A Normal Day In The Army - I Hate Early Mornings

The regimental entrance back in the late 1980's

Sticking to the National Service and army theme of last nights post I thought I would share what a typical boring day in the army was like because it is something you will never forget. I was never a morning person and most likely the reason why I hate early mornings even more till this day.

The base today with the regiment having moved and now in disrepair. One has to remember we were the enemy of todays government and this base was on the top of the hit list for terrorist attacks.

The day would start at 4.30 am when you had to wake up shower, shave and get dressed. The extra time was needed for making the bed which took a good 20 minutes to make for military standards with crisp edges forming a rectangle shape. Another 5 minutes to polish the boots to get the shine required for the every day parade.

If we had inspections which were normally on a Wednesday morning you made the bed the night before and slept on the floor if you had any spare time. Cleaning the barracks was a serious task even if you had 30 other guys to help out. The aim was to fail you so you had to cover every inch making sure it was spotless and anything metal had been polished. If you needed to pee you went outside as the urinals would take hours to clean making them look like brand new.

The polishing of the floors would become a choreographic masterpiece using two blankets with a metal trunk and 2 people sitting on top of that trunk over the blankets. Three people would then pull the blankets up and down until we had a glass like finish across the entire barrack floor. We also had to check the rafters by removing the trapdoors because a common trick was to place an item in the roof space like an empty beer can even though none of us would ever go into the roof space.

Breakfast was at 6am every morning and was one of the few times you could relax even though you were already dead tired. This would be followed by roll call at 6.30am which was followed by marching to the parade ground for a 7.15am start. This would be done in different languages depending on what week it was either Afrikaans or English. This was 45 minutes wasted and the official work day started at 8am even though you had been up for nearly 4 hours already.

The work you did depended on what section you worked in and I was stores and due to my build had the special stores which included the armoury and ammunition plus the special store which was all the clothing required for cross border activity. The armory had mainly Russian weapons as that is what the enemy used so you need to have their weapons just in case you ran out of ammunition and could get your hands on using their ammo.

The work we did was everything because you were the permanent force members slave for 18 months. This was actually beneficial to do their duties and just get on with it because the less they were involved the easier the tasks became. They would be drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes in their office talking amongst themselves doing absolutely nothing.

Tea time was at 10 am until 10 30am and it was pretty darn good with plates of toasted sandwiches and pots of tea and coffee. I have to say the food was the only part of the day that was something you looked forward to. The kitchen in our base was something special as the RSM was a foodie and the top brass from other bases would always pop in knowing they would be offered something really good.

10.30am to 1pm was much the same again and your day depended on whether there was any operations planned which dictated your work. If there was a training exercise you would be checking out ammunition and explosives and if there was an operation going cross border to the neighboring countries you would be issuing weapons and camouflage clothing of that particular country. You asked no questions and just did what was required. You just knew especially when they were taking the HALO suits (high altitude low opening) and what you knew stayed with you.

The operators which were the recces or special force members would try their luck at taking extra things which you had to prevent and why I had this role. You get to know them personally and which characters are likely to create trouble and as soon as they know they cannot pressure you they give up. Certain items you would be more lenient on than other items especially when you knew these guys were going away into enemy territory for weeks at a time.

These guys were professional soldiers who would either be going to gather intelligence undetected or were going to eliminate a target. I will share some stories in another post because this is fascinating stuff that is real and no one gets to hear about.

On one occasion I made a large boo boo and issued cases of real mortars instead of practice mortars (blue shells) which I was not reprimanded for and was thanked the next day. The training exercise had been more realistic and lets say they had a little bit of fun.

Lunch time was between 1pm and 1.45 pm and the food again would be three courses with a selection to choose from and there were no limits on how many helpings you wanted. Unlike other bases you went up and helped yourself and had proper plates with cutlery. The kitchen staff would often have some specials testing out menus for official regimental dinners. the RSM would pop in to check that the standard of food was good enough for his troops and you never messed with him. This guy was a story on his own and was legendary in the special forces and needs a post on his own.

The afternoon between 2 and 4.30 pm would be planning for the next day preparing what was required. Often this would involve cleaning and preparing weapons or doing paperwork from the day or organizing purchases from various supply stores around the country. Like I said we basically ran everything and most likely why everything just worked and the permanent force members knew this.

The work day would be officially over if you had no guard duty obligations or sports practices to attend. For those doing guard duty you would rush back shower and get changed eat dinner in the mess and fetch your rifle for 6pm guard parade. You would be on a rotating shift with 4 hours off and 2 hours on throughout the night either stationed at the main gate or on roving patrol. A roving guard had a baton which would reset every shift so your route constantly changed and would be a 5km walk each shift. You would walk 10km on a night shift and still work the next day.

The only noise you would hear most nights is some poor soul chopping railway sleepers with an axe. This was the punishment the RSM dished out and it was normally a number between 5 and 10. 1 railway sleeper could take 4 hours to chop to the required size and you were not allowed to wear gloves. This was the RSM's firewood for cooking and I managed to dodge this punishment. Life was tough without finding extra work through being stupid so you did not attract unwanted attention and basically did your job.

10pm was roll call and 10.30pm was lights out and then the next day would be a repeat until the weekend. The time the weekend came about you were physically drained even though you were more often than not going to go out partying if you had a pass out. Playing sport often meant you had the weekend out if you had a place to stay.

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