The BIG three.

[Vagabond]

I occasionaly peruse ARRSE mainly for the bird pictures and to keep up to date on Afghanistan. I'm not a member as I wasn't in the Army. I'm also a member of facebook. The point of the topic is as follows.

I've noticed an increasing hostility on the internet (ARRSE/facebook) towards the Raf Regt. A great deal of stems from accusations of current rocks "big-timing" about being part of the the "big three", the other two being the Para's and the Booties. When I was a gunner in the nineties I never heard this mentioned once. Now, taking away the wasters, walts, fantasists, TA, cooks,bottlewahers and cadets that seem to infest ARRSE and the stories from a mate of a mate ect there are enough stories going around that some of them must be true.

Therefore why are some rocks mentioning this big three malarky?
I can only assume its the young toms going on about it and why aren't the seniors gripping them? The Raf regt doesn't need to justify its role and its ability and it screams a litle bit of confidence issues.

PS.

Any pongoes who pick this up from ARRSE feel free to make a point but I want to know what inf regiment you serve in or at least if you're in a teeth unit. You can feck right off if youre not.

 

[252]

knew plenty rocks at Leuchars in the mid 80s.............never heard the expresion"the big three"mentioned once.

 

[Climebear]

I have worked with the Regt alot over my 25+ yeasr of Service (I would even call a few of them firends!); however, I have never heard anyone in teh RAF Regt refere to themselves as one of the Big 3 - strange considering nearly everyone on ARRSE appears to have been told something long the same lines by a Rock - or perhaps the rock told a mate of a mate who was one of 'them'!

 

[Vagabond]

I have worked with the Regt alot over my 25+ yeasr of Service (I would even call a few of them firends!); however, I have never heard anyone in teh RAF Regt refere to themselves as one of the Big 3 - strange considering nearly everyone on ARRSE appears to have been told something long the same lines by a Rock - or perhaps the rock told a mate of a mate who was one of 'them'!

Off Topic

They are obsessed by "Them" aren't they.


I can understand why you have never heard it but after 25 years service you must be of a senior rank and don't have much contact with the toms on the Sqns especially in KAF and the likes where the rocks come into contact with the army. The pongoes must be getting it from somewhere.

 

[UlsterExile]

Must admitt spent many years on Rock Sqn's and never once have I heard them refer to the "Big Three". Could be someone fishing for a bite!

 

[Climebear]

Off Topic

They are obsessed by "Them" aren't they.


I can understand why you have never heard it but after 25 years service you must be of a senior rank and don't have much contact with the toms on the Sqns especially in KAF and the likes where the rocks come into contact with the army. The pongoes must be getting it from somewhere.

Your assumption about rank is reasonably correct. However, I haven't always been at this rank - I started life as a tom before transferring to the RAF. Plus you'll be surprised at the type of people that I hang about with DT_Xtremez_14:

 

[Dave-exfairy]

Could it be because Rocks form part of the SFSG along with the Paras and Marines?

 

[252]

Could it be because Rocks form part of the SFSG along with the Paras and Marines?

Formed in April 2006 and initialy only open to Paras,marines and RAF Reg........you could be on to something there DaveDT_Xtremez_14:



P.S.could it be that other line regiments were jealous at being discluded?.

 

[CC]

Could it be because Rocks form part of the SFSG along with the Paras and Marines?

That's exactly it, I'm sure. I paid a visit to a SFSG base in Afghan in 2010, there were certainly other Regts there, not just Paras, Marines and Rocks but a lad there did mention that the original 3 were Paras, Marines and Rocks. (I hasten to add that it wasn't me that said it so I don't know how true this is).

That said, in the RSOI brief, one of the main briefers was given a right dressing down for taking the **** out of the RAF Regt FP lads.

 

[he_who_dares_rodney]

Could it be because Rocks form part of the SFSG along with the Paras and Marines?

I'm pretty certain that the phrase can be tracked back to the Sun or one of the other papers reported that the SFSG was being formed from "the big three Regiments" or the top three Regiments

Mind on Arrse you'd think that no other Regiment except the Paras actually achieved anything

 

[Red-Rock]

Is this 'Big 3' thing being floated again. If I remember correctly it was mentioned in one of the tabloids and obviously was picked up by the pongos who love to jump on a bandwagon whenever it rolls past. I know a lot of the lads who are on the Regt flt down at the group and they are held in high regard by both the Marines and the Paras down there.

I am currently out at Bastion on the RFS and i'm pretty sure that the pongos that we have picked up on the MERT cabs have been pretty thankful our lads have been there helping to patch them up and pump blood into them when they take the hits. We do a bloody good job out here and although I wouldn't consider us as elite troops we are bloody good at what we do over here.

