Tuesday 23 June 2009

Tales from the Academy – Crime and Punishment

In order to become 'leaders of men' officer cadets must first learn to follow orders and adhere to regulations. The motto of Sandhurst is 'Serve to Lead' and the young men and women are trained to do just that. Only by following a set of rules and understanding what that entails can they hope to impose sets of laws on their subordinates.

To that end – and of course it may not be the case now – miscreant cadets could be put in jankers for a short while. This was not as severe as might be expected requiring simply that the offender be marched into the guard house, kept there for a matter of one or two minutes and then marched out again.

On one very hot day when the cadets were parading in number two dress Academy Sergeant Major Jackie Lord took pity on them and said, 'Gentlemen, you may remove your service dress.' This was less an invitation than an order and so around a thousand cadets removed their jackets to reveal that they had already taken measures to keep as cool as possible. Instead of regulation shirts they were wearing what can only be described as 'dickey fronts'. Apoplectic with rage the ASM ordered them all into the guard house. A revolving door would have been useful on that occasion but it serves as an example that orders must be obeyed and they include wearing full uniform when required.

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