St Crispin’s Day

‘Half-trained’ British troops being rushed to fight the Taliban | the Daily Mail

I’ll just pick out some of the quotes that should set MASSIVE ALARM BELLS ringing.

The Ministry of Defence would not comment in detail last night, although it admitted training had been “adapted“.

And here is another little gem

An MoD spokesman said: “There is no question of training being compromised. “

Finally,

“We have adapted our training in terms of our operational requirement and we are taking action in terms of the manning challenges.”

 (all bold my own).

We should ALL be VERY worried, how can we justify sending people out on operations (war) without absolutely every bit of training they need (and some extra just in case).  But hold on! Is’nt this the governement who sent soldiers out with out all the kit they needed…. and still do?

Just to balance the post I put a few days ago. 

‘Last German veteran’ of World War I dies - CNN.com

Only a month late in bringing this to your attention, so, you probably already know about it.

The last two lines in the piece are very poingnent, and I hope we all ensure that all who serve their country are remembered & repsected.

Anyway, RIP Erich Kaestner.  You served your country in war (twice) & peace (as a judge).  Thats pretty much all a country could want from a citizen.  Can’t say fairer than that.

BBC NEWS | Politics | Pressures ‘driving UK troops out’
Defence minister Bob Ainsworth said the forces were achieving “our highest priority - success on operations”.

Wrong Mr Ainsworth! 

The highest priority is to have a Balanced, Capable & Deployable military.  Sadly, we have become fixated with fighting in just two regions of the world (not hugely dissimilar) and fighting one sort of adversary (the asymmetric threat).  The upshot of this is that training for all the other types of conceivable conflict is going by the wayside.  Training in Jungle, Arctic, High Intensity, & OBUA environments have all taken hits as there is less time between deployments to keep up these important skills.  So what happens if the next threat is from a country with a more conventional force structure? Or is in the defence of a Dependency that is based in a jungle region?  Not going to happen?  Let’s hope so, because the military we have now got won’t be trained to deal with it!

BBC NEWS | UK | Uniform plan for off-duty troops

This whole plan smacks of pure window dressing on the part of the government I’m afraid.  It’s part of the desperate scrabble to do something about the flood of soldiers, sailors & airmen leaving in hbigher numbers than tey are joining.  I warned of this a while ago, and although everyone could see it coming, no one has done anything until it is too late.  You can’t just re-generate an Army through recruitment.  It take 10 years to make a sergeant!

I do not beleive many soldiers would wish to wear their uniform whilst off duty.  I certainly wouldn’t, as it would be considered “waltish” (from Walter Mitty).  What some may wish to do is wear uniform whilst travelling on public transport or to and from their duties.  Currently it is up to the individual soldier, but most choose to take a the advice of their commanding officer, and keep their uniforms covered up when driving.

I once wore my uniform on a train journey to go from London to Plymouth, including the underground.  It was not a comfortable experience, and I did not repeat it.  I got two “smart alec” comments on the tube, and there was a general feeling of being stared at throughout the journey.

In addition to the personal choices, we need to change the “official” stance on the wearing of uniform in public.  Currently all BAA airports have a no uniform policy.  I wonder why this is, but suspect it’s because it “scares the customers”!

Here is one of the better bits from Al Murray “The Pub Landlord”

Not PC, but hugely amusing!

Third of Army helicopters fit for the front-line - Telegraph

I can shed some more light on this from what I observed in Iraq & Afghanistan recently.

Despite the fact that they are needed in Iraq for surveillance purposes, the fleet of ageing Sea King helicopters have been moved over to Afghanistan where they are needed more.  They have been replaced by Lynx, which have a much shorter duration(they spend less time over the target), and they won’t be able to fly at all in the summer as the temperatures are too high.

SOme of the outlying Forward Operating Bases in Afghanistan only get one planned visit by a support helicopter every 10 days unless their is a medical emergency.  On one occasion I heard that a company commander was “over the moon” that a soldier in his base had been injured, as he would now get a helicopter load of ammunition & food days before he was expecting it!

Hat tip to Rogue Gunner for doing the research.

Does this make you cringe as much as me?

I suspect that you can ask any amount of people these sort of questions, and get similar bone answers in any country.

I’ll put up a similar one done in Great Britain for balance.

BBC NEWS | Education | Three Little Pigs ‘too offensive’

I actually think this article may be a spoof, ‘cos it’s just too ridiculous to be real.

Say it ain’t so BECTA.

Hat tip to Kristee for this.

BBC NEWS | Politics | Hain quits jobs ‘to clear name’

I don’t know how much Mr. Hain has done wrong,  but one thing he’s mentioned in his defence is that since he has been too busy doing two jobs he’s let things drop.  So, who else is in this situation?  I’ve mentioned Mr. Browne’s extra jobs as both Defence & Scotland.    I wonder how many things he’s dropped whilst trying to cover both jobs?