Section 69
Every body should read
The excellent book Catch 22
Only an ex squaddie knows
Just how much it could be true.
Nothing like that in the British Army,
Oh no for we got on just fine
With help of our own rules,namely
Army Act, section number Sixty Nine:
Conduct Prejudicial to Good Order
And discipline is what the clause says
Then it leaves it to the powers each
To define in their own odd ways.
Dirty lens in your glasses
Dust on your hat,
Or just looking awkward
There was a remedy for that.
So before you knew it
You could be standing in line
To answer to Authority
Under section 69.
And there wasn't any appeal
Or necessity to prove the fact
Just an opinion there's a violation
Of that section of the Act.
In civvie life there's the need of evidence
And facts in support of it
Under Section sixty nine all they need
Is for your face not to fit.
No matter what you do
One day you were going to meet
A power crazy little man
With his blank Charge Sheet
So you kept your fingers crossed and
Hoped he didn't get to know your name
And just kept your head down
In that Barmy Army Game.
Observe these rules and
You should be just fine
And escape our own Catch 22
That infamous Section 69.