Blancoing the recruits

[Truck Driver]

Not in the Irish Army.

Greeno does not have the same ring to it.

Surely you mean " Vert-o" in keeping with the French theme....

[Groundhog]

Thought blanco was WHITE.... (French for White being "blanc" ) ?

Not in the Irish Army.

Greeno does not have the same ring to it.

[apc]

26 years ago it was Raljax? ( deep heat) liberally applied to the privates' privates. Polish and Blanco just didnt get the same reaction, it WAS funny in the sort of way that at least it wasnt you!
Mind you the PA's in the Curragh were scary so it cut out the fun a bit. As we were from down the country, their reputation went before them.
I remember one night things got a bit out of hand when in burst a PA with the leg of a table in hand and stuck two "Hard Lads" should read loud mouths to the wall with the warning " shut the **** up, dont make me come back" ,you could see he meant it. A quiet night was had by all.

[GoneToTheCanner]

Whilst it's usually harmless enough, there's always some eejit who goes overboard and damages the other guy, who is often intimidated by rank or age into keeping his mouth shut. There have been plenty of cases where it turns into assault and not just mere pranks. There was at least one full-scale fight between two apprentice classes, in the Don, in the 80s, as a direct result of such behaviour, than ended up with hospitalisation and charges brought,etc.There's always a fine line between fun and assault, to be observed.
regards
GttC

[Truck Driver]

"Blanco is a British trade name for a series of caked web dressings availible (sic) in various shades of khaki, green and brown, as well as white".

http://mpmuseum.org/reenact3.html

or look here,

http://www.blancoandwebbing.co.uk/bl.../early-blanco/

Cheers Wes

[Truck Driver]

I think a certain amount of this still goes on.
Last night of camps people have woken up covered in shaving foam, camo, polish etc

Its viewed as a bit of harmless fun though. And the consensus from all the lads is that is taken in good stead too

I heard tales of people being butchered going back years and years, so its something that is just part of the spirit I guess.

I don't call this "harmless fun", this is plain acting the bollocks ....

[ghostrider]

Blancoing

I think a certain amount of this still goes on.
Last night of camps people have woken up covered in shaving foam, camo, polish etc.

Its viewed as a bit of harmless fun though. And the consensus from all the lads is that is taken in good stead too.
I heard tales of people being butchered going back years and years, so its something that is just part of the spirit I guess.

[WES]

"Blanco is a British trade name for a series of caked web dressings availible (sic) in various shades of khaki, green and brown, as well as white".

http://mpmuseum.org/reenact3.html

or look here,

http://www.blancoandwebbing.co.uk/bl.../early-blanco/

[WES]

Thought blanco was WHITE.... (French for White being "blanc" ) ?

Perhaps in its original form it may have been white, I don't know. Think of the film "Zulu" and all the white equipment. I'm just saying that the "Blanco" I had to use was green. Anyway, what's in a brand name?

[Truck Driver]

Blanco was a strange gel-like "colouring", for want of a better word, that came in tins like large shoe polish tins. It was used to keep web equipment green. It would have been used on the old 37 pattern web equipment, perhaps the last such equipment that it was a requirement for. When I was on my first FCA camp (thirty years ago!!!) we had to blanco our web belts every night. Some belts had dried and cracked blanco an inch thick but a clean web belt, freshly banco-ed with gleaming brass buckles was a joy to behold.

Thought blanco was WHITE.... (French for White being "blanc" ) ?

[WES]

Blanco was a strange gel-like "colouring", for want of a better word, that came in tins like large shoe polish tins. It was used to keep web equipment green. It would have been used on the old 37 pattern web equipment, perhaps the last such equipment that it was a requirement for. When I was on my first FCA camp (thirty years ago!!!) we had to blanco our web belts every night. Some belts had dried and cracked blanco an inch thick but a clean web belt, freshly banco-ed with gleaming brass buckles was a joy to behold.

[Tango_Charlie]

blancoing? what is this?

[GoneToTheCanner]

Anyone laying a hand on a recruit in such fashion these days would be before a High Court Judge before you could say "hand me my P45, please".
regards
GttC

[Vickers]

MOD: This post should have been approved long ago - sorry for that

[cav]

I have scary memories of this practice in billets back in the late seventies, or worse boot polishing the recruits. Does it still go on ? Has it been stamped out in the defence force of today, I'd like to know.