Discipline in the Army

I forgot to add, if they couldn’t find a charge to suit the crime, they used to do you for bringing the RAF.. Army… Navy into disrepute. It was a be all and end all gotcha.

In a way MMis correct about military and civvy law !
In both of these – it is the getting caught that is the problem,if you are dumb/unlucky enough to get caught then you probably will get punishment commensurate with the crime – the 2 guys I escorted to the glasshouse were a little dim LOL and deserved their time in the chokey !
In the RAF – minor offences quite often were sorted by giving the offender extra squadron duties (such as key orderly/tea bar) rather than formal charges being brought,the RAF [mostly] was fairly pragmatic about these sort of things) but one could be ‘volunteered’ for all sorts of stuff in a fairly random way : )

Very interesting from you two, from a non-serviceman and helpful to axel, I am sure but oddly out of tune with the initial responses to his post.

Yup, on Helicopters we used to play with the Army and they just had no sense of humour. And they used to sleep in holes in the ground, it seemed to rankle as we used to sleep in hotels.

Axel – you should have chosen the RAF !
Quite a few of us here are ex RAF but not really qualified to comment on the ‘Pongos’ (Army).
RAF wise I agree with much of TT’s post although I was a Halton Apprentice and they certainly never broke me down ; )
Discipline in the technical side of the RAF was fairly relaxed but obviously we had to avoid the discip NCO’s as far as possible to avoid having to have our hair cut and shine our shoes ; )(some of us went to extraordinary lengths to avoid being seen by the discip NCO’s LOL and would drive everywhere on camp if possible).
Yup we were a scruffy lot when I was ‘in’ (1970 – 1983).
I was fairly lucky not to be charged with too many serious offences (phew that was close) but I did escort a couple of guys to the ‘Glasshouse’ who were dumb enough to get caught ; )

rgds baz

TonyT, I wish I could have put it as well as that:eagerness:

Axel, I can give you an outlook based on my RAF service some 20 odd years ago.

Military law is written down in Queens Regulations as mentioned, when you join the Services training is basically brain washing, they take you from a civilian and break you down, then build you up moulding you into what they need, servicemen who instinctively follow orders….. It is no good having a serviceman that second guesses orders in a combat situation, you also need a serviceman that can think and work around problems.

Part of the moulding of a soldier in training is the Instilling pride in their appearance, teaching basics such as ironing etc, hygiene and getting them to work as a team.
Discipline comes through the process and you are taught the basics of military law. You do get really petty charges for minor offences during training such as rooms not up to standard etc, but these are again teaching troops hygiene and the fact everything needs to be clean and tidy, again the reasons being you need fit, healthy and clean troops and accommodation and drilling that into them at an early stage instills it through their careers if not life.

Charges and discipline is based on Queens Regs which have developed over hundreds of years so pretty much cover everything these days. Charges in the RAF were few and far between, the army tended to swing the other way. Say you were charged for being late for work repeatedly, a charge would be heard by the officer in charge of your unit, he would either ask you if you would accept his punishment or elect for Court Marshal, which is the same as a court hearing, or he would say he felt the punishment he could give would be insufficient so could pass it up to the Station Commander etc, that could give a custodial sentence. Back to a charge handled by your boss, he could give a fine or “Jankers” this would involve reporting to the guardroom in working dress at a time in the morning where you would be inspected, ( dress, haircut etc) you would then after work have a punishment detail, painting, sweeping, washing pans in the mess etc … Evening you would be inspected again in best dress uniform at about 10pm. (If anything is picked up hair etc you might find yourself charged again)
Serious offences and Court Marshals you could get a custodial sentence, which basically is basic training over again to teach you the error of your ways and reintegrate you back into the service. Sometimes it also is a precursor to being thrown out, while inside you do not get paid unlike Jankers. The main prison for military in the UK was / is Colchester and is Army run for all services, serious crimes of a long custodial sentence such as murder would be held in a Civilian prison. RAF Odiham when I was there would send those going to Colchester to clothing stores for a new issue of kit, as a tatty grubby uniform would reflect badly on the station lol.

Rewards are a difficult one to quantify, you can gets some excellent overseas tours and exercises, true you will be working on some of them and often hard, but you play hard you work hard.. Airforce wise I did 3 years in Germany, visited S America, North America, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Gibraltar, Italy, France, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Sardinia, Ireland, Scotland…. And some I have probably forgotten, I also have had a go at flying everything and flown in everything i worked on, from Nap of the Earth flying in Helicopters to Aerobatics over Gibraltar in a Jaguar Fighter.
Additionally when we went on detachment to the likes of Sardinia every summer we took canoes, wind surfers etc on the Herc with us from Germany and a coach would take us to the beaches of our choice with the said gear on our days off.

snafu, lets not go over that old chestnut again please, it’s been flogged to death.

Military law isn’t so different to civil law, the punishment is up to the ‘judge,’ the same in both worlds.

Some differences though, failure to obey an order could mean loss of pay or time in the Guard House, or even the old classic of spud bashing and painting stones. Depends on the severity.

A civvy may have a section five and have a hand slap and a nominal fine, a squaddie may have the same.

It’s not something you can just generalise on.

Alternatively there are a few ex-military members on the forum who might assist with your question, but (with reference to a news story of not so long ago) what some may believe and what are actually covered by rules and regulations can be totally different. Same with punishment; might be interesting to compare the military with civvy streets punishments.

Axel, use Google Chrome as your internet browser, it will make your life on this forum much easier. Sad but true.

The same applies to Firefox, and that isn’t trying to be clever.

Try searching under Queen’s Regulations 1975 (and amendments) and that might help you get started. Alternatively you could find the number of your local Army Recruiting Centre and phone them for advice. If you explain why you are asking I’m sure they would help as much as possible. I’m sure many of your questions will be covered in Queen’s Regulations but I suspect for some areas there will be aspects which are covered by Military Law.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

kev35

Axel, I can see where Alan is coming from on this,Any one of your subjects would cause more disagreements than you could imagine.
………………………………………………………
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Thank you Jim, I like to think we are mostly adults on this forum, so no need for anyone to feign indignation.

Axel, use Google Chrome as your internet browser, it will make your life on this forum much easier. Sad but true.

Perhaps an actual reading of the OP’s post might have been helpful.

Here, I’ve done it for you (my bold)

discapline (sic) in the army currently for breaking rules

Why can’t folks just answer his question instead of trying to be clever (and failing)

I bow to superior knowledge, but will not some of the headings Axel mentions exist as hard and fast regulations, about which there could be no disagreement? Having said that Linc’s point about the period is important. I presumed it was current information that was required.

Axel, I can see where Alan is coming from on this,Any one of your subjects would cause more disagreements than you could imagine.
There is also the question, as to what era you are researching. The rules and regs in WW1 would no doubt be different to those of WW2, which may again be different to todays rules and regs. Or does your Tutor wan’t you to delve deep into all 3, and give feedback on a bit of each?.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

I’m saying nothing 🙂

why comment at all then this is important work and i dont need people being stupid

I’m saying nothing 🙂