CHAIN OF EVENTS By Eric ‘Alf ’ Algra, 26 Pl C Coy 1 RTB – Alpha 8/9 RAR
I was up the RSL one Friday and a bloke there had this big gold chain hanging out of his shirt, which reminded me of a Kapooka moment. I told the story and this big tattooed bloke was horrified and said it was bastardisation. Calvin Hill, our president, was sitting there to back me up.
Hallway 26 circa April 1986, surname Algra; my room was opposite the seco’s room. We had just returned to the lines from a pt lesson and were changing for a weapons’ lesson and had four and a half minutes to do so. One of the section commanders walked in the hallway and said, “Hallway 26”. We all screamed “Hallway 26” like idiots and ran out into the hallway in differing levels of dress, ie pt shorts, greens shirt etc. Well, that was how I was, with my dog tags hanging out. The seco came over to me and demanded, “What’s this, Recruit Algra?”
“My dog tags, Corporal.”
“No, it’s a toilet chain, Recruit!” I was made to walk the length of the
hallway, bent over, pulling on my dog tags, yelling, “Choo choo, I’m a toilet chain.” By the time I was halfway down the hall I was thinking, ‘What the fuck am I doing here? These people are clowns.’
I’d worked at Vic wholesale fruit and veggie market and at Warrego mine in NT prior to joining. Now I was doing this to humour some schmuck. By the time I got to the end of the hall I was crying in laughter at the stupidity of it.
The long and short of it is that 27 years later I still don’t wear a necklace very often. My mum had given me one and I wore it a while back to her funeral – fucken thing.
Quote!
Success occurs when no one is looking, failure occurs when the CO is watching.
