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I had to join the Army Cadets, which meant spending one day a week in a ghastly khaki uniform which seemed designed to chafe and scratch at every part of the body with which it was in contact, i.e. most of it. It was even more unbearable on hot days. Although I had nothing against the idea of military training at that age, the routines we were forced to endure seemed pointless to me, and utterly unfulfilling. There was rifle drill: a lot of marching around being shouted at, carrying heavy old .303 rifles almost longer than some of the smaller cadets. There were lessons in field craft, which covered little I hadn’t already picked up in the Scouts, lectures in leadership – quite beyond me – and copious instruction in looking after your equipment. That meant how to clean and wear your uniform. The Cadets has some special punishments. I didn't like being an Army Cadet and here you can see why. I think the details would ring true with many other cadets of the 50s, 60s and 70s.

Cadet Program

I had to join the Army Cadets. This was a program began before World War I to train military officers in time of national emergency. These programs were set up in public schools and grammar schools whiich mean that the offiers were recruited from the oprivlidged classes. The school program in America is called Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC). This meant spending one day a week in a ghastly khaki uniform. Although I had nothing against the idea of military training at that age, the routines we were forced to endure seemed pointless to me, and utterly unfulfilling. There was rifle drill: a lot of marching around being shouted at, carrying heavy old .303 rifles almost longer than some of the smaller cadets. There were lessons in field craft, which covered little I hadn’t already picked up in the Scouts, lectures in leadership – quite beyond me – and copious instruction in looking after your equipment. That meant how to clean and wear your uniform.

Uniform

The uniform seemed designed to chafe and scratch at every part of the body with which it was in contact, i.e. most of it. It was even more unbearable on hot days. Here is what the uniform consisted of, starting from the top. Beret, dark blue, with ‘staybrite’ brass badge, bad headache if headband too tight. Headband difficult to loosen. Shirt, khaki, long-sleeved, made of rough wool, intensely itchy, very hot. Tie, khaki knitted wool, to be correctly tied and kept tight to the neck. Tunic, thick khaki serge, unlined, ill-fitting, intensely itchy, very hot. High collar rasped wearer’s neck. Attached by buttons to tge trousers. Trousers thick khaki serge, unlined, even more ill-fitting, intensely itchy, very hot. Boots, leather, black, very heavy, unsympathetic to tender young feet. To go with this appallingly uncomfortable ensemble, there was the webbing, i.e. belt and gaiters, and cleaning this was a hideous and time-consuming chore. The canvas parts had to be blancoed, in other words covered in a vile smelling khaki paste which caked your fingers for hours afterwards, while the brass bits had to be polished with Duraglit wadding, and then kept free from being contaminated by the blanco paste. Thankfully, I haven’t encountered blanco for many a year but the smell of Duraglit is guaranteed to make my skin crawl. Finally, the boots required lengthy sessions of ‘bulling’ to give them that highly polished look, not that I ever achieved it.

Punishments

The Cadets has some special punishments. So there is our smart cadet, standing on parade in the hot sun, waiting to be shouted at, sweat trickling down his back and the inside of his legs, fingertips stinking of blanco and Duraglit, legs, arms and torso all itching like crazy. A cadet might be found wearing a soft undershirt, or even pyjamas, under his uniform, in a pathetic attempt to alleviate the discomfort. He would be publicly ridiculed and made to remove the offending items, while any cadet who had the temerity to faint in the heat of the sun would be classed as lacking moral fibre. I knew a boy who tried to leave the Cadets because he said he had a wool allergy. A foolish ploy, as we saw him in uniform every day for a full week, just to get used to it. The punishment was known as Jankers and was the unhappy fate of any cadet whose conduct fell short of standards. This was where dayboys gained over boarders, as they could rip off their uniform as soon as they got home in the afternoon. Not so the boarders, who had to wear it right up to bedtime, even having to put it all on again straight after strenuous sporting activity. No, I didn’t enjoy being an Army Cadet.