Gnashing of Teeth!

If there was a single news item that was destined to spoil my day it was the interview of the ever popular ex soldier, ex-Lance Corporal Joe Glenton formerly of the Royal Logistic Corps.  This sanctimonious excuse for a former soldier is going to “return his medals” or his “veterans badge”, I’m not sure quite which given the conflicting reports on the television.  In any event if I had my way I would have demand them back the day he was convicted of going absent without leave and disobeying a lawful command which  resulted in this useless article serving a well deserved six or was it nine months military detention.

This is a man who now pontificates on the manner in which the war in Afghanistan was, is and should not be fought.  This is a former logistician who served ONE six month tour in Afghanistan and then refused to go back.  All I can say is that he should not have joined up in the first place if he was going to pick and choose which orders he was going to obey, which oath he was to take and which battles to fight or not.

He brings shame on his regiment, the army and his country as well as on himself for he is NOT a proud example of a man at all.  He is supported by a fringe of left wing unpatriotic wasters who would rather see the world spin out of control in a nice liberal free from control nanny state.

Glenton, stuff your medals and badge where the sun don’t shine and let the real heroes of Afghanistan wear theirs without your slimly shadow casting itself over them.

NOTE:

Joe Glenton was a British Army Lance Corporal and war resister from York. He argued that the war in Afghanistan is illegal under international law and faced court-martial for Absence Without Leave as well as charges related to his protesting the war. After pleading guilty to going AWOL for 737 days at a court martial, on 5 March 2010 Glenton was sentenced to 9 months in the Military Corrective Training Centre,  the UK's military prison in Colchester. On pleading guilty to going AWOL, charges of desertion, disobeying orders and bringing the Army into disrepute, were all dropped.

By way of contrast, Wootton Bassett (Wikipedia)

Recent history

In the early twenty-first century, the bodies of fallen UK servicemen and women from the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and other places, having been repatriated to RAF Lyneham, usually pass through the town on their way to John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, in readiness for the coroner. This has led to people assembling along the route of the funeral cortège initially from the local area and occasionally some mourners with a connection to the dead. On 12 October 2008, a parade was organised by the armed services to thank the town for their support.^[9]. This drew national attention to the town's salute to the fallen; and relatives/friends not attending the RAF Lyneham ceremony choose to pay their first respects at Wootton Bassett, joined by representatives from their towns and other, unrelated visitors, leading to speculation that the event had become a form of 'grief tourism'^[10][11]. On Friday 29 January 2010 HRH The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall visited Wootton Bassett to lay a wreath at the War Memorial and to meet local people.^[12]

The War Memorial in Wootton Bassett is a simple pedestal topped by a bronze of hands holding up a globe. The erection of the memorial was quite recent, and was the vision of local girl Jay Cunningham who felt that the memorial garden in the cemetery and the memorial hall on Tinker's Field were not a prominent enough memorial.^[13] After a successful five year publicity and fund raising campaign, the memorial was unveiled in October 2004. The design was chosen by public vote, designed by Lance Corporal Alan Wilson of the Wootton Bassett army cadets with the bronze sculpted by artist Vivian ap Rhys Price^[14] from nearby Calne, 10 miles to the south.

In 2009, Wootton Bassett made headlines after radical UK Islamist group Islam4UK suggested the town as the site of a proposed march. The proposal, led by Muslim extremist Anjem Choudary, came under widespread condemnation from British citizens, including Muslims, politicians, and the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Some right wing citizens, mainly from outside of the town, said that they would "defend" the town if they felt they needed to.^[15] However, on 10 January 2010, Islam4UK announced that it decided to call off the protest, claiming that the publicity generated had "successfully highlighted the plight of Muslims in Afghanistan" and so "no more could be achieved even if a procession were to take place in Wootton Bassett".^[16]

In May 2009, the Royal British Legion honoured Wootton Bassett with a special award in recognition of Legion members who turned out to honour hundreds of fallen British servicemen and women being repatriated from Iraq and Afghanistan^[17]. In 2009, it was revealed that the Queen had spoken to Gordon Brown about the possibility of granting Wootton Basset Royal Patronage, making it the third 'Royal' town in the country, after Royal Leamington Spa in Warwickshire and Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent^[18]. However, the news was received with mixed reactions. Whilst over 2,600 people signed a petition on the Downing Street website calling for Wootton Bassett to be 'officially recognised in some form',^[18] Wootton Bassett Mayor Councillor Steve Bucknell stated royal patronage would not be welcome, claiming that whilst local residents were "humbled" by the honour, "we didn’t expect anything...[in return]...and that is still the case".^[19] On 21 December 2009, Wootton Bassett received one of The Sun's "Millie" awards for its tributes to the fallen. The award was presented by HRH Prince William and received on behalf of the town by Mayor Steve Bucknell and British Legion treasurer Ann Beavis and Cross Keys landlady Kirsty Lambert.^[20]

