Post by aghart on Jun 9, 2013 11:48:16 GMT
15 members were present for the June meeting. A minutes silence was held for John McKerral, an associate member (Scots Greys) who died last month, and Nick Taylor a local man, not a member but ex RTR who has also passed to the green fields.
The minutes of the May meeting were passed. A report on the "Not Forgotten Association" boat trip along the solent was given. Despite the less than perfect weather, an enjoyable day was had by all.
The tank times, (Tank Museum Magazine) was available to members to view. Members were reminded that Tankfest is on June 29th and the Burton Village (Christchurch, Dorset,) Armed forces and Veterans day is on the 19th June. As Graham Collins is otherwise engaged, it has fallen on me to act as standard bearer for this event. Although an honour to carry the standard, it means getting dressed up in the "stuff" and looking after the standard all day. I much prefer the casual look, RTR polo shirt and beer in hand!
Age is beginning to catch up with some of our senior members, Tommy Handley has decided he is too frail to attend meetings, Maurice Bourne has given up on any trips other than the monthly meetings. Mac McKanny has recently had an operation and finds it difficult to travel from Christchurch.
There being no further business, the Chairman closed the meeting and introduced the guest speaker.
WOII Donaldson 1 RTR, is with the RAC Training Regiment at Bovington, dealing with Phase II (trade training) recruits. He joined 4 RTR in 1988 (Imphal Barracks) at Osnabruck. He was a L/Cpl in Tidworth when Dave Roberts was RSM, and he was thrilled to see Dave at the meeting.
His main theme (which we had asked for) was to tell us about todays recruits. He made is clear from the start that the overwhelming majority of recruits were keen, determined and up to the task. As mentioned in various other threads, the "playstation generation" are finding it easy to adapt to the increasingly sophisticated equipment being presented to them. So the negatives? there has to be some, because the new lot are never going to as good as we were are they?
So, the down side. He feels too many recruits are arriving from phase 1 training carrying an injury which is affecting their ability to progress on schedule. They are due to spend 25 weeks at Bovington, his worst case example is a recruit who has been at Bovington for 42 weeks so far. It is not so easy to discharge people anymore. More and more soldiers are going sick in training and being "sent home on sick leave", there was a audible gasp followed by a stunned silence at this. As an SSM, you would expect most recruits to avoid him like the plague! not so. He has a queue of "welfare" cases on an almost daily basis. He was asked about Commonwealth recruits? It is common knowledge that some units (Scots DG) now have a high percentage of these recruits. Language problems do persist at times, and he has come across one or two other 'items'. On one occasion a recruit who was supposed to sweep up wasn't, others were doing it instead, asked why they were sweeping instead of the person detailed? they replied that the detailed person was a "chief" at home and so could not be expected to do this kind of task! Now how would your RSM?SSM have dealt with this? There is a general (unofficial) fear that many Commonwealth recruits are joining simply to do a few years and then leave to settle in the UK.
The biggest fear is that a combination of new (single room) accommodation, and the impending return to the UK of all units in Germany will create a 9-5 mentality with no bonding as we were used to. Already many soldiers finish work and disappear into their rooms with their X boxes not be seen till morning. They don't eat in the cookhouse, and at 4.30 on a Friday they are off, Civilians are doing the camp guards, fatigues are a thing of the past. They don't go out together as we did.
Hopefully once Afghanistan is over and the move home of the remaining BGF units is complete, the army might have a chance to rest, reorganize and adapt to the challenges of a UK only army. It must be stated that the negative side was as a result of questions by the branch members to the guest speaker and he gave honest answers. Mr Donaldson did again emphisise that the the vast majority of phase 2 recruits were not "problem childs" and this should be remembered, and the negative side kept in perspective.
Another successful meeting
The minutes of the May meeting were passed. A report on the "Not Forgotten Association" boat trip along the solent was given. Despite the less than perfect weather, an enjoyable day was had by all.
The tank times, (Tank Museum Magazine) was available to members to view. Members were reminded that Tankfest is on June 29th and the Burton Village (Christchurch, Dorset,) Armed forces and Veterans day is on the 19th June. As Graham Collins is otherwise engaged, it has fallen on me to act as standard bearer for this event. Although an honour to carry the standard, it means getting dressed up in the "stuff" and looking after the standard all day. I much prefer the casual look, RTR polo shirt and beer in hand!
Age is beginning to catch up with some of our senior members, Tommy Handley has decided he is too frail to attend meetings, Maurice Bourne has given up on any trips other than the monthly meetings. Mac McKanny has recently had an operation and finds it difficult to travel from Christchurch.
There being no further business, the Chairman closed the meeting and introduced the guest speaker.
WOII Donaldson 1 RTR, is with the RAC Training Regiment at Bovington, dealing with Phase II (trade training) recruits. He joined 4 RTR in 1988 (Imphal Barracks) at Osnabruck. He was a L/Cpl in Tidworth when Dave Roberts was RSM, and he was thrilled to see Dave at the meeting.
His main theme (which we had asked for) was to tell us about todays recruits. He made is clear from the start that the overwhelming majority of recruits were keen, determined and up to the task. As mentioned in various other threads, the "playstation generation" are finding it easy to adapt to the increasingly sophisticated equipment being presented to them. So the negatives? there has to be some, because the new lot are never going to as good as we were are they?
So, the down side. He feels too many recruits are arriving from phase 1 training carrying an injury which is affecting their ability to progress on schedule. They are due to spend 25 weeks at Bovington, his worst case example is a recruit who has been at Bovington for 42 weeks so far. It is not so easy to discharge people anymore. More and more soldiers are going sick in training and being "sent home on sick leave", there was a audible gasp followed by a stunned silence at this. As an SSM, you would expect most recruits to avoid him like the plague! not so. He has a queue of "welfare" cases on an almost daily basis. He was asked about Commonwealth recruits? It is common knowledge that some units (Scots DG) now have a high percentage of these recruits. Language problems do persist at times, and he has come across one or two other 'items'. On one occasion a recruit who was supposed to sweep up wasn't, others were doing it instead, asked why they were sweeping instead of the person detailed? they replied that the detailed person was a "chief" at home and so could not be expected to do this kind of task! Now how would your RSM?SSM have dealt with this? There is a general (unofficial) fear that many Commonwealth recruits are joining simply to do a few years and then leave to settle in the UK.
The biggest fear is that a combination of new (single room) accommodation, and the impending return to the UK of all units in Germany will create a 9-5 mentality with no bonding as we were used to. Already many soldiers finish work and disappear into their rooms with their X boxes not be seen till morning. They don't eat in the cookhouse, and at 4.30 on a Friday they are off, Civilians are doing the camp guards, fatigues are a thing of the past. They don't go out together as we did.
Hopefully once Afghanistan is over and the move home of the remaining BGF units is complete, the army might have a chance to rest, reorganize and adapt to the challenges of a UK only army. It must be stated that the negative side was as a result of questions by the branch members to the guest speaker and he gave honest answers. Mr Donaldson did again emphisise that the the vast majority of phase 2 recruits were not "problem childs" and this should be remembered, and the negative side kept in perspective.
Another successful meeting