Are those real bullets?
By
Neil Fincham
RAOC
1974. 39 Brigade armoury,
Lisburn, Northern Ireland. I was serving as a photographer with HQNI, and
we covered all sorts of stuff across the province. We wore civvies, and
were allowed to grow our hair so we would 'blend in' more. We were issued
9mm Brownings, kept in 39Bde armoury, which we were free to draw if we
felt our assignment warranted it. We had those bloody awful black plastic
shoulder holsters issued, which were so uncomfortable we replaced them
with beautifully made chamois leather ones we bought from a little cobblers
shop on Donegall Pass in Belfast(!)
Anyway, this particular
morning, I was in the armoury drawing my weapon, to go on a job in Belfast.
I'm standing at the counter, talking to the REME armourer, and shelling
the rounds into the pistol mag, and I've got my big furry hooded parka
(all the rage at the time) off and shoulder holster on.
Just as I'm about to holster
the weapon and get out, the door opens and in walks an obviously brand
new rupert, a 2Lt., closely followed by a couple of old sweats, Lance-jacks
or Corporals, I think. They were from one of the fancy infantry mobs whose
cap badge I could never remember. Anyway, this guy was obviously just out
of sandhurst. Everything was shiny. he looked at me and the armourer, and
then he said "Excuse me, who are you?"
"Corporal Fincham, Sir."
I answered. "HQNI Photo section." He looked relieved, as though he had
been expecting not to understand my answer, but did.
He nodded towards my weapon,
which I had by then holstered, and was putting my parka back on. "And are
those....er......real bullets?" he asked.
"Yes, Sir" I answered, stifling my smiles. He turned to the sweats behind him. "That's it, men! We're here!"
Thats the first time I ever
saw the human equivalent of the wavy line mouth expression you see on a
Peanuts cartoon - on the faces of the guys being led by this fine example
of commissioned Officer!
24145674 Neil Fincham, RAOC
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