Don't you just love 'em!!! - Squaddie rubbish

[swyn]

Why not see if you can get a message and pictures to the OC. Red faces there perhaps? I would also sugest the RSM as he would not want an incident like this linked to his name. Do some stirring though as this needs to be rectified.
Swyn.

 

[capacious]

Jesus, if me or anyone I go on exercise with left a mess like that we'd be crucified! I remember having to do 150 pressups after one exercise - ten for each piece of litter the corporal found. What you found there is disgraceful - you should send those pictures to the MOD and let them know what our boys are doing. EVERY soldier has a lecture and exam on the countryside code (or atleast they used to) before they're let loose. That shouldn't EVER happen.

 

[Greg]

A few photos and a letter in an envelope addressed to the RSM Deepcut Barracks would certainly get the ball rolling and as they say in the forces S**T only rolls downhill!!

 

[BOD]

Sad to say but they do it abroad as well.

Another person and I cleaned up a site near a nice waterfall that was littered with MoD junk.

Definately not the work of locals.

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

What a bloody mess

 

[Butchd]

Greg, there are always bad units in any organisation, but I'll put my 25 years of experience in the ACF, from being a cadet, through an instructor, running a unit to being 2i/c of the Company in a couple of ACF counties against your bad unit any day. At a rough guess half the ACF instructors were ex squaddies, but the few bad apples always give everyone a bad reputation.

 

[bambodoggy]

All cleared up now

 

[Greg]

Greg, there are always bad units in any organisation, but I'll put my 25 years of experience in the ACF, from being a cadet, through an instructor, running a unit to being 2i/c of the Company in a couple of ACF counties against your bad unit any day. At a rough guess half the ACF instructors were ex squaddies, but the few bad apples always give everyone a bad reputation.

No ex squaddies were instructors at my unit, you obviously have a good area which I congratulate you on but it wasn't just my detachment I was on about it was virtually the whole of the Cumbria ACF! Especially on summer camps. One other thing I certainly didn't like and still don't because it still goes on, is the instructors allowing the cadets to smoke under age!
Now please don't try and denie this, because when I left the army a few years ago, I thought about becoming a cadet instructor myself. I spent two weeks in a detachment in Pembroke and couldn't believe it still goes on!

 

[Butchd]

As I say you'll get bad units. As for smoking, depends on where you are. The last unit I was with, and I've been in a couple of counties, so I've got a fair spread of experience, they banned smoking altogether, so yes I can say that it doesn't go on - in some places anyway. You just can't generalise, and to be fair, being an ex-squaddie is no guarantee of suitability or competence as I've known some completely useless ones in my time.

There are a few things that you need to bear in mind with organisations like the ACF - they are volunteers, and there aren't enough of them, which means that sometimes they can't afford to dump the useless ones. They are doing it in their spare time, and the ACF can take up most of your spare time if you let, most of which is unpaid. The training of instructors is almost non-existant, they are given a manual and told to get on with it, and of course the manual doesn't cover even a tiny fraction of the things that an instructor needs to know. There are some instructors who are a waste of space, but on the whole they are a dedicated bunch who overcome a hell of a lot and don't deserve to be painted with a broad brush just because some of them have no idea (and sometimes that isn't their fault either because as I say they get very little training). Did you know for example that an ACF officer gets no officer training? And yet they are expected to be as good as those who go to Sandhurst.

 

[Greg]

We have gone totally off topic now so lets end it here shall we!:togo:

 

[saffy]

I'm certanly not taking this to the press, ok so you're all right it would no doubt get things done but it would also cause a whole lot of hassle for the Depot and being Deepcut they've had their fair share of bad press lately.

No press on this forum then ?

 

[bambodoggy]

No press on this forum then ?

