British Military Current Events

[daftandbarmy]

'The Mole', Second World War POW tunnel digger, dies aged 95

A Second World War RAF navigator who was nicknamed 'The Mole' because of his persistent attempts to tunnel out of prison camps after being shot down over France, has died, aged 95.

By Richard Savill
Last Updated: 2:34PM BST 02 Oct 2008

Warrant Officer John Fancy, who acquired the reputation of being one of the most determined escapers the Germans had encountered, dug eight tunnels under camps in Poland, Lithuania and Germany.
He helped several comrades to escape, and dug himself to freedom on three occasions, only to be recaptured.
Despite harsh punishments, he never gave up and one of his prized possessions in later life was a 10 inch butter knife, issued to him by his German captors to eat meals, which he used to dig the tunnels. His efforts involved drawing elaborate plans and maps.
Mr Fancy spent nearly five years in prison camps after he was shot down over France on May 14, 1940. He and his crew had successfully bombed bridges over the Meuse, near Sedan, which were important to the advancing German army.
Summing up his war, he once said: "After four years, 10 months and four days I landed back in England after taking off on what should have been a four-hour trip."
After his final escape he and two other prisoners made their way to the shores of the Baltic in Lithuania and were out at sea in a stolen boat when they were seen and recaptured.
He was eventually released from his last camp in 1945 and became a market gardener, and was the author of two books about his exploits.
His daughter, Janet Fancy, 68, of Kingsbridge, Devon, who still has the butter knife, inscribed with the German eagle emblem, said: "He was wonderful, and above all else he was a doer.
"He dug at least eight very deep and long tunnels. It was hard work that required great skill and patience.
"After surviving a plane crash and five years of imprisonment the whole family rather felt he was indestructible. He will be greatly missed."
Mr Fancy, who died two weeks ago, was held in numerous camps, including the Stalag Luft VI in occupied Lithuania.
He married his sweetheart Elsie when war broke out, and heard she was expecting their first child in May 1940, the same day that his Blenheim bomber plane was shot down.
His daughter said: "He found out that mother was expecting me on that very day. She always said it was the fact that he knew he was going to be a father that gave him the strength to survive and the will to keep trying to escape."
Mr Fancy, a Yorkshireman, lived in Scarborough, but moved to Slapton, Devon, after his wife died 23 years ago. The village pubs in Slapton had seats reserved for him at the bar, one of which, The Tower Inn, has his portrait above.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/real_life/article1762785.ece

 

[Old Sweat]

According to this story in The Daily Telegraph, the Royal Navy is in dire financial straits. The Labour government pledged that the complement of destroyers would not fall below 25, but there are now only 22 in commission. (I am not all that good at the nuances of sailor speak, so I apologize for any slips here in advance.)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/3131155/Exclusive-Cash-strapped-Navy-cuts-destroyer-fleet.html?source=EMC-new_04102008

 

[daftandbarmy]

Speaking of dire straights... "You don't have to be crazy to work here, but it helps'


Armed forces facing 'explosion' of mental illness
Britain is facing an "explosion" of psychiatric disorders amongst serving and former members of the armed forces.

