A former officer at HMAS Leeuwin says he considered some of the demeaning language used by recruits to describe each other as just boys being boys.
A royal commission investigating child sexual abuse at the naval training base in the 1960s and `70s has heard that new intakes were described as "new grubs", the next senior as "grubs" and the next senior as "s***s" and the most senior as "top s***s".
Geoffrey Curran, who was a divisional officer with responsibility for recruit welfare at HMAS Leeuwin during the period when abuse was rampant, agreed on Wednesday that the language would be demeaning.
It was never official language and at the time he would have seen it in the context of "boys being boys", he said.
Mr Curran said language used 40 years ago was a lot different to what is now acceptable.
He also said it was part of Australian culture back then not to dob and that could explain why in his time at HMAS Leeuwin, he never received a direct complaint from a recruit.
Justice Peter McClellan asked him if it was part of the Australian culture back then to accept that you didn't complain if someone bashed you or attacked "your anus with an implement".
He asked Mr Curran if that behaviour was down to 'boys being boys'.
Mr Curran earlier in the hearing described as "gut wrenching" the evidence of five men who on Tuesday gave evidence of horrific abuse at the hands of senior recruits at HMAS Leeuwin.
He told Justice McClellan that behaviour crossed the line.
He said earlier while there was talk of incidents at HMAS Leeuwin while he was there but he did not consider them serious.
The commission has heard that new recruits were subject to 'nuggeting' - being held down while their genitals were smeared with boot polish and scrubbed.
Mr Curran said this was infrequent at the training base. He knew it was "a rite of initiation" but nothing as serious as what witnesses have told the commission.
Vietnam veteran and abuse survivor Glen Greaves told the commission on Tuesday how senior recruits covered his mail in faeces, flushed it down a toilet and forced his head into the bowl.
Mr Greaves also spoke of the excruciating pain he suffered when he was anally assaulted several times.
He said after the toilet incident divisional officer lieutenant Curran told him he going to be charged with blocking the toilet.
Mr Curran said on Wednesday he had a vague memory about envelopes in the toilet but could not believe he threatened to charge the recruit as "there was nothing to charge".
He pointed out there was no other reference or evidence that cadet Greaves complained about anything else.
The commission before Justice McClellan is continuing.
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