Lets hope not and if there is.....well, it's cleared now and I didn't see anything...those photos were taken at a rubbish tip

 

[Greg]

Lets hope not and if there is.....well, it's cleared now and I didn't see anything...those photos were taken at a rubbish tip

At the end of the day yes squaddies did make that mess, whether through laziness or someone just forgetting to pick up the bin bags. But every time I go to my local woods I find heaps of rubbish that has been dumped by fly tippers, its completely wrong but unless you catch these people red handed what can you do.
I am sorry for going off on one, but I was just voicing my opinion as an ex proud squaddie.
We have to remember that not everyone has the same mindset as the people on this forum, alot of people just don't care if we have beautiful woodlands and landscapes, this subject was brought up by Silverback last month when he found that crap in his local woods, and it all boils down to educating people. I agree, although I did have a rant earlier, that naming and shaming people won't help it will probably in the long run make things worse.
Bam you live in the area and know the range wardens, I'm sure we can all agree that a few choice words in the right ears might get the point across without it going public!
Good on you for cleaning the area up aswell!

 

[Geuf]

This happens everywhere. at the training grounds in the Netherlands you'll find rubbish everywhere. it's worse than in your local park or woods.
It's weird sleeping in such an area though. did it once. but it doesn't actually give you the safest feeling.

 

[Matt Weir]

All cleared up now

Nice one Bam.

 

[lukeuk2]

im shocked at the mess they have left behind.

 

[andyn]

nice one Bam for going back and tidying up mate, it is just a shame that it had to be done in the first place.

No press on this forum then ?

If anyone from the press wants to use the photos then my bank account details for payment are available via PM.

 

[Jjv110]

It certainly is a mess, but I reckon it was a genuine "forget" to pick the bags up. It's just impossible to have been left deliberately in that way, unless the British Army has severely changed. There was probably someone from the QMs supposed to pick it up after the exercise in the Land Rover, and he forgot or is a slacker (of which there are many) and didn't bother. He might be someone who's really desperate to get out the army and has no interest at all and was trusted to pick the rubbish up, but didn't and the NCOs were unaware of it.
Then, during the night, foxes or badgers ripped into the bags and took the best bists, leaving the biscuits brown, as somebody else said .
You have to allow for simple mistakes. Admittedly, maps etc shouldn't have been left lying around, but they may have been finished with after the exercise and have had no further use.
It is very slack and we never left anything after our exercises, but errors do happen. I don't think it was dleiberate. it's far more annoying to see dumped cars and obviously dumped rubbish, than a bag of squaddie litter left behind in error.
It's not like there's been a blue on blue, it's a mess, but that's all it is.
It's better to make mistakes on exercise than in real situations. People have NDs,people drop their rifles into rivers, etc., etc. That's what training is for.
I'm just putting these points forwards so that all squaddies are not "tarred with the same brush".
The important thing is to be disciplined when operational.
The British Army is the best Army in the world.

 

[Greg]

It certainly is a mess, but I reckon it was a genuine "forget" to pick the bags up. It's just impossible to have been left deliberately in that way, unless the British Army has severely changed. There was probably someone from the QMs supposed to pick it up after the exercise in the Land Rover, and he forgot or is a slacker (of which there are many) and didn't bother. He might be someone who's really desperate to get out the army and has no interest at all and was trusted to pick the rubbish up, but didn't and the NCOs were unaware of it.
Then, during the night, foxes or badgers ripped into the bags and took the best bists, leaving the biscuits brown, as somebody else said .
You have to allow for simple mistakes. Admittedly, maps etc shouldn't have been left lying around, but they may have been finished with after the exercise and have had no further use.
It is very slack and we never left anything after our exercises, but errors do happen. I don't think it was dleiberate. it's far more annoying to see dumped cars and obviously dumped rubbish, than a bag of squaddie litter left behind in error.
It's not like there's been a blue on blue, it's a mess, but that's all it is.
It's better to make mistakes on exercise than in real situations. People have NDs,people drop their rifles into rivers, etc., etc. That's what training is for.
I'm just putting these points forwards so that all squaddies are not "tarred with the same brush".
The important thing is to be disciplined when operational.
The British Army is the best Army in the world.

Well said!

 

[kram245]

I would think that Jjv110 is probably somewhere near with his ideas on what might have happened. No excuse for putting operational details in with the crap, though( yeah, its an exercise, but bad drills to get into). Saying that, I was in Para Reg, it was hammered into us about leaving no trace, but we used to dispair of some other units leaving crap around, and this was in South Armagh.