66 replies to this topic

[TheRavenSpoke]

Chief, best post yet.

Love the museum posts but this one is in a class by itself.

[M256]

I remember when I went through AOB in the mid 80's that the Jordanian officers were highly professional and well educated. One had been to Sandhurst and was wearing British jump wings. The Saudi officer was solid but the rest of the mideastern officers in my class were less than useless...

[Smedlee]

Is the American the only one smiling?  The "pink guy" might be smiling too.

[ionviol2]

Romanian looks, best looks.

[Sealteam6]

MD2020, on May 02 2012 - 21:27, said:

Chief never try to out drink the guys in SAS, I tried, short night-long day.

I swear by this statement above, tried many times & failed, they were always kind enough to help me into bed after woods & my Wallet was always in my back pocket.

My Culture shock was working with the US Military during Kangaroo 81 at shoalwater bay, The Food back on the US Base was outstanding for quality & quantity, actually made us a bit sick (from both ends)  as we had just done 2 weeks eating whatever crawled past us mixed with 24 Hr Rat packs & to get beautiful rich food for our 24 hours leave did its job.

Out in the Field during time outs for prac demonstration's or Lessons, the US Troops would segregate into their ethic groups EG: Anglo, Hispanic & African American, we thought that quite odd as we didnt do that at all, Australian Army had a Few Italian, Greek & Polish Australians but we were always brothers at work & outside of, many of us still are  now. (dont know if this has changed since then)

The efficiency of the US Military Machine once it starts rolling was great to watch & timed to perfection.

Great Post Chief, I prefer the OR's (Other Ranks Mess) over the Officers, Sort of reminds me of Titanic when Jack eats with the first class & all the pomp & ceremony of getting through a meal not offending anyone then retiring to the Smokers room after-woods, in the OR's the only rule is NO Head Dress, too easy!

Our system is broken into 3, OR's mess, Sgt's Mess & Officers, all strictly governed, anyone of the 3 parties can not enter any mess outside of their own ranks unless invited.

Thanks Chief, Awesome pic's

[StrohsVonPabst]

If wars had been fought with fashion then,Jordan and Pakistan would kick ass and take names.I expecially like the swagger stick the Pakistani officer has.Perhaps it is a good thing wars are not decided on the catwalk,Italy and Germany would have won WW2,hands down.Ok,the French and my Polish cousins had been pretty damned stylish too.

[Forvet]

In the US Coast Guard, being just south of vancouver I have met acouple Canadian CG members, and served with other shipmates who have had more in depth relationships.

Unlike the USCG, the Canadian CG is infact pretty much nearly a fire department, it is mostly civilian and the more military like boats are even then insanely relaxed. One of my chiefs told a story of being up in alaska, and when the bar he and a number of canadians were at had last call... the canadians invited him back to thier ship and it's onboard BAR. Suffice to say he came back to his 110 foot patrol boat utterly s***faced after having the party of his life.

Don't get me wrong, the Canadian Coast Guard is a wonderful organization. Oftentimes better equipped and better maintained by the government than our own thinly stretched, outdated, and falling apart USCG. However, it is quite the culture shock to come from a straight laced military organization with no alcohol onboard and no beards and military haircuts to looking at our CG brothers across the strait and seeing the Brawny man touting beer around the fantail as it were.

Long story short, I have never once had a bad experience... or heard of bad experience from the Canadian CG or the RCMP, both of which we work closely in tadem. This is just my little tidbit of culture shock for you fellows. ... I believe I am the only member of the USCG on these boards anyhow.

[Nodbugger]

I'm pretty sure that first picture was taken at the Leader's Club at Ft. Knox. We had our Dining In at BOLC in that room.

[whukid]

My dad had a couple Egyptian Air Force Officers and a Saudi Arabian Prince serving in their Air Force come out to Las Vegas for some reason or another. The USAF General in charge of the exchange had to order MP's to escort our Middle Eastern friends around after they spend over $3000 (each) at various Strip Clubs in the city..

[Chiyeko]

Awesome read laughed a lot from the quotes and I love the Keg depth charges

[Duffbowl]

From my time in the pus (Navy for those of you less conversant in maritime slang), we worked mostly with the Poms (RN), Kiwis (RNZN), Indons (TNI-AL), Malays (RMN/TDLM), SIngaporeans (RSN), Japs (JMSDF), and the Yanks (USN).  The differences were not that vast, but definitely noticeable.  In terms of professionalism, the RSN were the standout, closely followed by the rest, with the Malays just behind the more pack, and Indons at the bottom of the field.  This was mostly put down to training and shore support.  The only hurdle experienced was dealing with accents on a radio telephony circuit.

