I don't know, only one person that said anything was an officer, the rest were NCOs.
Maybe because I'm an officer they thought I should wear the stupid plastic belt (with the crappy fastener)?It's not like a commision comes with some kind of fire resistant spell (although that would be cool).
I don't like to tell folks what to do without being willing to do it myself, so kept my second layer nearby etc, so this just seemed like a normal extension of that, as I would normally suggest to folks they wear a leather belt vice the DEU one. I've seen the FR testing on our NCDs, and makes a huge difference to have the layers on, so makes zero sense to have a belt on their which would turn into a molten burning mess within the same test, and the post fire burns from people having synthetic tshirts etc melt onto them is pretty grim.
I mean I have one and it's in a box, does that count?
I just bought a black leather one with a normal metal buckle (but actual leather, not pleather) but yeah, no idea either. Some people just get something in their head and don't bother reading the actual regs, but plain leather belts are a-okay with NCDs. I think people are more widely aware of that now, but some people still freak out about officers wearing berets with short sleeves, so no idea what some people will get hung up on.
I was there. The idea was not to let the locals think we were any kind of threat, no aggressive posture. A 30 rd mag, left pocket, with red guntape sealing it up. End of day, unload, count rounds, and sign the verification sheet that you had all 30 rds. We spent the current defense budget on red tape, literally.My first CSM was at Sarajevo Airport in 1992. We got to talking about "stupid stuff in the Army" one day and he told me about what happened when they arrived in Sarajevo as a sort of lesson from when he was a young Private.
He said their Company Commander wasn't the sharpest knife and the only experience anyone in the Company had was some people had in an area of "operations" was a few had done a "peacekeeping" tour in Cyprus (so basically none).
When they arrived in Sarajevo, the OC ordered the Company to form up in a hollow square with all the vehicles parked behind them in parade format. As they had done in Cyprus they placed all their weapons and FFE in the vehicles and then locked them up with padlocks, like they do at the Infantry School.
He laughed about it but he said the Serbs and Bosnians who were fighting on other side of them must have been pondering just who "these idiotic Canadians were?". One of the belligerent parties decided to send the Company a welcome gift and decided to shell their position with mortars. Everyone was sent scrambling and the drivers, who had the keys to the padlocks ended up under random vehicles and nobody was able to get their weapons or FFE.
He ended the story with a "Don't worry Sir, if you think things are stupid sometimes, trust me, it used to be a lot worse!"
Probably, but I think that just adds character! I'd just go with it, and then you can bust out the occasional 'my belt has more sea time then you' line as necessary for the new officer/NCM giving you grief on something!
NWO Vanity Badge. Itās supposed to be the view of a warship with the bone in its teeth as it sails at high speed. But it looks like a 18th Century Hussarās Moustache.
Thank you for the info, I was in the navy in the "pre-flair" era...lol
Leather dye. Comes in all sorts of colours if you want to be creative (or piss somebody off I suppose):
Here's a link to an article with photos; looks like it was done by someone who never saw a ship outside a bathtub toy, is only aware of waves as a concept, and missed the art lessons on perspective.
That would be the current CRCN's predecessor. He forced it through before his retirement.
Nice legacy to be a flair wanker. (and was he the predecessor or two removed? Hard to keep track with the GOFO musical chairs in the me too era).