By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
Last Updated: 7:25PM BST 04 Oct 2008
The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that ex-servicemen's charities have seen a 53% increase in the number of veterans seeking help since 2005, a rate which threatens to "swamp" them within a few years.
The Ministry of Defence's own figures show that up to 2000 members of the armed services are being diagnosed every year with a psychiatric condition after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Former service personnel who fought in earlier campaigns stretching back to the Second World War are also coming forward for treatment after psychological problems have emerged years, sometimes decades, later.
Those problems include post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), manic depression, mood swings, and drug and alcohol dependency. It has also emerged that up to seven service personnel have committed suicide either during or after active duty in Iraq.
Details of the size of the problem were revealed by a senior MoD official speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official said: "We are facing an explosion of psychiatric problems not just from serving military personnel but also from those who served in campaigns dating all the way back to the Second World War. It is a huge problem and something which requires a cross-governmental solution."
The official's comments were supported by Combat Stress, the ex-services mental welfare charity, which has seen an increase in the number of referrals of veterans rise by 53 per cent since 2005.
In 2000, the charity saw just 300 new patients who had an average age of 70. So far this year, the charity has seen 1,160 veterans, with an average age of 43. Of those, 217 saw service in Iraq and 38 fought in Afghanistan. The youngest veteran being cared for by the charity is just 20.
Robert Marsh, the director of fund raising for Combat Stress, said his organisation was working at full capacity.
He said: "There is a strong possibility that we face being swamped by new veterans seeking our help. There has been a 53 per cent increase in the number of veterans seeking our help in just three years. Lord knows what we are going to be faced with in five or 10 years time. We need to develop more capacity for the future because we are already creaking."
The charity, which has three regional treatment centres in the UK - in Surrey, Shropshire and Ayrshire - has 8,490 ex-service personnel on its books of whom around 4000 are currently receiving treatment.
The charity is treating 246 veterans who fought in the Second World War; 57 who fought in Malaya; 128 who were based in Aden; and around 2000 who served in Northern Ireland.
But it is the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which are likely to produce the most psychiatric casualties over the next few years.
The Iraq War developed into a bitter insurgency in which dozens of soldiers were killed and hundreds were maimed by improvised explosive devices. The war in Afghanistan is now regarded as the bloodiest campaign since Korea.
The latest government figures available show that for the first nine months of 2007, more than 1500 servicemen and women who served in either Iraq or Afghanistan were diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder - a rate of 2000 a year. Personnel who are posted to Afghanistan are 14 times more likely to develop PTSD than those who do not deploy.
But the MoD's own analysis warns that its figures might be hiding the true extent of the problem because of the social stigma associated with mental illness.
Liam Fox, the Tory shadow defence secretary, said: "We are seeing an increasing number of veterans coming forward with mental health problems because of the stresses they faced in places like Northern Ireland and the first Gulf War - this was entirely predictable. But what is absolutely tragic is the fact that these same veterans have been abandoned to their fait by this government."
The military has gone to great lengths to diagnose psychiatric disorders amongst troops. Serving personnel have access to 15 community mental health centres across the country which provide psychiatric out-patient care. Those troops requiring in-patient care are treated at The Priory, which has centres across the UK. Troops also have access to in-service psychiatrists. Junior commanders are trained to recognize the symptoms of psychological trauma at an early stage.
A spokesman for the MoD, said: "Counselling is available to Service Personnel and troops receive pre and post deployment briefings to help recognise the signs of stress disorders. We recognise that operational deployments can be stressful experiences, so we offer individuals briefing prior to returning to their home base. 'Decompression periods' at the home base or in places such as Cyprus are in place for personnel to unwind mentally and physically and talk to colleagues about their experiences in theatre. The families of returning personnel are also offered presentations and leaflets about the possible after-affects of an operational deployment."
Last month it emerged that one in ten of the British prison population was a former member of the armed services. The revelation led to calls for greater welfare improvements for veterans.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/3136251/Armed-forces-facing-explosion-of-mental-illness.html

 

[daftandbarmy]

Less painful than shooting yourself in the foot...

Wot? No penal battalions?

Army 10 in drug swoop
By TOM NEWTON DUNN
Defence Editor
Published: 04 Oct 2008

TEN soldiers just back from the frontline face the boot for drug use.

The random swoop by military cops on the 1st Battalion the Royal Welsh led to the biggest bust in their history.
Senior officers — already facing a troops exodus — are probing whether the soldiers took narcotics to get caught on purpose.
It can take up to three years to be discharged but want-away squaddies are turning to drugs to get kicked out immediately.
Nine of the group — corporals or below — took cocaine and the tenth took cannabis.
The battalion was called into action in Afghanistan and Iraq before returning to its Chester base in August.
Some soldiers are sick of spending so much time away from their families.
An Army source said: “Popping a pill or doing a line of the coke is the easiest way to get out. More and more blokes are doing it.”

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/article1767365.ece

 

[daftandbarmy]

Relentless Taliban just keep coming

As their gruelling tour of duty in Afghanistan ends, men of 2 Para tell of relentless battles with an enemy that simply doesn’t know when he is outgunned

AS the Afghan sun set over the end-of-tour memorial service last Wednesday at British headquarters in Lashkar Gah, 32 names of the dead, aged between 19 and 52, were solemnly read out, including that of the first woman killed, Corporal Sarah Bryant. Almost every other name, it seemed, was from 2 Para.
The 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment lost more lives than any other section of 16 Air Assault Brigade — 11 in total, and five in one week in June — or one in 10 of the unit.
Over the past few days, as the paras flew back to Camp Bastion at the start of their journey home, the mood was sombre. “2 Para took the bulk of the casualties,” said Sergeant Andrew Lamont.

“I lost a few good friends I’ve known for 12 years. Others lost limbs. But when you’re out on the bases you just get on. If anything it encourages you to fight to the best of your ability. Only now, as we’re going home without them, is it really sinking in.”

The most recent victim was popular Lance-Corporal Nicky Mason, killed by a roadside bomb while on patrol keeping the Taliban away from the Kajaki dam. “It was a big shock to everybody,” said Lamont, who was just a few hundred yards away when he heard the blast. “When I got back to camp I actually had a cigarette, the first I’d smoked in 19 years.”

