6. In 'Monsoon Selection Board' the general view of the Army was that Selection Boards 'weren't fit to select bus conductors, let alone officers'. How did McNeill, Hayhurst and Martin-Duggan get through (the real reason)?
From Quiz 'The General Danced at Dawn' - G. MacDonald Fraser
Answer:
The loss of McNeill's pants/trousers
Initiative, leadership, ingenuity, intelligence and cheerfulness are what they should have shown - throughout the board, after a series of mishaps, what they did show was 'lacking in initiative, deficient in moral fibre, prone to recrimination, and generally un-officer-like'. Guts is what the C.O. and the rest of the examiners thought they had shown on the assault course when they tried valiantly (but failed) to finish the course. It wasn't until they were alone that McNeill explained the reason he would not budge out of the last ditch and over the last obstacle (though doing as much as possible to look as if he was trying) was that his trousers had come off while wading through the ditch and Dand 'was not going to appear soaked and in his shirt-tail before all the board and candidates, not for anything'. So although they probably got through for showing 'grit, determination and endurance', what really got them through was the loss of his pants!
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