In March 2010, in another example of the national symbolism of Wootton Bassett, there was a mass parade of bikers. Associated charity fundraising is reported to have reached £100,000.^[21] Motorcyclists from The Royal British Legion Riders Branch, many of whom are former service personnel, attend every repatriation held in the town.^[22][23][24]

Goodwood Festival of Speed

There are times when what seemed like a good plan at the time soon becomes clear that is wasn’t such a good idea at all.  This is what we discovered when I somewhat recklessly decided that it would be nice to go, for the first time, to the Goodwood Festival of Speed.  Actually, it was when I said “lets go to to the Festival of Speed this year, it’s a bit expensive but we have never been” and then when I added to that statement the insane idea that we could walk from home.  Why you may ask, “because it’s not far from home after all is said and done”.  A Bad plan !!

It was to prove fortunate however, but for all the wrong reasons, that we didn’t walk there in the end.  The wrong reasons being that on the day we were to set off on this epic walk from home to Goodwood was the day that Val threw a very expensive sicky!  Now no one, least of all me, would have wished the awful state she was in after contracting some vile virus from somewhere that left her completely incapacitated (I won’t go into details here as they are not pleasant). In any event, given her condition and given also that she insisted that I go alone, I decided to rescue some of our outlay and rather than walk I would drive there.  Then at least if I did receive an “emergency"  call I would be able to get back home relatively quickly.

I soon realised that our initial enthusiastic and excited estimates of the walking distance from home to the festival site had been grossly under estimated once I had noted the distance by car as being 3.5 miles.  This was not including the distance we would have to walk from the car park to the actual festival site which I am sure would have added another mile or two at least to the “route march” that I found myself on once I got to the Goodwood Estate.

It was to prove an interesting and tiring day which I have many mixed feelings about but one thing is for certain, it would not have been an ideal day out for the lady of the house!

The highlights of the day  were for me the fantastic flying display by the Red Arrows which until now I had tried to observe from the garden, only to nearly break my neck trying to spot the passing aircraft with little success.  This time though it was "up close and personal” with a commentary and a view on a giant TV screen.  The outcome being an example of one of the many photos I managed to take.

Good Things about the show were I suppose quite personal and therefore not everyone's cup of tea.  However here are my highlights of the day.

• 2 Royal Tank Regiment display of the latest military vehicles and a fine example of their main battle tank.  It was good to chat with them and recall my brief attachment to them in Libya back in the dark old days of 1967.

A bit different from the Centurion I learned to drive!

• The Red Arrows display team put on an incredible display which was all the more exciting given that this year I was actually under it and not darting around the garden at home trying to keep tabs on them each time they flew over the house!

I could almost see the pilot as I took this photo.

• The cars on display were overwhelmingly out of my reach in terms of cash! I simply drooled.
• The Parking arrangements were pretty good and there was a form of rustic transport from the car park to the show fields which was good if you had to wander about looking for a lost car as some unfortunates seemed to have done at one stage.  I on the other hand had counted the rows back to where I was parked (row 52) only to discover that several more rows had been fitted in by the time I came back for the car.  I still found it with ease and didn’t need my GPS phone either.
• The Cuban Cigar roller – Anibal Delgado Gonzalez was a star.  He may not have been a voluptuous Cuban virgin rolling the cigars on her tanned thighs – but he did roll a mean “robusto”.  Yes, I bought one hot off the table NOT his thigh!!

 

Anibal Delgado Gonzalez – Cigar maker, taking a smoke break!

• The “Chunky Chips with Curry sauce – I have no more to say on this other than, even at £2.50 they were great!
• Juliette Lowe the young local jeweller from Singleton who had the perfect gift on hand for the poor sick thing at home!

There were many more “good things” to numerous to mention but there were also some Bad Things that cant be left out from this even.

