As keen as the government of the day was to conscript young men into the army, the army was keen to get complete nutters out. They weren’t good for discipline, hard to intimidate into compliance and a distraction. A Nasho recruit was observed spending all his spare time walking around the barrack grounds, picking up any bits of paper he could find. He would open the bit of paper up, look at both sides carefully, shake his head sadly, say “That’s not the one”, and put it into the pocket of his Coat Man’s Olive Drab (Combat Jacket). Whenever his platoon stopped anywhere for a smoko, and everybody else would slump down for a rest – as per the army maxim “Never stand when you can sit. Never sit when you can lie down. Never lie down awake when you can sleep” – the recruit would set out on his quest. After knockoff at the end of the day, he would set off again, looking for bits of paper until it was too dark to continue, often missing his dinner. His platoon officer and sergeant reported this to the RSM. It was agreed that the poor chap was obviously somewhat unhinged, and he was to be discharged as Psychologically Unfit. He was summoned to platoon HQ and given his Discharge Certificate. He opened it up and said, “That’s the one!”
