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Personal Documents

National Health Service Card and National Insurance Card
P45
Marriage Certificate (if applicable)
Birth Certificate
Birth Certificate of children (if applicable)
And legal orders relating to divorce, custody, change of names.
Driving license (if held)
Bank Account Details. You should have a bank account open before reporting to ITC Catterick.
Educational Qualification Certificates
Passport
8 up to date passport size photographs of yourself

YOU MUST BRING THE ABOVE DOCUMENTATION WITH YOU

Clothing and Equipment

One smart set of civilian clothing. (smart pair of jeans is ok, shirt with a collar and smart shoes you will need otherwise you cant get out of camp!)
A jacket/coat
Several pairs of underwear (atleast 7)
Several pairs of socks (atleast 7)
A pair of training shoes (running trainers)
A pair of swimming trunks (dont worry too much about these, you will usually wear your issue blue shorts)
Large towels (atleast 2)
Nightwear

Personal Hygene

Shower gel
Shaving foam
Razor and 5 spare blades. NOT disposable.
Toothbrush and toothpaste
Flip flops
Nail clippers
Cotton buds
Talc (foot powder)
Deoderant
Washing powder
Nail Brush
Tape for your feet (zinc oxide tape from boots is ok. Get a large roll of it because blisters hurt!!)

Other Equipment

Coat Hangers x 10 (make sure they are the same colour and type, i would recommend wooden ones because you will be hanging heavy items like your body armour up and the plastic ones break.)
Boot Brushes (1 on and 1 off brush)
Large tin of black shoe polish
Black pens, pencils, rubber, ruler and coloured pencils.
Pocket notebook
A cheap dark coloured watch. (Dont take your rolex!)
A roll of black cloth tape. (go to your local hardware store and ask for "black cloth tape". Dont get electrical tape, its sh*t!! This stuff tears easily and you use it on all your webbing and bergen etc)
A metre of black inch-wide elastic (dont worry if you cant get any of this, you can get it in the NAAFI in camp)
Small sewing kit containing needle and thread (dark colours) and safety pins.
Alarm clock
Letter writing paper, envelopes and stamps.
Permenant marker to mark your uniform.
Steam Iron. (dont worry about an ironing board, you can get them in the NAAFI in camp)
Small penknife with a blade no more than 3 inches long.
Small torch with spare batteries.
5 X Strong locks, with a key. (dont get combination locks...they are so easy to break into its unreal)
Personal Possessions - photos of your girlfriend, small radio, iPod etc.

All bedding will be provided.

DO NOT BRING

And weapons such as combat knives, offensive posters or magazines (porn is acceptable, just keep it hidden from your training staff or they will add it to their collections!! )

Do not bring lots of civilian clothes. You do not get many opportunities to wear them during the first 6 weeks of training. You can collect any more civilian clothes from home during your first leave at the end of week 6.

Try your best to get all the items in the "Other equipment" bit because you will end up paying ALOT more for them in the NAAFI in camp.

Make sure you turn up with a Grade 2 haircut all over.

This kit list is the official one that the army gives para recruits before turning up to depot, so if possible can it be made a sticky....it took a while to type out!!

so if possible can it be made a sticky.

only because you asked so nicely,

thanks alot theres a few stuff on there i need to go out and get plus i need to let my hair grow then cos i razor mine every morning.

Good god it like moving house. When I joined you put your shaving kit in your pocket when you had to report to the barracks, and that was that. When you arrived you parceled up your civilian clothes and sent them home as you were not allowed to keep them in case you wanted to make a dash for it. As RMP swarmed over every railway station like flies on a fresh turd you would always be stopped by them to check your documentation. there was no escape in those days.

Tab wrote:Good god it like moving house. When I joined you put your shaving kit in your pocket when you had to report to the barracks, and that was that. When you arrived you parceled up your civilian clothes and sent them home as you were not allowed to keep them in case you wanted to make a dash for it. As RMP swarmed over every railway station like flies on a fresh turd you would always be stopped by them to check your documentation. there was no escape in those days.

It would make things SO much easier if it was still like that today!

Moving house is a very good way to describe it. Having said that, moving from depot to battalion is much worse, 2 massive MFO boxes of kit, plus all your uniform and equipment for Brize Norton which has to be kept separate.

Then as soon as you get settled in a room in battalion lines with all your kit nicely layed out in the lockers....they move you

wow quite a lot of things to take. still got 2 years till i can get a chance to go, do you have to know how to sew if your bringing a sewing kit?

[quote="Foley"]wow quite a lot of things to take. still got 2 years till i can get a chance to go, do you have to know how to sew if your bringing a sewing kit?[/quote]

It used to be called a "housewife" that you got issued with, but they were no good for anything else other than sewing.

If you dont know how to sew you could always go and knock on your section commanders door on a nightime and ask him to teach you

What's the deal with mobile phones on camp? Are you allowed to use them in the evenings?

Paratrooper_01.....What ever happened to the old kit bag, you could fit every bit gear you had in one of those and still had room for more. You chucked it over your shoulder and hopped on a lorry and that was your move, done and dusted

Boxingmad wrote:What's the deal with mobile phones on camp? Are you allowed to use them in the evenings?

In training all mobiles were handed in (and we were thrashed until ALL the phones were handed in!!) and you go them back each evening to ring home and tell them what a great time you were having.

Tab wrote:Paratrooper_01.....What ever happened to the old kit bag, you could fit every bit gear you had in one of those and still had room for more. You chucked it over your shoulder and hopped on a lorry and that was your move, done and dusted

Those have been replaced with the massive black holdall thingys. Must be that we get issued with alot more kit than in your day. To be honest i think its stupid the amount we get issued because the only issue stuff i actually use regularly is my working dress and boots, all other kit i use we have issued in battalion or we buy ourselves.

So most of my issued kit is stuffed into the black bags and forgotten about!

Make sure you turn up with a Grade 2 haircut all over.

And what about bald cnuts like me? ... and wheres the vaseline for ya plums?

Top thread mate.

One thing thats missing from the list and def needs to be brought here is a sense of humour as you most certainly will need it

Paratrooper01 wrote:A pair of training shoes (running trainers)

Make sure there are proper running trainers as PTI's get annoyed when Joes turn up in trainers that should have been left at the beach party or the BBQ

What ever happened to the plimsoll that was issued for use in the gym. Now if you were in the Gym you wore the plimsoll if you were out side the gym then you wore your hob nails for every thing else. Yet every one got along all right with these two items, no pulled tendons or muscles and injuries were rare.

Sandy, what is your opinion of the Silver Shadows? I thought they were cheap and nasty with no shock absorbtion.

When i was in depot my platoon were trying out some new style of army trainers which we wore for runs on the training area. We kept our silver shadows for using in the gym.