Although it seems like a small thing, beer ration stood out as the difference.  Being from Islamic nations, the RNM and TNI-AL didn't practice beer rations.  The Singaporeans didn't either, as my recollection, but more out of professional pride.  Not sure about the JMSDF, as I never got to socialise with them.  The USN were the poor cousins, with sailors only getting a three can ration once a week after 68 days away from port, and it was fairly poor (about 2%).  The Kiwis had the same ration as us Aussies, two cans per sailor per day after a day away from port, with full strength beer (4.5-5%).  The Poms outdid us with a similar issue, except for one difference: beer taps in the Petty Officers mess.  Still have hazy recollection of drinking on HMS Glamorgan in Singapore during an abandoned part of the Five Powers Defence Agreement exercise

[The_Chieftain]

HMS Glamorgan? County Class? That dates you.

[remenis9]

While I never served with foreign soldies my  uncle told me a lot of funny stories from his time in the Korean War (he served in an  artillery battalion). Apparently the French soldiers had their own bakers back then and flat out refused to touch  standard American issue.

He also did a lot of trading since he was a little back from the front lines, mostly trading with the  ROK's with cigarettes and coffee rations for better food or a number of random stuff like chairs, blankets, etc.
But what has to be the funniest was his unit trading some surplus winter gear for beer from a canadian unit.

[Shirioner]

Wow when I read all these stories I realize how the larger military tradition is so foreign for Israelis! We dress bad, we have no formalities with our superiors, we can only drink alcohol with permission of a Brigadier General and we act like we are the only ones who actually know something about fighting! All the Germans and Americans that were visiting us said they felt like they were on summer camp, in terms of our discipline....

[Arishtat]

While serving in Germany with the US Army my roommate and I won the platoon lottery to go to an open house and shooting competition with the Austrian Bundeswehr. We were both PFCs in the Scout platoon and went along with three corporals and a Staff Sergeant from the Mortar platoon. Since our two platoons lived adjacent to one another in the barracks we all knew one another and were looking forward to a weekend of taxpayer-funded playtime. After a few hours of driving we arrived at the NCO Academy where we were to be lodged for the night and our hosts informed us that there would be a picnic dinner that evening and we were invited to attend. We rode down in our BDUs and only had casual civvies so we did our best to straighten up, polish our boots and hopped a ride in a little 4x4 driven by an Austrian NCO candidate with aspirations of driving in the Dakar Rally.

Upon arrival we were shocked to meet a constellation of officers ranging from captains to colonels and a few stars floating around, mostly Austrian but there was a Polish contingent all in matching red and white track suits. Did I mention that the officers were all in semi-dress uniforms? (Coats were removed because it was a nice spring night and the smoking / drinking lamp had been lit some time before we arrived.) Our right hands were quivering because we were all trying to figure out whether to salute or make for the treeline before anyone noticed us. A kind colonel wandered over and greeted us in perfect English with an invitation to avail ourselves of the open bar and then he'd introduce us around. Uh yessir that'll be just fine sir. So beers in hand we were shown from one knot of brass to another and another and we all lost track of who was whom and found ourselves parked at a picnic table with the only other Americans which were a couple of NCO medics from the Army hospital in Landstuhl. After establishing that they were hospital staff who put on their BDUs only for inspection purposes and barely knew what TA-50 or mud was we moved off and studied our drinks for a bit.

Suddenly this Oberstabsfeldwebel plunks down with us and introduces himself by poking at my buddy's 1ID shoulder patch. "You guys 1ID? What are you, infantry?" (A couple of the mortar guys had their EIB badges which the Stabs recognized.) The mortars answered yes and my roommate and I said we were Cavalry Scouts. The Stabs perked up immediately and leaned in to whisper, "I am with those hospital guys, they're not real soldiers, you, you guys are real soldiers." He then regaled us with stories of when he was a kid in West Germany under US occupation and how he did his service with the Bundeswehr first as a conscript and then later going to NCO school and so on. Much beer was drunk and stories swapped. Between his fairly fluent English and our pidgin German we burned up most of the night right there at the picnic table.

