Reserve Defence Uniform

EGOSHEA

A few quick questions for anyone in the RDF:

What uniform items are you issued with when you join? What would these include?

One reason I ask is whether or not you have to buy your own stuff, e.g. boots and, if so, what would that be?

Lockstep

Nah. They'll provide everything. Beret, smock, 2 shirts, 2 trousers, 2 tshirts, socks, one pair of boots. Possibly shorts.

Garzard

They provided us with all of the above, 2 of everything with the exception of the boots, beret, and smock. And most people only got one shirt AFAIK. You'll have to provide smaller things like gloves and base layers yourself, but there's strict rules on uniformity with those.

trellheim

You should be issued with the list of kit off the RDF recruit issue table off L3 regulation. Should is a word that can cover many happenings. One platoon in last 12 months didn't get kit until half way through their fulltime due to no fault of their own.

mcko

Are you joing the Army Reserve or the Naval Reserve as both make up the RDF.

EGOSHEA

mcko wrote: »

Are you joing the Army Reserve or the Naval Reserve as both make up the RDF.

Army Reserve.

Medical coming up this Tuesday - how long after that do you reckon before attestation, starting weekly parade, etc? (Although maybe I'm asking how long a piece of string is here?)

Also, do you get issued with an ID card or something upon joining? Up until this point, it's always been imperative that we bring printed copies of emails, etc, for inspection at the gate (at CBB).

EGOSHEA

Saw some...vigorous debate on a DF Facebook page today concerning an apparent change-over to black berets for RDF personnel. Anyone else see anything about this?

For the record, I don't give a sh*te what colour beret I end up wearing. But the number of PDF lads tearing into the idea was interesting.

arybvtcw0eolkf

EGOSHEA wrote: »

Saw some...vigorous debate on a DF Facebook page today concerning an apparent change-over to black berets for RDF personnel. Anyone else see anything about this?

For the record, I don't give a sh*te what colour beret I end up wearing. But the number of PDF lads tearing into the idea was interesting.

I haven't heard a thing about it.. And for the record, I'd rather the RDF stay with their green baret and the PDF with black.

EGOSHEA

Alexandria Rotten Seance wrote: »

I haven't heard a thing about it.. And for the record, I'd rather the RDF stay with their green baret and the PDF with black.

Yeah, I couldn't care less either way TBH. Just looking forward to getting started. But there was some of the usual 'them versus us'/rfd versus pdf sh*te over on the Facebook ex members page the other day (taken down now). Another well-known DF discussion forum has been debating it back and forth, too.

Lockstep

I've heard a few rumours at the barracks that RDF and PDF will wear the same beret.
It doesn't bother me what beret I wear but I'm presuming it's something to do with the single force concept and that other countries like the UK and US have the same uniform for both regs and reserve.

Garzard

Lockstep wrote: »

I've heard a few rumours at the barracks that RDF and PDF will wear the same beret.
It doesn't bother me what beret I wear but I'm presuming it's something to do with the single force concept and that other countries like the UK and US have the same uniform for both regs and reserve.

I heard last week [unofficially] that while the overall colour will be changing to black, the new RDF beret will be holding onto the lighter green tint around the badge for distinguishability reasons.

RedWolfCQB

There were rumors knocking around last year about each corp getting there own colour beret. Arty, Engineer and Medical etc.
Infantry to stay black, only other colour I heard was a purple for Medical.

mrsoundie

RedWolfCQB wrote: »

There were rumors knocking around last year about each corp getting there own colour beret. Arty, Engineer and Medical etc.
Infantry to stay black, only other colour I heard was a purple for Medical.

That idea is about fifteen years old by my mature recollection. In today's economic climate, I would not hold my breath.

r3nu4l

mrsoundie wrote: »

That idea is about fifteen years old by my mature recollection. In today's economic climate, I would not hold my breath.

It's an old one alright I first heard the rumour about 23-24 years ago and it was an 'imminent' change then too.

A friend of a friend overheard someone who had heard it from a PDF NCO who had been told by an officer who heard it from a colonel who had been at the same table as the Minister of Defence at a meeting and the Minister had mentioned that he had been thinking about it... so on and so forth.

You can be sure that if I first heard that 24 years ago that the rumour was around before then too

mrsoundie

r3nu4l wrote: »

It's an old one alright I first heard the rumour about 23-24 years ago and it was an 'imminent' change then too.

A friend of a friend overheard someone who had heard it from a PDF NCO who had been told by an officer who heard it from a colonel who had been at the same table as the Minister of Defence at a meeting and the Minister had mentioned that he had been thinking about it... so on and so forth.

You can be sure that if I first heard that 24 years ago that the rumour was around before then too

Truth be told, it was actually my Grandfather herd it from Dan Breen as he cycled past one night.

EGOSHEA

RedWolfCQB wrote: »

There were rumors knocking around last year about each corp getting there own colour beret. Arty, Engineer and Medical etc.
Infantry to stay black, only other colour I heard was a purple for Medical.

Imagine Paddy's Day. We'd all look like a spilled bag of Skittles.:):rolleyes::o:mad::(:eek::D:p