Video

September 89 I did my training there. 1st Battalion 22nd Cheshire Regiment. Good times...

👍

Great stuff, Keith! I met Paul Alexa, who served in the 127th US Army Aircraft Artillery, when I was working at Dover Museum back in 1988!

Here in Ireland we call the sleeping bag ‘the pig.. it looks like a green piggy when it’s in its stuff bag

I was in the TA through the 80s and we were still using 58 pattern webbing large pack and sleeping bag, that stuff got heavy when you were piss wet through on Salisbury plain. I still use a 58 bag for wild camping when I'm in it at night it does bring a slight smile to my face.

During your service did you utilize an FN or Sterling sub machine gun?

My dad and uncle were both ww2 veterans 🇨🇦army the second world war

I was 10 years old when you joined the service sir❤

PS: Excuse you at 7:51 🙂

Extremely well explained, especially TAVR. RMR was the same. So was 21... Albeit in their own sweet way (you'll know what I mean by "sweet").

Yes, before the first version of sleeping bag came out it was most definitely scratchy army blankets taken on exercise. Not very good in the north of W.Germany in the winter. Never seemed to get a long enough bag at 6ft. to be able to get fully into it. They were G1098 kit and came in all sorts of states of wear and odour. Night move west to east across Salisbury Plain by convoy lights. Not had any kip for 48+ hours. Got to RV as dawn broke. Unrolled one of the old style webbing cam nets as a mattress, dose bag inverted, over my boots at the bottom, head in top pocket. Got two hours kip before move back to Colchester via A3, North Circular, London and A12. No M25 in them days.

Excellent speech. Thank you both for your service and max respect to all who have served or are serving

What happened to me was this we were in saltau Germany on a training exercise couple of weeks went by and our oc decided to have the co over for a bit of dinner with all the senior ranks Rsm included so during the time just before the dinner started somebody had stolen a few cooked chickens anyway it got dark and decided to get my head down went to to get my bag and wasn't there so I thought somebody had taken the wrong bag so searched for it and found it and yes somebody else was sleeping in it so I got it back and got in it and there was something in there with me so I got out and gave a shake and yes you guessed it chicken bones.

Regimentals Militaria is a nice shop sir!

Same across the water in France, awful weather for May and June. I did a stint at a STT, very interesting time. Got to know the Gurkas pretty well amongst other things.

Gonk bag: Great when your dossing about, not great in a snap bug out out and your zip is fcked

Why did the manufacturers of these bags imagine every serving soldier was 5ft 8ins ???

We in Australia only have ANZAC day which is a public holiday but an armed forces day would be great 🇦🇺🤝🇬🇧

Totally agree the 58 pattern bags were shite; however, when I became a CQMS I got a brand new one (RHIP) and they were great, being feather filled. Though I did buy my own roll matt and bivvy bag.

I have a 1879 Martini-Henry Mark III No. I. Pity I can't add a photo of it.

Thanks Sergeant-Major! New sub from Kansas, USA. Robert, USNR, 1987-1995

Crowborough Camp and Pippingford Park. Been there a few times!

Im.ex junglie and used to put the 95 bag in to a bivvie bag and curl it down in to my bergan. . As a large football in a compression sac bloomin useless

As regards to the blankets and the old macintosh type poncho early 60's that is what we had to suffer much later the 58 pattern doss bags the unit that I was in we had our own doss bag and after, exercise or other we used to take them to the quarters and put a pair of pumps inside the bag while it was getting a good wash and then put it in the spindrier with the pumps still inside and found that method beat the shit out of the feathers and kept them fluffed up.

REME attached to 156 72/77, did a tour of bogside great lads…

We always ended up with Med sized '58 bags when serving, not until I was doing my clearance did the SQMS Cpl give me a brand new Large, for my civi life. I still use it to this day. We were issued the newer style bags and stuff sacks in about '87, when we got the new Kevlar helmets. I remember on our Fieldcraft exercise at Dover first hearing about getting into a dry doss bag with your wet kit to dry it out. I tried getting into a damp doss bag in dry kit to dry my bag out. Did it work I hear you ask? Worst night "sleep" of my life. I was only too glad to get up for Stag.😢

Another interesting video, Keith, keep up the good work mate. Red On! Go!

My pack was lost On My first deployment to korea. It got placed on a truck that broke down iirc. I ended ip with about four wool blankets to home me over until my gear arrived. Best sleep i ever had over there! This was about 84.

Still got my dos bag and compression sack use it for night fishing when I go,really heavy used to be a pain to pack in a hurry though specially when its pissing with rain.

Travel light freeze at night

Great idea Keith. I can't see why anyone would object to that?

In '85 a few other lads and I got sent to Kenya on attachment with an infantry unit. Out in a National Park one time and camping out with your green maggot, we were checking every night to make sure no spiders or snakes had got in it before you !!

The powers that be are more interested in having a gay pride month, let alone our armed forces past and present...

