The RAF Regiment: why so disliked by so many British soldiers/marines?

Ah the queens own....Have you seen them dance over the kirks...Amazing site....skirts whirlling pipes rattling....German sausage and black pudding dance around the maypole in shorts in minus 5 degrees in highlands during basic training....A regiment to be feared....I believe they lock em up at night to stop em scaring the rats.

Raf Regiment are an elite....in their own lifetime I believe.

 

as an ex rock, 1977-1997 flt Sgt this is all rubbish.We freely accept that we are no better or no worse than the para's or marines. I spent 12 years on 2sqn(IIsqn) and i say its probably harder than 2 para who i have worked with. we like being UK forces best kept secret

 

So secret even raf dont know how tough you are...Im impressed.
Seeing both units over the years reg and 2 para. My own experience is that regt are indeed good troops...I like the way you say no better no worse...Proves with words your defineately cleverer....However my experience and my family experience subjectively trumps your own experience. Bias not withstanding in someone who rose to flt sgt in the regt...As they say...your bound to say that..2 para and the reg...76 to 92...No contest..regt not in same league...However...Who knows now...

 

I think its time a mod closed this one....No one is degenerating raf regt....No one would.

But history proves the facts of the matter as does the casualty lists.

 

But before we finish maybe....Think back Rock...Falklands..our lifetime buddy....Raf regt were used where? Not an insult just we both know where...and why...Its their job..their raison detre..if not then why didnt they get to relieve the RM commando battalion held back at San Carlos to enable another battalion to go forwards? Because the RM do their job, the paras theiers...the rockapes theirs....Unfortunately the rockapes are not nor never will be shock troops...never will get told to take that hill...

Regt were doing what they do while the elite did what they do and did.

Its no insult just a mission fact of life.

 

Like today mate...The present surge in Afghanistan.....the raf reg are doing their bit...they are not taking hills...taking on enemy and over the top as such..they do their job quietly, proffesionally, and it is their job...one they train well for...FORCE PROTECTION... They do a good job in past and presently patrolling camp Bastion immediate security area. Just like airfield protection duties they are trained for...Unfortunately, they will never be tasked with take that hill...that is for paras, marines and other regular infantry...doesnt make them any less professional, just not an elite...more a unique role.

 

Yes, I also came across those posts from the Army guys, slagging off the RAF regiment. And thought that kind of hatred was a bit over the top... yes interservice banter is all very well, but his bordered on outright hatred, anybody would think they were the enemy!

According to the Army guys they seem to think all the Raf Regiment does is drive around in shiny new land Rovers, new kit, etc and don't do ****- rather a simplified view but then again they are Pongos

Well I served in the Rockapes for six years, perhaps I can give my perspective.

First of all I served in the airborne part of the Rockapes, 2 Sqn, and did the parachute selection course, one of the toughest courses in the forces.

Pre-para is a killer and most of the ordinary Pongos slagging of the regiment wouldn't last the day and would be on their knees!

Difference is the Army has P company, which is much larger and 2 Squadron runs their own pre-parachute selection course, based on P company.

But I noticed hostility even then from the other parachutists, at the parachute training depot which was in in Abingdon in those days, we used to get snide comments from the newly qualified paras.

They seem to think our training was not quite as tough as P company which is rubbish, sometimes I thought it may even be a bit harder, I may be wrong in that , but anyway it is equal, there's no doubt about that -the airborne forces do not lower their standards for anyone!

One thing they used to mention is the tough stretcher race, they found that our stretcher race was not quite the same distance as theirs and this was much cause for jeering,etc

But of course is never as simple as that.. yes our race was shorter but the Pongos forgot one thing-P company is much larger.

We started off with 64 guys and were left with nine at the end, so all we had were two teams of stretchers.

P company changes teams on the stretcher at intervals, so the guys get a break from the heavy weight before they change to stretcher again.

Well we didn't have that luxury, we had to do the same with one team per stretcher without any break whatsoever!

So that was arguably harder in my opinion although the distance was a little shorter-so that kind of comments, that ours was less tough really p****** us off!

Another thing that used to happen, which I doubt happened in P company was our instructors used to give us extra little tricks to do, which weren't really part of the training -I may be wrong on that, but I don't ever recall seeing what we did on the P company training . So these little extra things made it even tougher.

To give one example in the last week up in the Welsh mountains. This particular occasion they decided to get large metal boxes, the ones they put 81 mm mortar rounds into, fill them full of rocks, secured them up with metal tape so they can't be opened and between two of us we had to carry that thing right across the bloody mountains for miles,
in the middle of the night in freezing cold-think probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life-

With the metal handles etc our hands were bleeding and very painful and this went on for mile after mile, think that was the only time I got close to quitting.

