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What is your favourite Military Saying

And, as with the warders at detention barracks, they were addressed as Staff. "Yes, Staff, No, Staff, Sorry, Staff!"
I assumed it was bc they were all Staff Sgts? At least the Brit/Aussie ones I saw while deployed were all that rank.
 
I assumed it was bc they were all Staff Sgts? At least the Brit/Aussie ones I saw while deployed were all that rank.
Nope, they, like the MPs in the "digger," were Ptes and Cpls (a few Sgts and, now and again, a SSgt running something big), but they were addressed as "staff."

Strangely enough, I don't recall them as "mean." They had a job to do ~ to get us fit to pass the various PT tests ~ and my memory says that most of them wanted us to succeed. I think (almost) all of us needed some help; I was good at rope climbing but I always had poor balance and I always just barely did the required number of chin-ups. I seem to recall the PTIs (what they were called before we called them PERIs) were helpful and patient as they showed me how to negotiate the balance beams and work, properly, on the parallel bars. But it was, always, run, Run, RUN and I lost count of the number of pushups after about 1,000 in the first week.
 
8309 I think. Course started on 14 March. My platoon MCpl was named MacNeil, Air Force. One PERI was Cpl Andy Mooney. Can't remember the Sgt's name. Damm, 38 years ago!
I didn’t get there till July. Mooney I knew.
 
I’m with Mr. Campbell; I didn’t find them mean, but they were certainly demanding.

Today’s hip millennial PSP clipboard holder has nothing on the PERIs!
 
Nope, they, like the MPs in the "digger," were Ptes and Cpls (a few Sgts and, now and again, a SSgt running something big), but they were addressed as "staff."

Strangely enough, I don't recall them as "mean." They had a job to do ~ to get us fit to pass the various PT tests ~ and my memory says that most of them wanted us to succeed. I think (almost) all of us needed some help; I was good at rope climbing but I always had poor balance and I always just barely did the required number of chin-ups. I seem to recall the PTIs (what they were called before we called them PERIs) were helpful and patient as they showed me how to negotiate the balance beams and work, properly, on the parallel bars. But it was, always, run, Run, RUN and I lost count of the number of pushups after about 1,000 in the first week.
Agreed. However, as a non-swimming Nova Scotia boy (and who wants to know how to swim in the Atlantic anyways, better to succumb to drowning quickly than hypothermia 5 minutes later) I struggled to pass the swim portion of basic. The routine was to jump of the diving board, tread water for two minutes, and the head to the side. For the first six weeks, each time I headed for the side (well under two minutes) a PERI would take a long white pole and push me back into the center of the pool, where I would continue to thrash. Never drowned, so I guess there was a method to their madness. Still can't swim worth shit.
 
Delegate and disappear.

One of the Principles of Leadership.
Try yelling
Move pers on and off the bus
Yell louder and use knife hands
Overstaff and under direct
Understaff and over direct
Steal other, more competent people
Blame your shortcomings on enemies within the unit
Delegate and disappear
Change moods frequently
If you don't know, if's not you
Lift with your troops and not your back
Withhold knowledge to increase your importance
Change plans frequently
 
I kept hearing "Max flex" by the SrNCOs especially when it was one of the those "on the bus, off the bus" moments - late 1980s and early 1990s.

"There's no life like! it." I was inspired to join with that line. Of course we adapted to saying it, in an ironic sense, when conditions were horrible and you were feeling beaten up.

 
Get your self organise before someone organise you in the same sentence with Easier to ask forgivness than permission.

Of course, alway inside the rules :)
 
A young gunner on the range responding to my question about what the problem was with his GPMG: "The f*ckin' f*cker's f*cked, Sir".

Truly a man of few words.

:unsure:
 
A young gunner on the range responding to my question about what the problem was with his GPMG: "The f*ckin' f*cker's f*cked, Sir".

Truly a man of few words.

:unsure:
That was my BLUF when briefing my CO on an equipment fault at one point; that worked for him and gave us a chuckle while we figured out how to safely get alongside.
 
“Don’t shit in your own mess tins”.

Applicable in a variety of situations :)
 
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