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  • New billets in the glen

    Whats the consensus on the Gucci new billets in the glen?
    I nearly had a heeart attack the other day when I realised that a private giving out about squalid conditions was talking about the new lines.
    Have they spoiled the traditional gulag feel to such an extent that getting out on the ground is no longer considered a relief?
    Personally I remember someone sweeping around the sides of one of the D lines billets a year or two ago, I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable about the way the base of the wall crumbled when the brush touched it.
    "It is a general popular error to imagine that loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for it's welfare" Edmund Burke

  • #2
    They are nice for sure..but some people are never happy..I heard people complain about the distance to the toilet block!! They assumed there should be plumbing in each hut!


    Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.

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    • #3
      Now that you mention it, who remembers having to "hover" above the old toilets in the concrete washrooms?
      "It is a general popular error to imagine that loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for it's welfare" Edmund Burke

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      • #4
        Ah Hovering..a skill that is sadly dying out in the modern Defence forces..


        Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.

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        • #5
          ahh yes. did 3* camp in de glen two years ago,just before they did the renovations. came back last september + couldnt believe it. place was like a 5-star hotel by comparison. hard to believe anyone could complain about it. radiators,clean bunks,clean floors,brand-new jacks + showers,what more d'ya want?

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          • #6
            The MacKenzie Break

            Have a copy of a war film called "The MacKenzie Break". Brian Keith stars in it. No well known actors aside from that. Anyway, it's about German POW's (mostly swabbies) in a POW camp in Scotland (MacKenzie Camp obviously). Was thinking as the film started - "God, this camp looks remarkably like Coolmooney Camp in the Glen..."

            And lo and behold, when the credits rolled - "Our sincerest thanks to:

            The Irish Government and Dept Of Defence
            ***
            ***
            etc...

            So it WAS the Glen !!! I' ve not been in Coolmooney in a while, so I can't comment.
            But 20 Inf Bn have done camps there in the last 2 or so years, so any 20 Inf Bn folks will be able to comment further.

            As for renovations - well if it was to be used further, then it HAD to be fixed up.
            The adverse media publicity last year about the 20 odd DF personnel (probably RDF personnel) contracting scabies probably had a lot to do with it aswell. Health & Safety etc etc..........

            Weren' the PDF boys kicking up brown stuff on the board on PDFORRA.IE over the
            state of Kilworth Camp a while back too?
            "Well, stone me! We've had cocaine, bribery and Arsenal scoring two goals at home. But just when you thought there were truly no surprises left in football, Vinnie Jones turns out to be an international player!" (Jimmy Greaves)!"

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            • #7
              The camp had to be done up for that film, it wasn't up to WW2 PoW camp standards.
              "The dolphins were monkeys that didn't like the land, walked back to the water, went back from the sand."

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              • #8
                Originally posted by FCA Trooper
                ahh yes. did 3* camp in de glen two years ago,just before they did the renovations. came back last september + couldnt believe it. place was like a 5-star hotel by comparison. hard to believe anyone could complain about it. radiators,clean bunks,clean floors,brand-new jacks + showers,what more d'ya want?

                Come on now..they are not bunks..these are proper beds..we even considered you could fit a second person in each one..but we had no willing participant in the experiment


                Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.

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                • #9
                  The new billets are absolutely brilliant compared to the old ones. However it would'nt surprise me if they were the original billets with a serious facelift, if you look at the ceilings it seems as if the old beams were recycled and stained black. Anyway the billets how have heating and double glazing and now the sheep can no longer move in under the floorboards, best of all the doors close properly with no breezes getting in.

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                  • #10
                    they are the original billets, they were just spruced up alot. I miss the old ones though, you could speed a whole week reading the grafity in them.:D

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                    • #11
                      yeah they are the same billets,was just goin home from camp when they were startin to put steel cladding on the outside walls of the first ones they renovated.

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                      • #12
                        The whole camp is the same except the Billets were dry lined,cladded and insulated on the outside and central heating installed.I have attended camp there since 1979 and it is a huge improvement and the dinning complex is like a four star hotel compared to the way it was when you could smell the cook house from the front gate.

                        As for McKenzie' Break it was set in the Glen but the road came up from the river into the camp instead of from Colmooney House.It is sad how ever that the old house is gone it was a fine house and all it needed was some money spent on it.But the powers that be let it rot ,what a shame.
                        Be there next Saturday for this years stint.

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                        • #13
                          Just got back from the Glen this afternoon, its hard to believe that its taken them nearly four years to do (and its far from finished!!) the first day there was only 6 sinks availible for males to wash in rectified by a few portacabins opened up with no electricty or Proper wash facilities (the hot tap cut out when the cold was put on so it took bout 10 mins to fill the sink!) The billets are grand but the wash facilities need to be finished before they can start using them all!! besides the place is a building site and its a mess i must have shined my boots 6 times a dayt to get the dust off!! Cowboy buikders aswell)

                          (sorry bout spelling using laptop adn the keys are alle over the place)

                          Friends Come and Go, but Enemies accumulate!!

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                          • #14
                            Have they improved the problems with storage space?

                            "The billets are grand but the wash facilities need to be finished before they can start using them all!! besides the place is a building site and its a mess i must have shined my boots 6 times a dayt to get the dust off!! Cowboy buikders aswell)"

                            Count yourself lucky you could have been in Camp Krustie for the last two weeks
                            :D

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                            • #15
                              The defence forces are getting soft,..
                              What next.... Toliet Paper?!?!?..... no more "roof-rabbit" for dinner?!?!

                              where will it end...

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