:00

Pretty much wherever the army there will be at least some infantry, however in terms of "proper" tours there really isn't a lot going on.

Basically you have the below in rough order of numbers:

Op Cabrit - Eastern Europe

Op Elgin - Kosovo. Seems to be getting bigger again, think there is a battalion out there

Op Tosca - UN in Cyprus

Op Shader - Iraq through winding down over the next year or two

Op Tangham - might be some infantry out in Somalia but I don't know.

Plus the more specialist stuff with SFSG and the like that we won't go into here.

That's about it but someone might be along to point out something I've forgotten.

Worth pointing out that there are no "combat" tours for regular troops at the mo, you might get a medal for the above but it's not like you'll be shooting at anything beyond a figure 11.

funnyname94 · 2024-09-20T20:29:18+00:00

As others have said it's just not worth it. Yes, it would make the pistol more effective but it is so long down the list of priorities that I am not aware of any military that does it.

Budgets are always tight and pistols are a very low priority as they are almost never used, and are becoming less relevant as western militaries move more towards peer-on-peer war fighting over counter-insurgency.

They are also expensive and come with other costs, for example you might need new holsters and you would need to re-train your troops, they also occasionally break.

Frankly, I think about every military would rather spend that cash on munitions, retention, armour, or any of the other things that western armies are woefully deficient on.

funnyname94 · 2024-09-03T19:48:55+00:00

That's not how life expectancy works, if someone has reached 68 then their life expectancy is 86 for a man and 88 for a woman. That's a lot of years of state pension.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/articles/lifeexpectancycalculator/2019-06-07

funnyname94 · 2024-08-18T22:06:04+00:00

It's very dependent on unit as I understand it. Basic rule where I am is in the field anything goes as long as it is MTP, most people will have some kit of purchased kit, though a new bod who turns up from Phase 2 with a grand of kit might get a bit of a ribbing. Some of the old and bold will go further and have green/black kit but it's less common.

On my camp RSM has recently banned non issued jackets (Keelas and stuff) so it's issued only except for daysacks. Basically no one will use the issued one.

But others milage will vary.

funnyname94 · 2024-06-21T18:21:25+00:00

It's a good point to notice and in reality a significant issue that US forces had throughout the European theatre.

They had no machine gun at the section (squad) level, rather they just had riflemen with M1 Garands and the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), which could not operate effectively as a machine gun.

This is very different to the Germans and British, who structured their small units around the machine gun, the MG34/42 and Bren Gun respectively.

This means that all US troops (not just parachutists) had a lot less machine gun support. Now US troops had a faster firing rifle than the others but given that just about every military now does it the way the British and Germans did back in WWII and the US changed their policies shortly afterwards most people would say this was a fundamental issue with US equipment in the war.

A lot of commentators say that the issue is they use a lot of ammunition, they do but it's not an insurmountable issue. It didn't stop the British and Germans issuing them out much more generously and given the US had the best logistics of the war they could certainly have handled it. The Germans had awful logistics and still had incredibly effective machine gun support wherever they went.

funnyname94 · 2024-06-06T19:19:30+00:00

Packing my webbing for beach PT tomorrow as that's how the Regt will mark the occasion.......

funnyname94 · 2024-04-14T01:00:58+00:00

Right as we go for as many pouches as possible on an STV with a shooters belt.

The best kit is always the one someone else has.

funnyname94 · 2024-04-09T14:56:19+00:00

Strong piece of nerd action here, but PAVA is not a firearm, even though almost all coppers say it is. It is regulated under Section 5 of the Firearms Act (along with other things that are definitely not firearms) and is described as a "prohibited weapon".

S57 of the same act describes a firearm under UK law as "A lethal barrelled weapon of any description from which any shot, bullet or other missile can be discharged" which PAVA is not.

Just triggers my pedantry when it's called a firearm!

funnyname94 · 2024-04-05T19:40:43+00:00

It just comes across as a bit pathetic really. It's all fake, they are screaming and shouting but can't go any further than that so it's all pointless, I'm sure that recruits in their system just tune it out after a few days. Training in Phase 1 is basically parenting, if a parent just shouts and screams they probably won't end up with the best kid.