• Programmes at £12.50 (admittedly with a “free radio”.  I thought this was excessive given that we had already forked out £75 for tickets in advance so a FREE programme would have been nice!
• Food prices were crazy with a Pims at £6.50 as was a sausage & onion roll.  £4.50 for a bacon sandwich and of course my chips at £2.50, but there were good!!
• Walking from the car parks was a bit of an ordeal as the dust got thicker and thicker as you slogged along with the crowd only to find more dust at the event its self.  I came home looking like I had been working on a building site.
• Entry fees do seem very high to me and there seems to be no incentive to buy early.  Not it seems as I have already pointed out, no inclusive programme with the pre-ordered tickets.
• The Dust was a major drawback for the nose, throat and any asthmatics but it wasn’t the organisers fault.  All I would say is just be prepared for it.

All in all a great day out with lots to see and do and some interesting people to watch!

Photos from the day

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The Queens Birthday Parade 2010

As ever I spent a happy time watching this spectacle on TV and recalling that as a young Junior Solider MAD and I spent many a happy few hours practicing left and right forms, marching in line in quick and slow time and for me many hours as a “Stickman” or more understandably as Escort to the Inspecting Officer on parade. 

 

[Left to right: Me as Escort, “Right Hand Man” with my platoon and my platoon marching past the inspecting General – I am the first on the left of the picture] Hill Platoon B Company – Shiny B !!!

Despite having been born in London, lived there for many years and been a regular soldier I had never been to see the Queens Birthday Parade (Trooping the Colour).  So taken with this I thought it would be a good idea to enter an application for entry in the ballot for tickets for the 2011 parade.  I won’t  hold my breath though as I am sure that there are tens of thousands of applications each year, but I can live in hope!

Perhaps Peter White or my friend “MAD”may put in a good word for me?

Obama and BP: White House is not Anti-British?

Hmmm, you do have to wonder don't you?  OK, lets see now what is it that BO has against BP.

• BP is “British” as in British Petroleum
• So What.  In fact the company is INTERNATIONAL and the workers involved in the disaster were AMERICAN!
• OB’s gandpappy was “tortured by the British in Kenya”
• Well who says he was?  IF he was a member of the Mau Mau then he would have been initiated into the group in a secret ceremony which involved eating human white flesh!! Mau Mau were only sort of Freedom Fighters and in 1950’s Britain mistreatment of captured fighters was not typical as at this time they had not met anyone from the American CIA !!
• BP is a successful company in the USA and provides many jobs.. Hmmmm
• The economic and financial destruction of BP by BO would be of benefit to the good old US of A and the Oil industry

Darn me I almost forgot.  BO has a forgotten that Britain seems to be an ally who’s soldiers are fighting themselves ragged in an unwinnable war.  So why don’t we just up and bugger off back home and leave St Barak and his merry men to fight off the Taliban on their own? 

See this little spoof report I found on the internet

Obama and BP: White House is not Anti-British

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s1i76160

Finally, yes I do love to drive every nail home I can, will we ever stop importing so many American English words and sayings into our own dear language?

Britain declares war on words that snuck into our skedule...
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1284254/Britain-declares-war-words-snuck-skedule-.html#ixzz0q5kLwEjw

Writing a book

Some years ago I set about writing a book about my short career in the army during the 1960’s.  To say it was a labour of love would be a lie as in reality the actual writing was an ordeal.  I never thought for one moment the amount of effort that would go into just trying to recall events during the nine years I had chosen to write about.
For a start I had to figure out the correct order of things, should I write chronologically or should I write about events in some sort of random fashion that suited some ill thought through process.  Of course I decided to start at the beginning, a middle and then have an end! How silly was I to think there was any other way.  My other problem was should I write a squeaky clean version of my near on nine years as a British soldier, no swearing, heavy drinking, mad womanizing and all sorts of other bad behaviour?  I opted for a slightly “sanitized” but honest recollection of how it was and what I did with some minor confessional stuff just slipped in here and there.  Major confessions will have to wait a good number of years I think.
I think it has taken me about 5 years to complete the short work of some 95 pages of A5 text comprising  35896 painfully written words.  I am still not happy with the book in its entirety as there are still silly spelling and grammatical errors discovered every time I read it.   However, I have mastered the chronology now and where possible linked the event in my life to one of “historic” importance at the time I write about.  For example, the assassination of John F Kennedy, the Vietnam Anti War riots at the US Embassy in London and of course our dear old pal Colonel Gaddafi of Libya when he was only a junior army officer in the Libyan army.
Well, the books sits on MyEbook at http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=2532 only waiting for me to take the time to post it on another publishing site in paperback form and see if I can actually sell it.  If only I had a penny for every one of the 27,650 viewings it has had !! 
My short story, “A Summer Affair” ( http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=20876 ) is also doing well with 6648 viewings so perhaps I need to concentrate my mind on my next writing venture!