My buddy ended up going home with some Austrian girl who crashed the party with her friends. We were worried that he wouldn't show up the next morning, but she lived right behind the Academy grounds and he managed to wander back just in time to catch the bus to the competition.

The best part came at the end of the day when I nabbed a bronze medal at the competition for the Steyr AUG, the only American to do so at the competition.

[BravoTwoOne]

Excellent time for war stories...

During my three tours in Europe, including some time in the Balkans during that adventure, I had the opportunity to "dine" in several NATO mess halls as well as work with European partner units and everything that The Chieftain notes is 100% true.

We were on a two week exercise with the Belgians once upon a time and they decided to take a break over the middle weekend. I think that it had something to do with limits to their maneuver rights in the German countryside. During that weekend, they brought out a mobile movie theater tractor-trailer rig to our tank battalion and supplied our mess sergeant with couple of whole hogs. Fortunately our mess sergeant, being from the old school, knew how to properly dismantle a hog. We dined well that weekend.

Our NATO partner unit for a number of years was the Royal Canadian Dragoons (RCD) which I believe at that time was the only tank battalion in the Canadian military. They were equipped with Leopards and we went on quite a few exercises and gunneries with them. In my opinion they combined the best of the British traditions with North American informality. They liked beer too. (OK my northern neighbors, tell me if I'm wrong.)

Then there were the days when I was part of the Armor School at Ft. Knox and we attended numerous social events with allied officers, both students and those that were stationed there as exchange instructors. But those stories will have to wait for another forum topic.

;-)

[dead_man_walking]

I can remember having a Kuwaiti "Fourth Officer" or JOUT (Junior Officer Under Training) when I was the RO on HMAS Wollongong.
His English was better than ours, being gramatically correct!  The mayhem that would ensue due to our slang and "twangy orstralian accent" was hilarious!  He was a thourough professional, who was duly cognizant of the training opportunity his country had afforded him in their rebuilding after the first Gulf War.  He showed up quite a few native officer's in dedication and application to the task.

[OSHOW]

Very funny stuff..."forget the depth charges boys, lets load the kegs"

[Renegade_0878]

I spent 4 years as a gunner's mate in the US Navy. I think my biggest culture shock was going to severamorsk(spelling?) Russia. We spent 4 days there after doing underway operations with a Russian destroyer in the northern Atlantic ocean. It was really neat because we were there during a 'navy days'  festival. They actually launched live ammunition from their ships at the coast of the river. And I'm not talking small arms. Most of the people were really nice to us and treated us like rock stars. People were pushing money into our pockets and you couldn't walk more than 15 feet without someone wanting a picture or 'foto'. It was really awesome to have a chance to go there and get to see Russia first hand.
   During the same deployment, we traveled to 26 different ports. 3 months in Europe,Scandinavia(spelling?), and Russia. The other 3 months were in western Africa. It was a fantastic experience. Especially for a 20 year old at the time.

[das_nooblet]

My father has served as part of several UN missions, as well as the usual gamut of exercises that come from 30+ years in the Canadian Forces ...  this makes me wanna sit down and ask what crazy stories he has regarding these sorts of thing

The only two that come to mind though, are completely opposite.

One of his UN tours was in Cyprus as an Lt., and on a routine patrol he came across some Turkish soldiers inside the Buffer Zone. He escorted them back to the Turkish side, and then turned them over to an officer. Apparently being caught by a "Cap" (iirc, he said the Canadian officers wore blue ballcaps instead of berets) was much more serious than being caught by an NCO, as the Turkish officer proceded to pistol-whip the senior soldier of the group right in front of my father. I can only imagine the uproar if a Canadian or American officer used that kind of discipline

On the lighter side, he and my mother (ex-engineer) often joked about when they were at the Royal Military College, and thecadets from West point would visit, and vice versa. Apparently the only time my father has seen someone drink themselves under the table was when a West Point cadet challenged a cadet from my mom's squadron to a drinking challenge. he had been boasting about being able to take a dozen beers and still be fine. The first beer went down quick and easy, and so did the second. But then the West Pointer's eyes rolled up and under the table he slid. He probably didn't realise that the beer they were drinking was a little less than triple the strength he would have been used to

Edited by das_nooblet, May 03 2012 - 04:35.