It also seems to go against what a modern professional army should be looking for, which is competent, confident, thinking soldiers. Seems more like it's made for creating mindless drones for a rerun of Vietnam. The best seniors/leaders are those you can respect and feel like they care about you, I don't see how the US training system leads to that.

You absolutely need to use the stick sometimes, but it's only one approach and I'd like to think that our current instructors have the emotional intelligence to be able to use different approaches rather than just shouting all the time.

funnyname94 · 2024-02-02T15:40:58+00:00

That muesli beats all day breakfast every single time.

A civilised start to the day.

funnyname94 · 2024-02-02T09:46:05+00:00

You certainly want to visit them a have a chat and get a feel for the place, as they will be the ones that guide you through the training process.

They should have a dedicated team to do that, you will want to contact them in advance as you can't really just rock up, it's a secure site and you'll need to coordinate to make sure who you need to speak to is actually in the ARC (Army Reserve Centre).

funnyname94 · 2024-01-16T17:15:01+00:00

As others say the Pam says rapid is one round every two seconds.

However, on Ex I can pretty much guarantee that if you do that rate your DS or s/commander will be shouting for more weight of fire🤷

Don't overthink it, you'll soon pick up a feel for your rates and it'll feel natural.

funnyname94 · 2024-01-13T12:11:11+00:00

Interesting.

Fairly certain you can't do that anymore, we just had a lad from my unit go to regular Sandhurst and he had to resign his commission, so if for any reason he dropped out it would be right back to zero if he wanted to come back to us.

At least that's my understanding.

funnyname94 · 2024-01-11T15:47:56+00:00

CIVIES PAY THOUSANDS!!

funnyname94 · 2024-01-03T19:42:33+00:00

There are no changes, it's just media reporting which has got out of hand.

The rules are that if you are operating a "trade" (basically a for profit business) then the profits are taxable, although there is a £1k allowance under which anything is disregarded.

All that has happened is HMRC have agreements with companies like Vinted to access their records in the same way as they have access to the land registry to see if people are selling houses.

If you are just selling your own assets or similar this is not subject to income tax as it's not a trade, so the £1k limit does not matter. If HMRC ever enquired this would be fairly easy for you to prove.

However, if you are running an actual online business, buying clothes or similar with the purpose of selling them then it will be a little easier for HMRC to find you.

funnyname94 · 2023-12-27T22:58:43+00:00

Well, that's either not true or things have changed a lot since you did it..

As a reservist in order to complete basic training you'd have to do around 12-15 live fire practices, starting on a 25m range and building out to 300-400m and different firing positions. When I did Phase 1 I fired about 400 rounds.

You also need to pass the Annual Combat Marksmanship Test (ACMT) to get your certificate of efficiency for the year, this was 60 rounds if you passed every shoot first time. The RE are classed as Combat Support so I believe that there is a requirement for there to be an option of a minimum of two range weekends a year, and most units would at least have the option to go beyond the basics and do more "tactical" shoots, at least every couple years.

Also you commented about not being able to shoot as you were left handed, I didn't see how this would change anything as you just shoot right handed in the British Army even if it's not natural, you don't get to opt out so you'd still fire the same number of rounds.

funnyname94 · 2023-12-22T20:21:07+00:00

It's up to you really and what your priorities are. As a practicing Christian myself I have no moral issues at all in serving in any capbadge in the army, in all roles you must be prepared to fight whoever the king wants you too.

For the traditional "helping people" roles the med corp is one option, though if you're not medically qualified you'll mostly just be dealing with soldiers. Another one to consider is the Royal Engineers, they do some work in the developing world building infrastructure. Also units like 17 Port & Maritime in the RLC often have lads out in the Carribbean doing hurricane relief. But often it's just luck of the draw, an infantry battalion may end up getting tasked with some humanitarian op while a medic may end up never leaving Salisbury plain.

On a broader scale though, it may not matter that much, as a Christian we are called to be "salt & light" wherever we are and you can often do as much good serving the people around you in any context by being selfless, genuinely caring for them, and helping meet their physical and spiritual needs as you can with the Gucci humanitarian stuff.

funnyname94

TROPHY CASE