St Crispin’s Day

God! I hate wordpress!!

Sorry to Geoff, as I had to delete a couple of posts he had commented on as they had reformated the WHOLE WEBSITE.

I’m getting tired of waiting for minutes for the editor to load in WPand the strange formating mistakes it makes.
More importantly I’m angry that my it’s so hard to upgrade to another version.  ANyone out there able to help?

Hi all,

 I’ve been off for quite a while working for the Army, and personal events have sapped my will to blog.

But I read this today whilst in the gym here at Larkhill, and it just raised my spirits.  I’m surrounded by loyal hardworking soldiers.  Some “special” wear the badges of their efforts as wings or daggers (or both).  But most are just good soldiers. Capable of deploying in role doing INCREDIBLY complex & technical stuff and some out of role doing equally demanding work.  The utility of the gunners is astounding.  I salute them all (including the two who passed me without saluting me … ahem….).

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

I saw this guy last night at the Indigo2 (the dome).

He was simply amazing, and I make no excuse for using my blog to publicise him.

 What do you think?

Thank you to al who continue to pop in here from time to time. SOrry it’s been a little thin, but I’ve been away for the last two months.  It’s no excuse I know, but I’ve been away in the heat (then mud) of Basrah, and have had my internet access mightily curtailed by the stingy MOD.  Soldiers (and civvies like me) have to pay $5 per hour for so-so internet access via wireless at the NAAFI.  I hear on the grapevine that this may be made free in the future, but, like the improved housing, I won’t be holding my breath!

The rocket attacks were not as bad as I had expected, but were consistant and we quickly got used to throwing ourselves to the floor!  Mostly it was salvos of 2-4 107mm or 122mm rockets.  Thankfully the Iranian (yes lets not pretend we don’t know where they are getting them from) school of artillery is not as advanced as ours, and most fell outside our areas.  Those that did were successfuly enganged by this beast.

Thanks again for tuning in.

I’ve been here 7 days, and it seems like forever.

We had our first rocket attack after I’d only been here a day.  Basically you hear the siren , dive for the floor, and whilst laying there, get your body armour on. Three minutes after the last impact, you can get up & look for hardened shelter (or if you’re unlucky your legs!!).  Usually after about 5-10 minutes they sound the all clear.  The real pain is when this happens when you’re in bed!  We sleep in little “coffins” made out of breeze blocks so that if a rocket or mortar lands on YOUR bed, the blast doesn’t kill your buddies. 

 Body armour goes everywhere with you unless you go for a run.  It’s sat outside the loo cubicle, by the showers, stacked up in the food hall, and sat by your rowing machine in the gym!

So far we’ve had two attacks & one false alarm in a week, which is apparently the average at this time of the year. It has been worse, 4 months ago it was 5 attacks a DAY!!

The food is fine, but not as good as Afghanistan.  I’m managing to go to the gym pretty much every day, so that is a bonus!

We have most of what we need.  The facilities here are much better than in Afghanistan.  There are a few shops on camp selling the usual Arabic tat.  A couple of NAAFI’s so we can get toothpaste etc & sweets.  Also, there are a couple of ECHOS which are coffee shops run by a Dutch Christian mission to the services (although most of the staff are eastern Europeans).  They make fantastic milkshakes!!

Despite the rumours of a withdrawal, the contractors are building three huge cookhouses. These may be needed to feed the Yanks who will have to replace us, as clearly the job here in the South is nowhere near finished!  I can see a day in few months time when we all decamp to Kuwait to fly from there, and the politicians can claim that we’ve withdrawn from Iraq.

I’ll be here until December the 10^th and will be back in Afghanistan by the 5^th of Jan.

That’s all for now amigos.

Yes, you’re welcome to it!

Thanks to the contract civilian airline that took 2.5 days to get me here (It’s closer than Afghanistan & the RAF only took 39 hours to get me home from there!!!).

Thanks to the Al Mahdi lonatic who marked the end of Eid with a rocket attack on the base which just co-incided with my first evening here!!  I have now worked how to hit the ground whilst donning body armour at the same time!!

In a strange way I’m pleased to have experienced it, as it’s almost a right of passage to experience your first indirect fire attack.  Sadly, the second one the next day was taking it too far!

More news from Mesopotamia in the next few days.

Just to let you lovely readers know that St Crispin is off on his travels yet again.

This time it’s Iraq.  So peek in here every now anf again to see what snippets I can gain from that theatre of conflict?!?

I’m so sorry I’ve not been bouncing arround the blogsphere recently as I would have seen this a month ago.

It seems that TOTAL STAR “Daily Referendum” has gone & done South Park characters for all his blogging buddies!

The reason blogging is reduced here is simple.  I’m stuck in the middle of a desert, on the end of a BGAN terminal that gives broadband via inmarsat satelite links, but the costs are simpy huge.

You get about 256Mb/s speed (not quite the broadband we are used to back home!).  The costs are something close to £1.50 per Mb.  Just looking at the screen, my team have racked up 145Mb today.  You do the maths!!

Here is the wonderful picture.  I absolutely LOVE it.

Thank you Mr Referendum.

Not as bad as it sounds.  It’s 09:30, and I’ve got an afternoon flight out of Brize Norton to Kandahar.

Next post will be from Afghanistan.

Please keep looking into the site for more updates from the “front line”

The current view of politicians regarding our soldiers.  (this gives us a clue as to why the armed forces are to small)

No, my fair cousin:If we are mark’d to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.

My view of soldiering.  Old fashioned, yes, but I’m no apologist.

By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.

Current Army view of the Royal Navy & most of the RAF

Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.

Enjoy!