I joined in 66 as a boy we were issued 44 kit so the sleeping stuff was a light weight green blanket and a gas cape, in 67 we were then issued 58 kit with a doss bag. Luxury lad pure luxury, I still have my maggot all these years later and still use it when I go camping

my TA Unit (6/7 Queen's) had the RSTT even at a Company Level. All Coy in the Bn were training to a certain standard level (I seem to remember 12 weekday evenings, 8 weekends), weekdays were at the TAC, weekends all the Coy joined up and all this was co-ordinated by the RSTT (Recruit Selection & Training Team) at some Training Area (yes I remember Crowborough and Pippingford Park !), it also co-incided with Kit issue 1 and then after 8 weekends Kit issue 2. As soon as all days and weekends were done they were pushed up to the Depot (Bassingbourne) for the Recruit Training fortnight. Sometime the Recruit Training was done as a local Cadre by our PSI team to form the 2 weeks 'in camp' training element to become a 'Trained Soldier' - seems a long time ago...................... (1986). People were really keen but retention was shocking - we probably lost 30% inside 12 months, and 60% within 24 months. There were plenty of courses available but people just didn't take advantage.............

ah the old bouncing bomb, took up most your Bergen, but it was warm, we had a guy who thought he was clever bought a smaller sleeping bag, didn't realize it was a 2 season, if you could call it that. We went out on exercise in the freezing cold. we were ok, this guy was freezing in his summer sleeping bag.

Aaargh! Those annoying nylon sleeping bag liners - one turn-over and yer boots were manacled, great if a stand-to was called! Not. Late ‘70s I managed to prof an extra long maggot (still got it in the loft, it must be 60 years old now!!!!!😮), what a difference it made. Surprised no one’s mentioned tights - you know ‘the old fisherman’s trick for keeping warm’, yeah, right 🤣🤣🤣

Great video, buddy.👍👍👍 Personally, not sure about Bank Holidays. Most people would just have the 'Day Off' and not realise what its for! Might get myself out to Boston to meet up. Will have to see what is going on at home, as we are still dealing with the loss of a family member.😢 I hope you and Tracey have a fantastic day.👍 I will post a video later about an event that used to be HUGE in Portsmouth, but then got cut by the Council. Stay tuned & 'Let's Tab'!👍👍🤜🤜

Territorials known as the Cut Lunch Commandos

I've mentioned it before Keith on your channel, but the best ever course I did was down at Chatham on my RE SNCO's course with twenty-one regulars and me being the only TA guy. Three weeks of army bliss feeling like I had actually achieved something, not every sapper got the opportunity to do... Great vid Keith.

Awesome video Keith. Interesting to hear about the TA's / Army Reserves training. There are some differences and some similarities to how the Army reserve is trained here in Australia. When I enlisted we did exact same basic training as the Reg's mixed in with Reg recruits and it was ran by Reg's. But when we did our IET's Initial Employment Training courses (Drivers course) as I was a driver. It was a 2 weeks course ran by our own unit. Once again very informative video. Keep them coming. Cheers from Down Under

In the reserves when we got issued the 58 bags i used to find ladies knickers inside without fail, god knows how they got there!

58 pattern 1974-82 for me, not sure how I ended up with an extra one, but it came out with me to Alberta Canada. Joined the Militia (TA) in Calgary 1983-84, (F/T civvy job put an end to that period of TA.) Figured I could get away with using the 58 bag instead of the Canadian Forces (CF) system, first -C% put an end to that, but the bag was great for summer camping trips for years. The CF had a 5 part Sleeping System (SS) if you were lucky to get it all. 1. Valise bag for putting the other 4 parts inside. 2. Hood with Velcro on the front, and 2 elastics loop attached that went under each armpit and kept the hood on while sleeping (most hard part to get) 3. Outer Sleeping bag with loops? or ties?, 4. Inner Sleeping bag with loops or ties? (Can’t remember what bag had what), 5. Wool material liner with ties for inside the inner bag. Pretty good system Late Spring to First Snow fall you just carried your Inner Bag (4 parts), then the winter to late Spring u carried the 5 parts. Canadians figured I was some kind of Scottish nut case, I would strip down to my underwear, get in my SB, and zip it up over my head. 5 minutes later I would unzip my bag to around waist height then sleep like that for the rest of the night. To bloody hit in those things. I’ve been using a Highlander UK 4 season bag since about 2015/16? Great bag. Came across it on a UK video by a guy called armouredcockroach or roach, great bloke for teaching videos, haven’t seen him online since around 2020/21.💂‍♂️🪖⛑️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇨🇦

D lines, week 11-20 at Guards Depot in 1974. More relaxed period in comparison to weeks 1-10.💂‍♂️🪖⛑️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇨🇦

Doss bag or Schlaf sack! I had the 58 pattern one when I joined. Later on, we got the sleeping system with a different doss bag and the bivvy bag. They were good from memory. When I left, I bought a Snugpak bag for camping and they were great.

Yes, agree to bank holiday for both days! Give the people who have served some recognition and respect!

We had s bags in rn, i am going back 1980s or so. Issued to ships stores that you had to draw out on a 126. Blue quilted not heavy, with a sheet you tied inside. That got wased every 10 days or so.. but many suplied theirown civvy ones in preference.

Remember doing some weekends with 2bde training team

Can you do a video on obsession with getting the SAS smocks please?

The sleeping bags had a strange musty feather smell, stores people always had warm new ones and the rest lumpy reissued ones !