For just a little while when
Recruitment was very slow
And, not long in the future ,
Conscription was due to go
A bunch of military misfits,
An almost unruly little mob
Was chosen and recruited
For their very specific job.
Days of Mensa Tests,
Weeks of training courses,
Not really members of
The run of the mill forces.
Marshalled and ruled by
The Official Secrets Act
Height of the Cold War
Fear of the Warsaw Pact.
You could see the Sergeant Major
Stand in obvious despair
As our little squad shambled
Over his sacred Drill Square.
It really must have been for him
A great culture shock
On the few occasions he visited
Our Operations Block.
Once through the Security Cage
Military protocol disappeared
To him it must have seemed
Almost civilian and weird.
Situated over a minefield,
Just waiting to be armed,
An important little place
Where information was farmed.
Our ill fitting group together
With NATO and the Yanks
Keeping very close eyes on
The Comrades and their tanks.
For just a little while they let us
Play our near anarchic game
But we knew eventually
Things couldn't stay the same.
For just a little period
They'd let us run at large
Until orthodoxy was reasserted, and
More soldierly soldiers took charge.
The work stayed the same
The sense of fun gone
And the military machine
Just ground inexorably on.