It was not supposed to be that way. Unlike 16 Air Assault Brigade’s first tour in Helmand two years ago, when the then defence secretary John Reid declared that he hoped not a single shot would be fired, they were well prepared this time.

They had almost twice as many men — 7,800 troops and four combat battalions, consisting of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions the Parachute Regiment and two battalions of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. Their commander, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, declared them “the best equipped force the British Army has ever sent”.
But the Taliban have also changed tactics, increasingly using improvised explosive devices (IEDs), hiring foreign fighters from Chechnya and Uzbekistan as well as from Pakistan, and even managing to lure defectors from the Afghan national army who had been trained by British and American forces by offering to double their £90-a-month combat pay.

Capitalising on an increasingly unpopular government in Kabul and growing anger at civilian casualties, the Taliban now present themselves as less hardline, promising if they return to power they will no longer ban kites or demand quite such long beards.

As he prepared to hand over to the marines, Carleton-Smith admitted that it had been “an intense summer”. But he insisted: “That intensity has been less a product of resurgent Taliban and more the result of a larger international military footprint. We’re controlling more, our perimeter is wider, more people are living in our enclaves.”
He said British forces had killed six senior or mid-level Taliban commanders and successfully transported a US-funded turbine to the Kajaki dam to prepare the way for a supply of electricity.

“We’ve taken the sting out of the Taliban for 2008,” he said. “As autumn turns to winter those who are foreign will return home and restore themselves and only reappear after the poppy harvest in May or June.”

The number of civilians caught in the crossfire has also been reduced. “We’ve dropped fewer bombs than on any of the previous missions,” said Carleton-Smith.
Yet, while the British claim 78% of the population lives in their zones, the governor of Helmand says half the province is under Taliban control and they are fighting in Nad Ali, less than 10 miles from brigade headquarters in Lashkar Gah.

Carleton-Smith acknowledges the preponderance of Taliban ringtones proclaiming “Death to the Invader” that are heard on the street, but dismisses them as “quite a good insurance policy to have on your phone”. He insists that “the very conventional battlefield of 2006 no longer applies”.
For those engaged in the fighting, it certainly seemed like war, particularly to the men of 2 Para who lost so many comrades.
Sergeant Phil Stout, 34, commander of one of C company’s three rifle platoons, lost five men from his 30-man unit, one to an IED and the others in firefights. Stationed at Forward Operating Base Gibraltar in the upper Gereshk valley, he had only been in theatre two weeks when two Royal Marines who were due to go home were killed on patrol. “That really brought home there’s a real threat out there,” he said.

The platoon’s first big contact was on June 12. “That day is marked in my head.” Two of his men, Lance-Corporal James Bateman and Private Jeff Doherty, were killed when ambushed by the Taliban while out on patrol. “The amount of firepower was phenomenal; they must have had their finger on the trigger the whole time.
“From then to the present day it never stopped,” said Stout. “We were getting contacts every day, some just pot-shots at the base, others much more. We always outnumber and outpower them with our weapons but they keep coming back. I reckon they’re crazy. Two of them would try to take on a company. That’s not good odds.”
The relentless attacks reduced the area in which British forces could operate. “When we arrived we could patrol up to the top of our operating area, 8-9km north, but by the end we couldn’t go more than 1-1Åkm,” Stout said.
The worst threat was from IEDs. “They’re very crude devices and we got good at identifying them, but it’s always in your head, ‘Am I going to lie on something or kneel on something and get blown up?’”
Conditions were basic. Food was usually 10-man ration packs, ammunition containers sufficed as chairs and tables, and the only washing facilities were solar showers. “It was so basic that I was really excited when we got a welfare pack from a teacher with wet wipes and toothbrushes,” he said.
When he started suffering from stomach pain, Stout blamed the way they were living and dosed himself with paracetamol. Then he collapsed and had to be “medi-vacced” back to the UK. His gall bladder was about to burst and he was lucky to have survived. Yet as soon as he had recovered he returned to Afghanistan, much to the horror of his wife.
With him at FOB Gibraltar was Corporal Scott Bourne, 26. “I knew it was always worse in summer than winter but thought it was ‘bigged up’ in the media before I came,” he laughed. His view changed when, on June 10, he narrowly escaped being blown up by a suicide bomber.
Two days later he was on patrol when there was an ambush by 30-40 Taliban. “After that it was every couple of days. By the end we could go less distance than at the beginning and we were just pushing, pushing, fighting Taliban off.”
Lamont, commander of one of 2 Para’s fire support groups, spent his entire tour based at Kajaki. “When we first arrived it was the poppy harvest, so fighting was low, but then the maize grew so they had more cover and fighting got more intense,” he said.
“If anything I’d say it’s getting worse. Taliban tactics are changing, using more IEDs, and they don’t back down.”
Lamont at first operated from a Wimik, an armed Land Rover, but near the end of the tour he was equipped with one of the new Jackals, a much better protected vehicle.
“It’s one of the best things the government has done for us,” he said. “It saved three of my boys’ lives.”
Two weeks ago they were on patrol when an IED blew up the vehicle behind him. “I heard this huge explosion and turned around thinking the worst,” he said. “All I could see was this massive wall of smoke. Then two guys started to walk towards me, the driver and the commander. The gunman had been thrown out. If we’d had the old vehicles we’d have lost all three guys.”
While getting the turbine to Kajaki was the high point of the tour, Carleton-Smith admits that the low point was sustaining so many casualties. In June Britain’s 100th soldier died in Afghanistan.
“Our casualty figures have been substantial but they have to be kept in context,” he says. “We may in the course of 2008 have in the region of 50 fatalities in Helmand, but in 1972 more than 100 British soldiers were killed in Northern Ireland, on our own streets.”
He insists that time is on the side of the Afghan government. “The young people want betterment of their lives. What the Taliban can’t do is deliver progress and development. As long as the international community can stay the course, over time the Afghan government capacity will grow.”
He argues that the international community should aim not for victory over the Taliban but to reduce the insurgency to a level that can be contained by the new Afghan army.
“If we reduce our expectations then I think realistically in the next three to five years we will be handing over tactical military responsibility to the Afghan army and in the next 10 years the bulk of responsibility for combating insurgency will be with them.”
Flying out through the dustbowl that is Camp Bastion, and watching all the building going on below, it seems the British Army is digging itself in for a very long campaign.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4882417.ece