OG's and KD's?

You may wonder what I am on about but there again you may wonder that most if not all of the time, so let me explain.

I took a glance at a thread that was running in a "military" Message Board to which I am associated but do not contribute too and was drawn to the subject matter "OG's and KD's". Now to the uninitiated these are abbreviations in the army for some items of clothing worn in either tropical or desert situations. OG's are Olive Greens and KD's are Khaki Drills which does not really adequately describe them. However, let me attempt to put this in context.

When I was posted to Cyprus I was issued with several sets of KD's, Cyprus not being a jungle area and in summer more akin to an arid desert in most places. This kit issued comprised two safari style jackets, two pairs of trousers and two pairs of shorts, if that's what you could call these knee length monstrosities we were expected to ear at all times during the day. We were also issued with some interesting items of leg wear called "hose tops". These were footless woollen stockings that we wore with over our socks and inside the tops of our army boots. You then topped this off with a pair of "puttees", not quite like those worn in WW1 but made of the same material.

I have to say that on the first day I put on my very new and very large KD uniform for Muster Parade, I and the others newly joining our unit, I felt very very foolish. The shorts were scraping along the tops of my knees, the puttees were like thick khaki bandages wrapped around my ankles and the KD jacket was so large and baggy that I looked like a scarecrow. There were undisguised sniggers from the majority of "old sweats" who had been wearing these items of uniform for much longer than us and all I wanted to do was get out of it!

Come the end of the day we had received much advice on what to do with our new uniforms, the main one being "get down to the tailors shop now" ! So off we went, there were three of us, to have some alterations. Advice was clear, lose at least 4" off the length of the shorts and to hell with the regulation that said shorts should be no shorter that 4" above the knee. Get the sleeves cut off and folded back into permanent "rolled up" look and at the same time get the various pleats and creases that needed ironing into place "stitched" in to place. Finally, the puttees, take a pair of scissors and cut off most of the length of the heavy woollen material and as much of the tape that was at one end and used to wrap around the outside of the puttee to hold it in place as was necessary to wrap about your ankle, once! Well, I was terrified once I had handed over my precious uniform to the Pakistani tailor who knew exactly what he had to do with out me having to explain. All he did was look at me, size me up and set of hacking my new kit to bits. Was I going to get noticed and told to go and get replacements at my own cost, would I end up on a charge? As it was this was unfounded as everyone from the Colonel down wore "tailored" KD's. So, it was from bag of rags to svelte and slim overnight and it was not until almost two and a half years that anyone paid any attention to our uniforms.

It was towards the end of the Cyprus spring, warm but not warm enough to wear shorts. We were still wearing "winter kit" of UK summer dress i.e. long trousers, Cotton shirts and on the evenings the occasional pullover and it came as a shock to us when our new Commander on the Island arrived and (as he was no doubt hot) declared it to be "Summer time" - This was the end of April and really quite fresh for us in the early mornings. Well we moaned and dug out our summer kits and shivering during roll call and then were dispatched to "Line the route" for the Outgoing and Incoming Generals.

The next day it became obvious that he was not happy with what he had seen and had ordered that everyone be dressed in Standard Issue Kit - The rumble of mutiny was in the air! But being good soldiers we duly found our spare sets of KD (the ones we used for Kit Inspection only) and set about wearing them in the correct manner. There was going to be a lot of laughs that first morning and at ALL levels.

One of our unit, Brummie Crawford, decided to take this order to its extremes and pressed his shorts to perfection with liberal does of starch applied in all the right places. He then took lengths of metal coat hangers and inserted these in the out leg of the shorts so that they looked like large wedge shaped plus fours. He then took the wire from his dress cap and placed this in his beret so that it was transformed into a large dark blue plate on his head at a 45 degree angle all this was this finished off with his full length puttees wrapped around his ankles like heavy gaiters. The measurements from knee to short was exactly 4" and the tops of his dark blue Hose Tops exactly 4" below his knee. Like this, he and rest of us all wearing as issued kit (but not to the elaborate extreme that Brummie had achieved with his) turned out on muster parade.