Of course with two of us carrying this bloody thing if one guy flaked out the other one was buggered too and the other guy said he couldn't take any more.

So there I was sitting on a stone bridge in the middle of the Welsh mountains with a big heavy metal box and a guy who wanted to quit .... great, just what you need with three days to go!

Then suddenly heard a strange noise coming down the road and out of the night a lone figure appeared staggering- I couldn't believe my eyes, it was the only officer that was left in the course ,on his own! As there were only nine of us left of the original 60 odd, that was an odd number and as it was two men per box, they decided this guy who was an officer, had to carry it all by himself.

He was totally out of it, he didn't even see us sitting on the bridge, asked him if he was okay but he didn't even see me and just carried on.

To this day I don't know how he did it, two of us could hardly lift the damn thing and he carried it on his own-wouldn't have thought that was humanly possible!
Sure glad he did go past us because that bloody did it. I grabbed the quitter by the throat and said look you c***,stop bloody moaning- you saw that guy just carry it on his own so pick up the f****** box or else!
Which fortunately he did and we staggered in about five in the morning, three quarters dead.


Staggering determination from that officer, so that deserved some respect and I was glad when I found out later he was to be our flight commander.

I'd like to see some of the jeering Pongos doing that!

So really I do get rather annoyed when I see these derogatory comments.

Never seen that thing with the metal box on P company either, so don't know if they had to go through that.


However I do have some sympathy with the army guys position.

They are usually at the sharp end operations more often than the Rockapes, which is not surprising, as the roles are completely different,

Also according to some posts on the Army forums some RAF Regiment guys -just normal squadrons guys not airborne, were going around saying "Well were RAF Regiment, one of the Big Three ...you know SAS, Paras, RAF Regiment.

Well if this was true, then yes I don't blame the Pongos would be pissed off, its a bit of a nerve to compare yourself to elite forces and if they did that they did themselves no favours!

2 Squadron perhaps could say that, but definitely not the ordinary field squadrons!

And the SAS definitely shouldnt even be mentioned in that context -they are in a class of their own, far above the rest!

So that's my perspective .... some people may agree, some not.....that's life

As for the more vociferous among the moaning Pongos, put your money where your mouth is, pass the Parachute selection course-then you can think about slagging people off!!
thats one thing I noticed during airborne training, the gobby, mouthy and bragging types, were normally the first to quit !!
All mouth and no trousers as they say!

 

Exactly

 

I think youll find even on aarse now in the Naafi, pongos are begrudingly acknowledging the regt...There are still some of the posts along lines of reg not wanting to dirty their f...g wmaks etc, but its more and more to the fore of posts that at last they are getting to do something and good luck to them. However they have not earned unnerring respect over the years, not just from pongos but even from RAF staff....Ive lost count of number of times I;ve seen em, sunglasses on.......Old dpm baseball caps reversed....Playing the game...If they were thought of like that by RAF staff you cant really blame the pongos for their thoughts at the sharp end. As to loudmouthed...I dont think anyone on this forum has degenerated them, pongos either...Ive done a para course thank you very much...Had to, couldnt have big bro swanning it over me. It was very enjoyable thank you.

 

You never mentioned that you fell from the sky before. You've been holding out on us all along. I knew something was up with you, just couldn't put my finger on it....

 

Truth....Didnt do p company...I aint mad....I did a joint service parachute course at Netheravon...Home of Glider pilot regiment of old....Only did two sports jumps mate.....Not a para badged course. Just a forces voluntary sports thing.

 

A Special Show just for you.

Why Are they so Disliked? Could it be their Arrogance towards other Unites.

 

Why does everyone knock us peasant farmers then?

Im a very pleasant peasant vetran farmer...Does that make me special...Can I join the farmers special forces unit...I ho I ho its off to sheep I go...with my bucket and spade and a glass of lemonade I ho I ho I ho Iho...

The multicoloured beret is worn by joint service units of British forces in today'S leaner, meaner forces...Blue at back for obvious reasons...Red at front leading the way, green on left hand side a bit wavy navy going on there...black on right for tankies as they tend to drive on the right wherever they are, no matter what the law is..And green, light green on top to signify intelligence on top of bonce....The tassle at back is for the navy boys. The new helmet design is even more interesting I believe

 

It Sounded like your describing a Fashion Show as their going down the Runway. LOL

Never Sir I can assure you the Peasant Farmers volunteer S.F. through the Ages and so many Wars have proven to be worthy opponents and very motivated. The Definition of a Farmer Is A Man Outstanding in his Field!

