What Life In The Army is really like My Experience 7 PARA RHA & HCR 

I passed out of Prince of Wales Div Depot (Royal Hampshire Regiment). Spent a month in Training Wing, rear party until until I was 18 then sent to Londonderry, Op Banner. On rear party there were people on their way out. There were soldiers awaiting MCTC. They largely waffled and gave you grief. I remember looking at other soldiers’ NI ribbon or gong. At the time Op Banner was THE test for proper infantry soldiering. Derry was effin’ hard yards at my age. I recall getting my gong and sending my No.2 dress to the tailors to have the ribbon stitched on. I went to complete 4 Op Banner tours between 1978-1990.

I was in 3 para, then 2 para, the the SBS, SAS, Delta force, SEAL team 6, then my mum took my Xbox off me. 😵

I was P coy staff 86-88 we had plenty of 7RHA on the all arms and to be honest they were pretty good as were 9Sqn RE great times for us anyway no so much for students.

No wonder young kids don't want to join up listening to this. I was in the Scots guards in the 80,s and every working day in barracks we started with PT but not as mad as 7RA I don't think. We were infantry so it was up to us to keep ourselves fit as well so we usually did our own thing after work. The only time we didn't do PT was on operations or exercise. The thought of doing it all over again gives me shivers. 😢

I was 2 para, can confirm most of what he’s saying is true 😂 earned my wings in 2008 served until 2018 best time of my life

Area cleaning used to piss me off back in the day, passed out the Light Division Depot Winchester in '85, you soon get accustomed to be treated as 'dog' albeit one that was a very fit one..

It was a hard, man's life in the Women's Auxiliary Balloon Corps

I saw something similar fitness wise.. I was 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment when I first joined, after a while I went to the Queens Royal Lancers which do the same sort of job as the HCR but without the ceremonial side, armoured recce.. And I couldn't believe the drop in fitness standards, I went from a mediocre runner in the Yorkshire Regiment to one of the fittest in the Regiment in the Lancers, their PTIs were considered machines because they had 8.13 PFT run times when we had lads in Yorks who were absolute piss heads running the PFT in 7.50! It really shocked me, I knew that QRL were armoured but they were still a combat unit and recce as well!! I wasn't expecting it... But like you say, some of the best soldiers I ever met were actual cavalry soldiers, there was brilliant soldiers in both but some very clever switched on lads in the armoured corps.. I just hated armour, so I went back to Yorks when QRL amalgamated with 9th/12th Lancers.. Thank god.

Joined the Army in the early 90s just after the Gulf War. Got sent to an armoured unit then did a tour in Bosnia... hated barrack routine. Just mundane tasks... and drinking.... quite a few dickeheads and some sadistic bastards that enjoyed exercising their authorities too much. so quit after 3 1/2 years. Got bored and joined the RN and went on Submarines... completely different life. I was more mature. But far more relaxed, especially on boats. Everyone had a job, and we all got on with it. Officers were far more competent as they had to start at the bottom and work their way up like the ratings.... not straight out of college into leading a platoon or squadron.

Also LG / HCR, also did pre course with 7RHA in the 80s, great Regiment, then passed P Coy straight afterwards. Hard work but like you absolutely loved it.

What you said about swimming... I remember a beat up for an exercise where the OC had a bee in his bonnet about river crossings and ordered extra swim training. That was the day I discovered that it's actually possible to sweat while underwater. Horrendous.

I think it’s worth pointing out, that whilst it’s a short working week whilst you’re not deployed or on exercises. Whilst on exercise, deployment and ops then you get very little down time. One balances the other 🤷🏼‍♂️

When i was in the gunners most battery's were a fairly eclectic mix of all strata's of working class society... with a few posh boys mixed in. what i did notice though was a prepencity for the lads from the mersey/ Tyne / seven/ clyde and drop estates to try and re-create they're clicky little pecking orders that they picked up from the estates and factory's they had inhabited in civvy street.... Its was almost semi feral in its form and reach , and fitted into the rank and structure of the army perfectly .. with the officers at the top of the pile and the ' regimental butcher ' at the bottom ! .... The whole system seemed more set up to carry on the high days of the Raj for the officer class than it ever did to pick out and promote the most capable of leaders .... playing sports being the best way to gain favour and promotion within the regiment .... I spent most of my time applying and getting various 'ERE ' postings to other royal artillery regiments around the world so i did'nt have to knuckle under to this donkey walloping system ... and i actualy did get to travel the world and canoe down foreign rivers and sunbath on tropical beaches as they showed in the recruiting office windows !!! The whole thing was just a game .. the army game , and once you cottoned onto the rules it was easy to out manouver and use the system to get where i wanted to be .. rather than where they forced me !!! Ubique quofas et gloria ducunt ....

i,m ex army myself, and when i think back on some of the attitudes and sayings some of the blokes came out with, i think they must have come out of caves, they were propper "MONGS" what prompted me to say this was what you said! the girls dont want you they want an airborne bloke" 😂😂😂😂 , i had forgotten the single mindfulness of some of the idiots the British Army had and still have.