Now Ken Maule, our Sergeant Major at the time was of the old school. In his perfect uniform that was immaculate, we both feared and respected him and had no idea what to expect as he took his usual methodical and measured steps out from his office to inspect us and pass on any orders or the like each day. He stood gazing at us for some time, up and down the ranks back and forth from front rank to rear his stare was starting to unnerve us, there was no talking, movement or suppressed sniggers this particular morning. Suddenly, he mouth twitched underneath his little black moustache, he rocked on his heels, a bit like Mr McKay in "Porridge" on TV, "get out of my sight now" he shouted "get back to work"! We were stunned for a few seconds and then we let ourselves go in burst of laughter of relief. Needless to say, next day we were back in the old kit and never heard another word from anyone about our "short shorts" and tailored uniforms!

Sadly, I know NOTHING about OG's as I was never "up the jungle" .... but I am sure there were similar events for those who wore that kit at some stage or another.

Here are some photographs of the offending kit. Not only were we supposed to wear it for parades and work but we were expected to "fight" in it. Just look at some of the footage on Yourtube from Aden in the 1960's they had no body armour and wore the same uniform for parades! ADEN Here's a link! And other from Cyprus in 1956.. Soldiers in KD's chasing rioters. CYPRUS

Kit for soldiers today is far superior but often not superior enough..........................

Me in my KD's (Two of us turned up in Libya for attachment to an Infantry Regiment wearing this and were called "Tinsel Town Soldiers by their RSM, we got into more suitable attire very quickly)


Here is another in more a "casual" moment!
And here an example of how a real soldier should look... Den West!

An Open Letter to the American people

Dear "Uncle Sam"

I just wanted to write and remind you that those of your citizens who are seeking a boycott of all things British and Scottish should think again about what it is they are doing. America is the worlds only remaining "Super Power" which is a sad reality as this terrible legacy serves only to reinforce the belief in the people of America that they and the nation state are the only true font of all knowledge and righteousness in the world.

This is of course entirely untrue and a distortion that will lead only to isolation and even more hatred of the USA than exists already today. Yes dear people, you are possible the most hated nation in the world which is possible grossly unfair but sad to say sometimes, well deserved.

Let me explore some reasons why this has come about and how we of other nations often feel we could willingly strangle you all.

• You are not always right or indeed in the right!
• You ride roughshod over many "lesser nations" with a cavalier disregard for any national sensitivities. Often, as with Britain, these are nation states with over a 1000 years of history and tradition - Yours is only a little over 300 years ! (I am being unfair in omitting the early colonization periods)
• You certainly have little or no understanding of British history or tradition even to the extent that (mainly due to Hollywood) some even think that America was invaded by the Red Coats and that the War of Independence was the result and that only the USA won WW2.
• You steal inventions without an ounce of shame when the inventor was British but had to come to you for the cash, you conveniently forget the true inventor.
• Some of you threaten or even demand a trade embargo and you don't even understand that Scotland is a separate country in terms of Government, that Wales is not part of England and that Northern Ireland is a willing part of the United Kingdom. No, you call it all "England" don't you, I forgot that.

So while you complain about the release of Megrahi you should remember that the USA would and does do everything in its power to win International Contracts in the face of all other competition and is ruthless in that pursuit and has had many "Gaddafi" type friends in the world.

You complain about this Libyan terrorist being released early from prison yet you happily force a British government to sign up to a deal in Northern Ireland that saw the release of hundreds of convicted terrorist killers both IRA and Loyalist. What is the difference between Megrahi and the IRA bomber or the Loyalist gunman, Oh I know Megrahi is only a "rag head" - yes, we have heard your soldiers calling them that! Our IRA and Loyalist killers are lovely Irish people who have been cruelly imprisoned by the nasty English.

Remember this also. Today in Afghanistan British soldiers, that is Scottish, Welsh, English and Irish (from both sides of the border) in British Regiments and being killed and horribly wounded in support of a war that many here feel cannot be won and not perhaps even entered into in the first place.

If you boycott Britain and British goods then should Britain boycott the war in Afghanistan? Should we pull out from the hell that is Helmand and leave your super heroes to win it on their own? May be we should.

Now, why not get down off your high horses and remember that many of your Lockerbie investigators may have something to hide and as you love conspiracy theories so much look deeper into your own involvement in Lockerbie and ask yourselves why no one ever got prosecuted for the shooting down of the Iranian airliner by the USS Vincennes where the crew seemingly mistakenly identified the Iranian Airbus as a F16 Fighter apparently attacking. however, the Iranian government has maintained that the Vincennes knowingly shot down a civilian aircraft.

Dare I mention the word Hypocrisy?