Rant overDT_Xtremez_14:

 

[Vagabond]

Alreeeeet Red-Rock, how you doing, hope all is going well after re-joining, how did you get on by the way? Manage basics OK.DT_Xtremez_14:

Not disputing the lads do a great job. As I said in the 1st post the rocks don't need to justify themselves to anyone but I have seen the internet crawling with its detractors. fair enough most of them will be walts or cadets or at the very most some tom who have been in ten minutes but the hostility has steadily rose over the years. I think its quite amusing but am wondering why.

Most of the slagging begins with the big three stories followed by accusations of "barrier lifting" and general gashness. Just trying to work out the inrease in hatred mate.

Anyway, stay safe dude.

Per Ardua

PS You on mortars pal?

 

[Climebear]

I think that most of the adverse comments are born out of ignorance (arrse is not alone in this regard). For instance a frequent moan is that the 'SRDG' gets better vehicles. They blame this on the RAF buying the Regt better kit (as if this is a bad thing). However, allocations of op kit such as Panthers, MWIMIKs etc are determined in a UK Force basis (ie the Army commander) with PJHQ(UK). It just so happens that UK PLC places a high priority on preventing a fragile metal tube with wings carrying 150+ valuable people getting blasted out of the sky. So they (Army commander again) allocate resources accordingly.

 

[Red-Rock]

Alreeeeet Red-Rock, how you doing, hope all is going well after re-joining, how did you get on by the way? Manage basics OK.DT_Xtremez_14:

Not disputing the lads do a great job. As I said in the 1st post the rocks don't need to justify themselves to anyone but I have seen the internet crawling with its detractors. fair enough most of them will be walts or cadets or at the very most some tom who have been in ten minutes but the hostility has steadily rose over the years. I think its quite amusing but am wondering why.

Most of the slagging begins with the big three stories followed by accusations of "barrier lifting" and general gashness. Just trying to work out the inrease in hatred mate.

Anyway, stay safe dude.

Per Ardua

PS You on mortars pal?

In answer to the questions, Yes i managed basics ok and yes I am on Mortars. Only thing is that out here we aren't using them so I am attached to a rifle flt. Currently commanding a Panther.

I still can't fathom why the hatred is festering these days. There are quite a lot of gobby sprogs coming through as they dropped the standards a bit to get the numbers in. This has led to a little bit of gashness creeping in and a lot of young lads who think they are fecking awesome. The downside for the older and bolder amongst us is that they are told coming through training that they should be thinking Gunners and they think that is is the same when they get to the Sqns. Unfortunately for them this isn't the case. They get posted in prior to a Sqn deploying and they actually know the square root of jack sh*t. A senior lad these days is someone who has done 1 tour. Lots of young lads are now being promoted to L/Cpl (2-3 year SACs) and that can make things even worse.

Anyhoo, got to get going, the Tezzy footprint won't clear itself DT_Xtremez_30:

 

[shoutingwind]

Not heard anything about the Big 3 ( but then i am on the other side of the world) but i have noticed there is a lot of anti-RAF sentiment around on FB and the like. Some of my pongo friends are always moaning about how much they hate the RAF.

 

[sittingstress]

Load of ole bollox

Load of ole bollox

The first time I heard it was at Basra Palace in 2004 when I got involved in some inter unit banter with a bootie colour man and some of his troop.

I was on the back foot as I had no idea what they were talking about and consequently they thought I was in denial mode. They had no direct evidence of hearing the phras uttered just mate of a mate stuff.

Eventually I won through using my good looks, dash, flair and intelligence by lining up three shovels against a wall and telling them to take their pick.

Gunner 1 - 40 Cdo Nil

The last bit might not be true just in case the hard of learning are having this read to them.

 

[Elwood]

I'm fortunate(?) enough to be able to go back a few years (CVR(T) at Hullavington, Aldergrove, stagging on at Greenham Common (for you youngsters, an industrial estate in Berkshire) and driving to Sennelager, West Germany (THAT ages me!) for a Harrier Exercise - SLRs, proper steel turtle helmets, DMS boots and puttees), I may have an idea where this came from - but age etc may be letting me down.DT_Xtremez_14:

One of the lads had a book called 'Elite Forces' - the type of book you get in the temporary discounted book stores for a couple of quid. It listed 'The UK's Big 3' as Marines, Paras and RAF Regt. This was even then treated as a joke - 'we're one of the big 3, don't you know' - but only amongst ourselves.

Could it be that this banter was over heard? I cannot for the life of me see why a Gunner would lower himself to use such wnak banter against the average pongo, where the irony would be completely wasted!

 

[beowulf]

I discount almost everything on ARRSE these days. I ghost there and would never join in. A bunch of introverted retired pongos who seem to constantly scream "WALT!!!!" at anything and everything while decrying how "things were better in my day" without ever realising the guys who retired when they were sprogs look on them as gash fukcers who lack the moral fibre and were ushering in a new era of lax standards.