St Crispin’s Day

BBC NEWS | UK | Forces’ centre gets £24m boost

Working on the assumption that this government has no empathy for our armed forces (and the current track record does not give lie to this idea), we can only assume that this increase in the budget to Headly Court is beause we are in these wars for the long haul.

It must be welcomed, at the very least we will have a better facility for a few years to come.

Let’s hope the locals don’t complain again!!

I jokingly said that this was a new category under this blog, but some stuff in the news recently has made me wonder if I’ve joined the Grumpy Old Men brigade.

 Recently Gordon Brown has thrown his weight behind the backing for opt-out rather than opt-in with regards to organ donation.

My take is that if you don’t carry a donor card, you won’t get a transplant if you need it.  With rights come responsibilities.

This guy is either badly briefed or has terrible judgment. 

The Brigade here in Helmand province is in the middle of a RIP (a Relief In Pace) a military term for a handover but with no loss of capability on the ground.  It’s terribly complicated, and needs lots of resources like accomodation, food, transport etc etc as there are nearly twice the numbers of people “in town” as usual.  So this guy rocks up with his enterage, and expects to get flights on , hercules’ helicopters, etc. We don’t have enough of those things during the normal periods of operation let alone during a RIP.  

A senior officer I work  with was booked on a helicopter pretty much every day for three weeks to do a 40km trip to get to a vital planning conference for an upcoming assault.  He only got to the HQ after the operation was half way through!!!

St Crispin himself has had his flight to Kandahar today cancelled, so no Tim Hortons donuts for me!!

A message to the senior officers, politicians, and other hangers on.  Please leave your visits to quieter times.  Phone us, we’ll tell you when we want you to come.

Oh, and to add insult to injury he only visited the hospital here.  So he highlighted the negative side of what’s happening out here, the sick, injured & dead!  He never bothered to visit the fighting men who’s high spirits & moral keep them going when equipment & supplies let them down.

Maybe the “soft fluffy” side of war is all poiticians are prepared to associate themselves with.  It would be too much to side with the fighters!!!!!

When you’re wounded and left on Afghan’s plains

and the women come out to cut up what remains just roll to your rifle and blow out your brains

and go to your God like a soldier.

Kipling

Nothing changes.  My first couple of days here have been a hugh eye opener.

The fighting is bitter, and incessant.  The casualties on both sides are horrendous.  The papers & media only announce the deaths.  They miss out little statistics like one battle group has suffers losses equating to one whole company.  Another has sent back over 40 severity 1 casualties (that’s amputations & the like!).

Every time the medical helicopter lands here there is an air of gloominess as we all realise that another very seriously injured person is in the back possibly fighting thier final fight, for life.

I happend to walk past the ambulance that had just picked up on such person as it got to the triage door of the field hospital (just by my accomodation), and was happy to see it was an Afghani (probably taliban), and not “one of ours”.

In the next couple of days we’ll have a “Ramp Ceremony”.  This is where the whole camp gathers in a single row to mark the departure home of our dead as they are taken to the plane.  I’m proud to have been asked to attend.

BBC NEWS | UK | Warning on ex-services homeless

I think the statistics have been well known for many years.  Sadly there seems t be little we can do for some ex-service men (mostly Army).

We need to think seriously about veterans only hospitals & mental health institutes so these people can be amongst those they trust the most, rather than the society they clearly don’t believe in.

BBC NEWS | England | Surrey | Service families’ home approved

At last, the dept of honour we owe them is slowley be paid.   Well done the councilors of Mole Valley (is that where Toad lives?), who ignored the NIMBYs and “did the right thing”.  Shame the servicemen had to put up with the tension & stress that these sad & inward looking people subjected them to.

I was saddened to hear the idiot on Jeremy Vine’s BBC Radio 2 show who said that the families could stay in B&B ‘cos the war was an illegal occupation!  So, no one loses limbs in training accidents do they?  Don’t use the forces as ploitical footballs.

Regardless of what they are doing at the time of the injury, our servicemen deserve the very best.  They should have thier own hospital, and they should not have to come into contact with the sorts of people who make comments like that above.

I’m getting ready to depart for Camp Bastion in Afghanistan (due to administrative errors, I’m already 10 days late!).

I’ve just got word from the best sources (over there) that there is a big operation in progress. The dead are coming in at a rate of 1 per day, and the injured…. well lets just say that the military hospital is now officially full.  It will be a while before this becomes news (if ever), and some idiot politician will gloss over it anyway, but you can take it from me, that war is happening in our name, and our boys & girls are doing the best the can in the best traditions of the British Army.

I can’t wait to get out there now, as the service I’ll be helping to provide WILL save British lives.

You may have heard of the protests raised by local residents living hear Hedley Court, an Army rehabilitation centre, which handles many of the cases of personnel injured on operations. The protestors are objecting to the proposal, by SSAFA, to purchase a house for use by families, visiting their injured loved ones.   A petition has been raised on the PMs website and I would be grateful if you would support it and pass the link on to others who may also feel that the attitude of the residents is wholly inconsistent with the way we, both as individuals and collectively as a nation, should treat our service personnel injured on the battlefield.

Go here for petition.

Praguetory has been doing some research on my behalf (only kidding) but he came upwith this gem from his blogworld.

Lynne Jones MP has said in response to a soldier being verbally attacked whilst in an open ward in Selly Oak hospital.

But the Labour MP for Selly Oak, Lynne Jones, refused to back calls for more secure facilities for troops. She said: “The soldiers seem to want a little empire consisting of their own designated staff and facilities, a fiefdom”.

What on earth was she thinking?  She simply does not understand the issues. The military are not a social experiment.  We are different from the society which we protect as we alone have the understanding that we will give the ultimate sacrifice of our lives in defence of the country, it’s boarders, and it’s interests.  We are therefor set appart, and would expect, whilst we live, to be treated in such a way.

Her comments just clarify my suspicion that labour blame the Army (and not the governments of the past) for the rise of the British Empire. How blind!

Thanks as well to West Brom Blog for the links

I’ll soon be posting over on Ghost cabinet under the dedfence brief, and will probably do a little duplication on this site (I like to get value for my posts!).  One of the things I’m highlighting is that of military hospitals.

Some good soul has put up another e-petition on the subject urging that the government builds at least one solely for the use of the military.

the petition is here.

I would like to see veterans hospitals as well (like they have in US).

Two previous posts also comment on the plight in our military medical services!

Haslar here and The BBC documentary here.