I never knew that, I've seen and been around many British Unites and never with Multy Colour Beret. Well I just learnt something new.



Beret at AllExperts

United Kingdom

The British Army beret dates back to 1918 when the French 70th Chasseurs alpins were training with the British Tank Corps. The Chasseurs alpins wore a distinctive large beret (see above) and Major-General Sir Hugh Elles, the TC's Colonel, realised this style of headdress would be a practical option for his tank crews, forced to work in a reduced space. He thought, however, that the Chasseur beret was "too sloppy" and the Basque-style beret of the French tank crews was "too skimpy", so a compromise based on the Scottish tam o'shanter was designed and submitted for the approval of George V in November 1923. It was adopted in March 1924.

During the Second World War, a beret-like hat, called a General Service Cap, was issued to all ranks of the British Army (with RAC, parachute, commando, Scottish and Irish units excepted), to replace the earlier Field Service Cap. The GS Cap was not popular, and after the war was replaced with a true beret.Gordon, David. Uniforms of the WWII Tommy(Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, Missoula, MT, 2005). ISBN 157510122X

Today, every British military unit wears a beret, with the exception of Scottish and Irish line infantry regiments, who wear the tam o'shanter and the caubeen respectively (the Scots Guards and Irish Guards, however, wear berets, as frequently do the Royal Irish Regiment on operations). Many of these berets are in distinctive colours and all are worn with the cap badge of the service, regiment or corps. The cap badge for all services in the UK is usually worn directly over the left eye, with some regiments allowing a little variation dependant on size, shape, and the cockading or flourishing of the badge.

The colours are as follows:
*Khaki â€" Foot Guards, Honourable Artillery Company, Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, Royal Anglian Regiment, Green Howards
*Light grey â€" Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps
*Brown â€" King's Royal Hussars
*Black â€" Royal Tank Regiment
*Dark (Rifle) green â€" Devonshire and Dorset Light Infantry, Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry, Light Infantry, Royal Green Jackets, Royal Gurkha Rifles
*Maroon â€" Parachute Regiment, other troops serving in airborne role (not necessarily jump qualified)
*Beige â€" Special Air Service, Special Reconnaissance Regiment
*Sky blue â€" Army Air Corps
*Cypress green â€" Intelligence Corps
*Scarlet â€" Royal Military Police
*Green â€" Adjutant General's Corps
*Navy blue â€" all other Army units (except Scottish and Irish line infantry regiments), Royal Navy, Royal Marines who are not commando-qualified
*Commando green â€" commando-qualified Royal Marines (including Special Boat Service), other commando-qualified troops serving in commando units
*RAF blue â€" Royal Air Force (including RAF Regiment) BBC website on British headdress

Members of the Royal Tank Regiment, Army Air Corps, Parachute Regiment and SAS never wear any other form of uniform headgear except the beret (i.e. they do not wear peaked caps). Troops from other services, regiments or corps on attachment to units with distinctive coloured berets often wear those berets (with their own cap badge). Colonels, brigadiers and generals usually continue to wear the beret of the regiment or corps to which they used to belong with the cap badge distinctive to their rank. The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and other ranks of the Royal Welsh wear a feather hackle on the beret.

 

Did your brother stop ragging you after you made your jumps?

 

No a58...He said it wasnt proper parachuting....I jumped out of a cessna..static not freefall..Did 3 days in a mock up and rigs...did 1001 to 1006,,,jumped...did plp...what more do you need....Apart from a death wish....Like skiing...never to be repeated.....Apparantly I became a dodo...not a penguin...a penguin being a flightless bird...a dodo being one that should be extinct. Paras think they are funny too...

 

Ah well, it wasn't like you were in the RAF Regiment or something like that....

 

What utter nonsense - "RAF regiment"

The RAF never formed as a regiment - they meerly constituted a company sized unit.
They were trained in urben warfare, guerilla tactics, bomings and at general terrorism expertise. They NEVER had para training.

And they were not only disliked by so many British soldiers/marines.

View attachment 10977

British! and ze Englanders

Hello urgh,

did your first jump end like this?
View attachment 10980

Regards
Kruska

 

Dont know Kruska....Eyes firmly shut...guy on ground bellowing out to pull me legs up....Had no choice, the kit was pulling me up anyway...I've spoken in high pitched tones ever since.

 

Hallo urgh,

it does squeeze at times doesn't it?

Regards
Kruska