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ARMY TOP BRASS NEVER GETS TO HEAR THE TRUTH

JUST NOT DONE: Of course you won't hear any whining from the troops

Friday November 14,2008

By Frederick Forsyth

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THE Chief of Defence Staff Sir Jock Stirrup told us all a few days ago that he has been to Helmand, asked the lads about their equipment, and their “overwhelming” view is that their kit is very good.

Oh dear, oh dear. Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock is not a bad egg, as eggs go, but he has had gold braid on his cap so long he has forgotten the first rule of military service. Never, under any circumstances, tell a senior officer what he does not want to hear.

If you have two pips on your shoulder and a general asks: “Everything all right, lieutenant?” to reply: “Thank you for asking sir. Actually the food’s awful, the equipment is garbage, the mission’s impossible and the general staff is a bunch of four-eyed gits” can be a very career-shortening experience.

All he wants to hear is that everything is absolutely top hole, so he can be wafted back to his limousine in a fragrant cloud of aides-de-camp.

For the record, special forces veteran Brigadier Ed Butler has left; so has Three Para Commander Col Stuart Tootal and so has the CO of 23 SAS in Afghanistan, Major Seb Morley. Major Will Pike, formerly a company commander in Three Para who walked last year, has published a book to explain why.

Actually sir the food’s awful, the equipment is garbage, the mission’s impossible and the general staff is a bunch of four-eyed gits.

Now these men do not whinge and whine because the going gets tough or someone in a turban shoots at them. They are men whose battle scars ought to win them a hearing, even from Armed Forces-loathing Gordon Brown.

If Sir Jock really wants to help he could go back to Kandahar and join our winged wonders there flying their unsafe aircraft – or get them some safe ones. He could join the squaddies driving our cardboard scout cars – or get them some armoured ones.

Or he could spend several hours under fire yelling helplessly into the mouthpiece of a non-functioning Clansman radio – or get them some new ones that work. (The Clansman might as well have been field-tested at Bannockburn and was useless in Kosovo in 1999.)

What he should not do is sit in a warm TV studio in London telling us that everything is spiffingly toodle pip while the hardest and most stoical warriors we have are resigning in shedloads because they can’t take any more.

THE TRUTH NEEDS TO HAMMERED HOME !!!

19.11.08, 12:21pm

Having had the pleasure and privilidge of meeting Mr Forsythe, may i state most sincerely that he has hit the nail on the head dead centre ! (A place were i'd love to fire a Challenger 120mm armour piercing round on Pa Broon !!) As an ex-member of the Army who only had to endure Northern Ireland , may i suggest to Mr Forsythe that a major campaign is launched via the Express, in order to bring home to the those in Puzzle Palace, ( MOD main building, Whitehall) and Malfunction Junction, (10 Downing Street) the true picture of depravation that the our lads and girls suffer on the front line !
Suggest a military version of "i'm a celebrity", by dropping all said persons of power, into the deserts of Iraq and mountains of Helmond Province with next to no equipment and tell them to fend for themselves !! They then might take a hint !!

• Posted by: Kells95e • Report Comment

ARMY

19.11.08, 9:03am

you hit the nail on the head as usual - he should really go in without the camers and without the braid - just in ordinary camoflage and see what results he gets then - or perhaps he should go into battle with them in their so called safe land rovers etc. he may learn the truth then - I prefer to listen to the commanders who have left. They can tell the truth.

• Posted by: SRM • Report Comment

ARMY TOP BRASS

19.11.08, 4:41am

Never a truer word said...you took the words right out of my mouth Mr Forsyth. Irecall such a question being asked by Prince Charles in 1979 Crossmaglen in Northern Ireland....my Sgt/Major gave me a rollockin for telling the truth instead of saying what I was asked to say when approached by the prince in the Welsh Guards uniform who is CiC of this regiment.
My mates laughed their heads off once the prince had left the outpost.

• Posted by: Le_Baron • Report Comment

REMINDS ME YEARS AGO WHEN WE SERVED IN NORTHERN IRELAND...

18.11.08, 12:32pm

...Mr Mason and his wife flew over on a fact finding tour. I belonged to the Wives Club and was invited to meet her at the C.O.'s house. She had tea with the Officers wives, then accompanied by the C.O.'s wife made her way down our row shaking hands and asking if everything was all right, before moving on before anyone said a word, until she got to me! She shook my hand with the usual polite chat and went to move on when I said 'Well, no actually, everythingis not all right' Everything went quiet, and she turned back, I said, our metal windows are running with water, there is damp everywhere, they have blocked our chimneys and we can't afford to run the Industrial storage heaters that they have put into the quarters, we bring the matresses down and all sleep in the dining room where we have one electric fire because it is so cold upstairs'. She said,'I have to continue, but may I come back to you?' I said 'Please do' A little later she returned and sat down, 'she said 'I have seen the quarters this morning, they are very nice' I said 'You saw only those that had been painted for your visit, the others are not fit for animals to live in. Our Police who are on shifts have rats running under the partitions of their accomodation, they cannot sleep off nights because of the noise of other lads coming and going, there is no privacy.' Give her her due, within 6 months, the quarters had been improved and a new Police Block had been built. I didn't get invited to Stormont Castle though ha ha ha

• Posted by: Disgruntled • Report Comment

ARMY TOP BRASS NEVER GETS TO HEAR THE TRUTH

15.11.08, 1:17pm

The real agenda needs to be addressed here. The troops are being maintained in a nightmare scenario to force their resignations. Brown, and Bliar before him, and I suspect Cameron, are Gauleiters. Such people want a military that has sworn its oath to the Corrupt and anti-democratic and despotic and unelected corporate dictatorship known to us as the EU.

Make no mistake this is a real strategy, and it is working. Traitor Browns orders from his bankster bosses require that Britain be forced "by any means into the EU". The illegitimate and discredited EU wants it own version of The US military. All sworn to serve and protect.....yes, the anti-democratic corporate dictatorship itself. The malignant EU.

God bless the Irish. And thank you to the Irish government for not tricking your folk out of their right to a referendum, as has our treasonous government.

Lisbon is dead.

Next the EU.

Better off out.

• Posted by: blam • Report Comment

HOME COMFORTS?

14.11.08, 6:54pm

Apparently a group of civil servants were 'in country' recently and when shown to their mode of transport - snatch land rovers - point blank refused to ride in them.
What a shower of wusses. They're ok for the poor **** squaddies.

• Posted by: wiggins • Report Comment