that last stament about the rn, you are not far off the mark. for those x rn/rfa chaps will know. BOST that was done at Portland navy base. during my time on rfa tidespring before deployment to the gulf war first time. during the bost we had a live firing exercise, guess what no ammo was to be used. 20mm was in short supply. so gun at the ready and this instuctor/ what ever. gave us the drill and incomming aircraft. then what you ask, he said shout bang,bang. at that i turned around and told him to F*** you prat. that did not go down to well, after three weeks of utter bull*** and fire drills and all the other pain in the armpit stuff you have to go through. this was the last straw.
I was taken off the gun team as he said i was not dedicated to my duties, so back down the hole i went, back to my beloved engines. at least they did go bang ,bang for real.
When the pilot said, "Fire at Will" I thought, I don't know who this Will chap is, but he must be really unpopular. Heard it said in so many films etc.
Graham
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Ahhh yes, young Will . . . . a particularly unruly cadet and always poorly turned out on parade. As such he often found himself the brunt of many a live firing exercise!!!
I remember reading stories about poor Will, so disliked was he with the men he served with that back during the war they found it easier to fire there weapons at a target if they though they were firing at him rather than the enemy. Hence 'Fire at Will' always got the lead flying.
