Book review

Posted on November 5, 2012 by mickot

I was talking to Gerry Paley recently and what do you know, but he got the same book for Christmas last year as I did. I am sure the same scenario was played out all over the 21 Bn area. “What will we get Dad, Uncle Gerry, Auntie Suzy for Christmas? Oh look a book about the FCA! Problem solved”. Sure enough on Christmas morning I threw aside the socks, ties, ointments and settled in for a good read.

The following review is of course only my opinion and should not be taken as a recommendation or otherwise. Continue reading →

Car Stories

Posted on October 29, 2012 by mickot

In 1972 no one of my age had a car, and very few had access to one. The days of the two car family were still far off and even if not, the chance of your mother letting you have her car to go to camp would have been very slim. After a few years though we began to have access to our own transport and life became much freer.

I will motor through a few stories after the break.

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1975 – First camp as corporal

Posted on October 25, 2012 by mickot

1975 and Waterford again. My first camp as a corporal and I got a great section. Again I was pretty busy and only took a few photos, I think it was also Conor’s POTS course and I got some pictures of that class. Both my section and the POTS class included guys who are still active in the 62nd – see if you can spot them!

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Waterford 1974 – POTS

Posted on October 18, 2012 by mickot

Annual camp in 1974 was my POTS course. Although we were all pretty busy I managed to take some pictures (but not many). I had worked my way up the ranks at a steady but unspectacular rate, Recruit 1972, Trained man 1973, POTNCO 1974, Instructor Corporal 1975. I took a bit of a rest here and very much enjoyed my next 10 years as an NCO, the last few of which were as acting Sergeant. I think my officer’s course was in 1985 and I will elaborate on why I waited so long to accept the invitations to attend the course in a separate post.

Enough!, so carry on and have a look at the photos of 1974 and some comments thereon.

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What will we do with all the prisoners?

Posted on October 15, 2012 by mickot

The recent auctioning of a copy of part of the German invasion plan of Ireland has caused me to think about how such an invasion may have panned out. I do not claim any great strategic understanding and my tactical work ended at platoon level. Seemingly the Germans decided not to land in the area marked “a” on this map so they would not have to deal with the 21 Bn and decided instead to land between Wexford and Dungarvan, not realising that 21 Bn might be on annual camp in the region. The major difficulty facing 21 Bn would have been how to cope with all the prisoners!

The Daily Mail published a piece on the plan which has led to every regional newspaper that has a local picture postcard included in the documents to run an article on how Hitler planned to invade Kerry, Donegal, Limerick, The Arann Islands etc. I have taken some information from a very good Wikipedia article on “Operation Green” as well as a commentary by Diarmuid Ferriter I found on independent.ie. There is also an excellent document available under creative commons licence from Tom Clonan of DIT. I will discus these documents and supply links to them after the break.

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Corporal Chernobyl

Posted on October 13, 2012 by mickot

The Observer Corps was the Irish Army’s unit for mitigation and preparedness in the event of nuclear war, and Observer Corps training for FCA personnel was carried out during annual camp in Tralee in 1987. Like all matters military in the FCA some people took it very seriously indeed, and there was one particular participant that year who we felt deserved special recognition for his dedication.

Click continue for full story and photos

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Mysterious injury

Posted on October 10, 2012 by mickot

It’s amazing what one finds when trawling around the interweb. I found the above picture but with no explanation about how the injury to the man on the left may have occured. I can offer a number of alternative theories:

He was appearing as an extra in a movie about the Battle of Agincourt
He had an unfortunate accident with a bowling ball
He was signalling a helicopter that 2 people needed evacuation.
He was explaining the correct sequence of removing pins during a trip flare safety demonstration

R&R and serious fun

Posted on October 8, 2012 by mickot

One of Alan Kavanagh’s more bizarre games.

R and R is one of those acronyms which seem to have multiple meanings in the military. It seems to be either “Rest and Recuperation” or “Rest and Relaxation”, but in the case of the FCA on annual camp it certainly was Rest and Recreation. It was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon and each evening. In the words of Gerry Paley, at least it kept us out of the pubs until about 9PM.

Photos and more after the break…

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I do not like green eggs and ham.

Posted on October 5, 2012 by mickot

Is my memory playing tricks on me or did we actually get green eggs, especially boiled at breakfast time in barracks. Army food is of course one of the great oxymorons, along with “Military Intelligence”. As my father would say, “hunger is a great sauce” and so I was always grateful for the grub when it was served up, either in barracks or on the range. Food on the ranges was served out of dixies and probably made the night before. Even today if I leave a tea-bag too long in the cup the smell of over-strong tea brings me back. Some of you moon-faced young men who read Proust (this article is posted on the birthday of Myles na gCopaleen!) will remember the same effect on him of the smell of madeleines.