If you hit someone reasonably hard with a pace stick, they’ll spit out more than their tea…
I’m afraid this whole debacle was entirely foreseeable: when you tell people that it’s their job to correct the errors of others, including those of a higher rank than them, and you tell them that they are Keepers of the Holy Flame, and you tell them that they kind of have a separate chain of command to everyone else and that - within the business of The Holy Flame - they aren’t subject to the normal rules of behaviour, manners, tact, and respect for colleagues, you get this.
This is exactly where the SNCO system as opposed to the old AWO only system has disintegrated.
The trick was missed from day one in terms of having people doing specific roles as SNCOs and not just drill/discip. So you get 20 or 30 SNCOs running around all trying to be king or queen pin, as they think their only role is to be shouty. What started out as a good idea has been allowed as I say to disintegrate into a complete and utter shambles.
We now have a breed of as said who think they are a cut above everyone all seeing how high up the wall they can urinate and seeing it as their role to try and belittle everyone if they aren’t as per the silly rules we play to. Remove the carrying of pace sticks on parades etc, with their only use being for specific training / measuring purposes.
I don’t ever remember in the old AWO days having as many numpties as we seem to have now, in fact I don’t ever recall any AWOs getting like some do now and they would have more grace than to use odd photos to try and make people feel or look bad, ,in a personal drive to be something they are not. Although the vast majority of AWOs from my cadet days had at least done National Service and made at least 2 stripes, so could garner a bit of respect. Unlike the vast majority now who just play on what they learned or think they learned as cadets or where they’ve been on a course and come back as supposed experts.
I was one of 2 AWOs at one point, I wasn’t the drill/Discip one and it didn’t worry me as I kept more than busy doing other things. When the other one left, I did the drill/Discip role as well as everything else.
I had to manage at one time 3 adult SNCOs all wanting to be drill pigs, because that’s what they felt the rank meant. I’d said who was what, but the other 2 tried it on and said I was holding them back. Holding them back from what, I never really understood. Others have found this is why I comment like I do about the SNCO system we have and how it’s been allowed to unravel over 15 years. There was a real opportunity to have a proper grown up set up, bur no it’s all playground rubbish, between themselves and the wider organisation. It doesn’t help that cadets are allowed to think that being an adult SNCO means drill stuff and not a wider remit.
The main reason for introducing the L/C rank to the Regiment was that the Army when on operations with them couldn’t get their head around non NCOs being a section commander.
It’s all part of the tribalism that has been brought into the Corps. Something that it intensified by the unjustified “bling” that has materialised. Different coloured lanyards for cadets to signify which Gucci course they have been on, to cadets wearing flying suits sitting in front of computers with no danger of leaving the ground and badges for thinking about doing DofE and leadership!
As pacesticks have become de rigueur for WO and SNCOs, how long is it until they allow “Tate & Lyle” WOs to carry swords to distinguish them from the crowd?
Happened to me when I was an WSO. A certain FS smirked at me (wdimagineer2b knows who it was - his surname sounds like a letter ) and said I had ‘no authority over him as he reported direct to the WWO’.
Apparently, they heard me in Argentina…
If I, as a Regiment NCO, was told to do something by the Adj and then told him I’d have to run it past the SWO first, I would be able to count in nanuseconds, the length of time my head would have remained on my shoulders.
Why do the SNCO Cadre feel they are a breed apart? Who in hell is allowing them to do this? I suspect it emanates from the very person who is charged with setting standards within the Corps and for ensuring everyone abides by the rules. If only they spent as much time sorting out their SNCO’s\WO’s as they do on whining for permission to wear QCS caps, crunchy boots and white belts, the organisation would be a lot better off.
Really? Does the Naval Section have LCpls, Cpls, Sgt etc? I think not!!
Your example doesn’t really cut it either as they only wear two ranks when they are above 1* commanding Joint units. A Captain does not wear 3 stars and then two gold bars!!
That’s not just his assertion, though: it’s explicitly the reason (though I can’t now remember if it’s JSP313 or 814).
The RN has actually just updated its CCF rank structure, which previously topped out at PO (=Sgt). Fine if your senior RN cadet is just in charge of a small section but a bit unreasonable if he/she is the senior cadet in a Contingent of 200+. They now have cadet CPO and WO ranks.
You’re right though, there’s nothing below PO; everything else is a rate (AB, LS roughly = 1st class, Leading cadet). If we didn’t have LCpl/JCpl we would just have to cope but it’s better with it.
Sorry to disappoint, but I wore (in addition to my own) US rank tabs and I was only a Major. It wasn’t out of preference, it was simply that US soldiers seemed to be genetically unable to learn ranks other than their own…
