Unit traditions

[irishrgr]

Ok lads,

What sort of unit traditions exist in the Irish Army? I realize it's a young Army compared to some, but are there any unique traditions that are out there, either unique to a unit, corps or even the Army?

Example: in the US Army tradition holds that a newly comissioned officer gives a silver dollar to the first enlisted Soldier who salutes him/her. (token of respect to those who officer will lead)

Airborne units have always had some sort of "Blood wings" (although now officially not allowed.....nudge nudge wink wink....) ceremony upon completion of their first non training jump.

many Regiments have their own distinct ones like the above....

That sort of thing.....anything out there lads?

A

[Darksaga]

Airborne units have always had some sort of "Blood wings" (although now officially not allowed.....nudge nudge wink wink....) ceremony upon completion of their first non training jump.

Marine friend of mine showed me a video of that ceremony, somethin wrong with those lads!
He still has his fathers white shirt from it.

[GoneToTheCanner]

hi there
Most of the FCA traditions I encountered centred around getting the underage as drunk as possible in the shortest time possible.In the Don,"tradition" was that the Senior apprentices could "haze" the Juniors, up to and including the unrestrained use of fist and boot.It was dying out when I got there in '84 but an element of it still existed.Heli Squadron used to have a tradition of "tubbing", whereas victims were tied to a stretcher, daubed with grease, oil, Deep Heat, shaving foam and whatever you could think of and then dumped into a tank used for the leak testing of survival suits.This was only stopped when a guy nearly drowned.The tank was then substituted for an old bottle trolley, to which the victim was tethered and hosed down.One guy was hoisted in chains up a gantry and hosed down.It was applied to persons joining the unit, leaving the unit, pilots who had graduated from the basic helicopter course and anyone brave or dumb enough to be walking around heli hangar without good reason.It was not unknown for senior NCOs in other units to dispatch new apprentices, on a spurious errand, to Heli flight, to meet their fate.There were variations in other hangars but none had the same terror as heli's brand of tubbing.
regards
GttC

[Docman]

My integrated unit started a tradition of ending the year by doing 1 pushup for every days training that that person had completed during the year. Not much of a tradition but the last weekend of training and the PT involved just seemed to perfectly round out the year where a new tradition of fitness was introduced to us.

Prob going a bit off thread.... sorry Irishrgr.

There are no major traditions that I know of.......

except the one where veteran NCOs parade ptes past a new officer 1 by 1. After saluting the first 10 or 20, 1 by 1, they are hopefully reminded that they need good NCOs to be a good officer.

[Goldie fish]

except the one where veteran NCOs parade ptes past a new officer 1 by 1. After saluting the first 10 or 20, 1 by 1, they are hopefully reminded that they need good NCOs to be a good officer.

Admit it, you enjoyed the first 19 didn't you?

[lefty]

Probably a little bit askew from the question being asked, but do the 2nd or 5th battalion have a wolfhound as a mascot? I also heard somewhere that on Xmas Day the CO of a unit serves his men dinner, is that true? Other sort of dinner traditions, piper bringing in whiskey for the senior man exist i think

[luchi]

Probably a little bit askew from the question being asked, but do the 2nd or 5th battalion have a wolfhound as a mascot? I also heard somewhere that on Xmas Day the CO of a unit serves his men dinner, is that true? Other sort of dinner traditions, piper bringing in whiskey for the senior man exist i think

That was the tradition years ago. It appears to have long since died out.
Up till about 10 years ago we had our Christmas dinner in No1s. The Officers served all the men. The Co started by serving the newest or youngest recruit/Pte then all the other officers would assist the Co serving the rest of the Coy.
With the move to DPM the majority of the coy have no No1s so the meal has become less formal. We had a certain PDF Comdt that refused to follow the tradition or let the other officers serve. He claimed that since the dinner was not in No1s it was not a formal occasion and so the tradition died. Some have talked about revival but I think it is long gone now.

[johnny no stars]

In our company the NCOs serve the privates their xmas dinner. And it's held in number ones too...

[hptmurphy]

On ships in the Naval service the duty watch on christmas day were served dinner by the captain...had it twice myself....wonder has it continued.

[GoneToTheCanner]

Hi there
As apprentos, we had the Christmas Dinner served by the Trg. Wing Co and all the Officers.The Christmas pudding was led in by a piper,on at least two occasions.Duty crews and camp staff on duty on Christmas Day were/are served by the GOC, Air Corps...another tradition, as apprentos, was a Christmas Concert, to which all Aptce School staff had to attend and be ritually slagged(and take it without retribution)by the apprentices, in very creative and hilarious sketches.There were also several comics/magazines generated for the occasion.
The Marchettis all had Disney cartoon stickers on their tails, if that counts as a tradition.
regards
GttC

[Command and conquer]

going a bit off topic sorry...does anybody know some of ther main traditons in the British army..i know there are so many units but jusy out of intrest

Thanks

[trellheim]

Xmas dinner being served by the officers was a tradition back before the previous century. I have a biography of a Brit officer describing the officers serving the men in Aldershot 1895. [ on Xmas Day only ].

Our Xmas day comes from this

[hedgehog]

We dont do it in 2 Bn

for teh UNit Christmas dinner

it was a load of cock- a symbolic gesture that I am glad is consigned to the bins


we dont have a mascot either

[spud]

Hi,
In baldonnell the station commander and station RSM goes round each of the duties (guard, BOS, fire crew etc.) to wish them a happy christmas. They attend the dinner aswell, but cant say for sure if the c/o serves it or not!

spud

[Exo1]

Ok lads,

What sort of unit traditions exist in the Irish Army? I realize it's a young Army compared to some, but are there any unique traditions that are out there, either unique to a unit, corps or even the Army?

Example: in the US Army tradition holds that a newly comissioned officer gives a silver dollar to the first enlisted Soldier who salutes him/her. (token of respect to those who officer will lead)

Airborne units have always had some sort of "Blood wings" (although now officially not allowed.....nudge nudge wink wink....) ceremony upon completion of their first non training jump.

many Regiments have their own distinct ones like the above....

That sort of thing.....anything out there lads?

A

I know what you mean by the traditions in the US military.. and its a damn fine thing to do, gives shape and form to the job... a bit of character if you will...

The only real tradition (Im ExIrish Army Border Rat [29th]) I know of is the one the ladz talked about, where the Officers serve the men at Xmass dinner...

There is no other real tradition that Im aware of except the unusal... strong unit pride, and getting the job done, etc, etc....

That said, newbies always get jokes played on them at first... so I suppose thats a tradition...