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PULLING TOGETHER
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TWELVE
IV. THE NITTY AND THE GRITTY
That having been said, there remained basic professional habits which were the duty of
trainers to inculcate in trainees. Among these, in the case of the first intake, the most critical
were: keeping personal rifles to hand or account for at all times after they were drawn from
the armskote; maintaining and cleaning weapons and Controlled Combat Equipment (CCE)
before they were put away after training, regardless of how late it might be; staying awake on
sentry duty wherever that might be; keeping the steel helmet on at rifle ranges and live-firing
exercises; clearing weapons before leaving the firing point at the range or after any live-firing
exercise or in circumstances where live or blank ammunition was used; making sure that no
live rounds or empty cartridges were inadvertently (or advertently) retained after live-firing
of any kind; carrying the issued FFD during all field training; and wearing dog tags which
carried blood group, name, regimental number and religion. The practical value of these
habits needs no elaboration, but trainees and perhaps all soldiers, are prone to oversight and
cutting corners, especially when bone-tired or short of time. The instructors of the first
intake were untiring in their vigilance throughout the course.
A second category of good habits addressed management of equipment and accommodation
facilities. In the barracks, the trainees were solely responsible for daily housekeeping.
Toilets, shower stalls, barrack rooms and surrounding areas had to be spotless, with beds,
personal lockers and barrack room furniture being squared away to inspection standards
before first parade. Individual duty personnel and duty details were posted in platoon and
company routine orders. The combination of fatigue, personal idleness, procrastination,
miscalculations, misplaced items and irresistible last-minute diversions turned the 0730 hrs
muster parade into a race against the clock, with the prospect of a dreaded ‘burnt’ weekend
in the balance. Additionally, there was the opprobrium of section or platoon mates to bear
This was not a voluntary effort at weeding grass behind the barracks—housekeeping was not a pre-occupation
of choice.