These knock the socks off other videos mate! The view count also agrees! Keep these coming

We called guys that had not earned there wings but wore the red beret penguins ( birds that can,t fly)

sounds like you had it pretty good. i was the youngest in 1995 to sign up for adult parachute regiment at 16 and 17 when i passed and into 1 para. before this it was junior parachute company that got disbanded in 1993 for 15-17 year olds in dont think the guys thought there would be the internet in the future and so things were really bad in barrack life in the 90s. so much so that i have been in maximum security prison since and it wasn't all that bad in there. video coming soon 🤐 yeah mofos im still alive😁😁

On ex in Wales when our company ran into a company of para little men with big egoes some of our lads had to put them right they never open there mouths the whole time we where there by the way we where the guards reg

I’m based with a different unit in 16 brigade and have friends in 7RHA and from speaking to them the stuff mentioned in the video doesn’t happen anymore

lam old school, l did three tours of Op Banner, back in the day, when it was like Dodge,.. the shade of your lid, made no difference, to a bullet, check the stats...

Just take a look at the way vererans who have been injures are treated after they have left!

Nice one. Joined Parachute Regiment as a JINF in the mid-1970s. Left regiment 1980s. Talking with airborne gunners, sappers and sigs I get the impression that in those units there is a culture of wanting to 'out-para' the Paras during pre-P-Coy beat up. Fair comment, or what?

The irony is as RHA the Paras still do not consider you a proper para and still give you grief.

Dad was Hcav 2988-2010, if he wasn't cav he's always said that he would've probably been RN

I served for a total of eighteen years in the reserves and I was literally kicked up the arse when it came to signing ‘off’ and handing in my kit. It literally has sowered my whole experience. I would never recommend serving at all ! Five years later and I can’t get any information from the MoD about your pension.

Did p coy 88. Beat up was with 7rha up at lille brks north camp first phase aldershot then 2nd part in wales fan dance ect. Past first time .Found that 5 airbourne brigade as it was then was airbourne Mad .

I was a TA chef for a year. Basic training was two weeks and it was just as hard as this.

Class system with officers is very outdated , when young officers dropped thunder flash down chimney it was high jinks and fine for silver fund, about a dozen pissed mattresses in the basement of officers mess in Lippstadt - that's class lol.

What was it like going from the artillery to having to learn to ride a horse and doing ceremonial duties?!

Roger that brother. Hope your good man 👍🆎️

Always wondered why Paras, SBS, SAS, Commandos don’t go for the Olympic Games .

As ex 22regt Ra Done an NI tour 2001 with 7RHA Names! Jarvis and mal reedman

IN OTHER WORDS..YOU REALLY WANTED IT 😊

I joined the Army Air Corp. Fuck all that army shit. Shouting etc 😂🤣

Never understood why phase 2 recruits to 7 and 29 were allowed to ware their berets before being earned. The Nasty lads beat them on the gun run on my course in 97😁

Did u never consider pathfinders ?

I was in the Salvation Army, stagged on the latrines, then eventually I earned my brown wings

Basically your working week in barracks is physical training, sports,checking kit and having breaks. You think that is hard?

11 years in Dsqn hcr herrick 4 8 13. And Stint at the bridge. Not sure when you joined hcr ? As dont Recognise ya. Great guys in hcr obviously you get the odd cunt but in general great bunch. Army sounds very different now for sure 💃😅

More Airborne than the Airborne standard 7 hat shit pump barely on exercise out on the ground.

Why didn't you just stay in 7 and become a forward observer??

You back in yet mate

I was 7th in 84

Ping you a line late mate.

Your mistake for being a dropshort End

Never saw the point of para units. You have been obsolete for decades. You are just fit grunts.

Wish they wouldn’t call it 7 para … there not paras

I spent 24 years in the army (a 2434…74 - 98)…I loved it, ended up as a SSGT, but never fitted because of the drinking. The drinking/smoking culture in the army really is pathetic; the army turns a blind eye still. The fitness thing is something of a myth too; it’s enforced. Very few I found took exercise for recreational pleasure. Years later all the boozers I knew are dead, dying or very ill. Curiously, at 69, I’m not; no NHS thief me……i can’t think why? 😂