Other Post On Chemical Guard (NOT)!

[Zofo]

Our troop was deployed as part of a countermeasures asset against various regiments, including the infantry and artillery, in summer 1988.

Working blue against blue was for us, extremely boring. The work was not too strenuous and as we were sitting on the top of the Bielefeld Ridge at the time our comms were top notch. Various other Signals types had pitched up and set up (they hated us so we pretended we were umpires) but they were quite some distance from us.

We were coming to the end of the night shift and it was pretty foggy everywhere. T was about 0500 and would be light in about an hour’s time. There was a guy in the troop who was non too popular and as he was going out to stag on, we thought it would be good if we could set him up and get a little pay back for him being such a waster. The guards had to wear their NBC suits but not boots and mask which meant a couple of minutes prior to going out by getting ready. Anyway, this chap had been on guard in the pit for about 10 minutes when one our shift supervisor got on the tele J (field phone, connected with dom 10 – see also DP’s stories!) and shouted in a very muffled voice, “gas, gas, gas”!

He told us the phone was dropped and there was muffled cursing. It was later replaced and we all had a giggle as the prat stood to in the trench in full NBC gear. His replacement went out with his mask on and our man came blundering into our complex. We could see his eyes open wide and could imagine the snarl on his lips behind the mask as he immediately saw he’d been set up! He struggled to get his mask off as his hands were slipping all over the place with his rubber gloves still on.

He was not amused of course, but we dined out on his discomfort for ages. In fact of course, I’m still doing so!!

 

[rotorwash]

Shoot, Zofo, you missed your calling. The way you like to p**s people off, you should have been SF.

RW

 

[Zofo]

Well RW, our Major always thought we were! Special yes, Forces, loosely, but certainly not the two together! We did have lots of fun though - not many people in the British Army liked us (anyone to do with commz hated us most of the time, tolerated us for some of the time but very rarely liked us - only when we were working with them as opposed to against them. For the most part though, we worked against anyone who wanted to have a hard time with their communications assets. We certainly gave it to them in spades! Great times!!

 

[rotorwash]

Special, yes, Forces, loosely, might be applied to SF all the way around. Many mainstream Army consider them out of control. It really was fun making people's lives miserable when they were firmly entrenched in their comfort zone. We especially liked the confident, arrogant ones, whom we immediately nicknamed "Target."

Sometime I have to tell you the story about "Penelope." Also the one about Tillery Lake Dam and the SADM. Both of these are classics in SF circles, and both involve severe messing with peoples minds.

RW

 

[Zofo]

Post them up RW, it'll be a pleasure to read them.
We were severely arsed about by our SAS people. I could post a little story about that later - we didn't like them!!

 

[rotorwash]

SAS, yeh, my kind of people. After a piece of my heart.