 

[daftandbarmy]

Armed forces bosses spend £230 million on hotels and dining

Armed forces bosses spent £230 million on hotels and dining - 13 times more than was spent on upgrading dilapidated living quarters for soldiers.

By Graham Tibbetts
Last Updated: 2:55PM BST 06 Oct 2008
Latest figures available, for the year 2006/07, show that £16 million was spent on improving accommodation for servicemen and women.
The discrepancy was condemned by campaigners fighting for better conditions for troops.
Rose Gentle, whose son Gordon, 19, was killed in Iraq in 2004, said: "How dare they spend so much money on themselves when our troops are living in damp, draughty and disgusting conditions?
"I know soldiers' mothers who are having to send their sons money for food so they can eat properly. Then you have a bunch of civil servants living it up in restaurants and hotels on taxpayers' money."
Julie McCarthy, of the Army Families Federation, added: "Accommodation was, and still is, sub-standard and this shows that no one took the situation seriously. There have been no great improvements since last year but hopefully this will move accommodation to the top of the agenda."
Last year 19,000 homes out 70,000 married quarters and 165,000 single quarters were in disrepair.
Civil servants and senior military figures travel first class on trains, business class on flights and enjoy private taxis and wine with dinner.
More than £2.3billion was spent on refurbishing the Ministry of Defence's Whitehall headquarters.
An MoD spokesman defended the hotel and meal bill and said investment in military accommodation was increasing.
She added: "All travel and hotel expenditure is subject to strict guidelines to ensure value for money.
"It is also essential to invest in defence relations with key allies through international, senior level meetings."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/3144265/Armed-forces-bosses-spend-230-million-on-hotels-and-dining.html

 

[Blackadder1916]

Pair ‘conspired to steal explosives’
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/874811?UserKey=

Scottish soldiers took army munitions to pass on to the criminal underworld, court told
By Elizabeth Barrett  Published: 07/10/2008

Two Scottish soldiers conspired to steal explosives from an Army barracks to pass on to the criminal underworld, a court heard yesterday.

The pair, referred to only as soldier X and soldier Y, were serving members of 5th Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders), stationed at Howe Barracks in Canterbury, Kent.

Their alleged illegal activities were uncovered by Scottish police officers on New Year’s Eve last year, Maidstone Crown Court heard.

Soldier X and soldier Y both deny two charges of conspiracy to possess and steal explosives.

They also deny a third charge of conspiracy to dishonestly undertake or assist in the retention, removal, disposal or realisation of stolen goods.

The explosives at the centre of the charges include detonators, flares, smoke grenades, distraction grenades and other munitions belonging to the Army.

Two other men – soldier A, who is a former serviceman with 5 Scots, and soldier B, of 5 Scots – pleaded guilty in June to conspiring to possess explosives and conspiring to dishonestly undertake or assist in the retention, removal, disposal or realisation of stolen goods.

They denied conspiring to steal explosives.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between October 31, 2007, and February 16 this year, while they were stationed in Canterbury.

Yesterday, judge Sir Robert Akenhead ruled, despite representations from the press, that the identities of the men involved in the trial could not be made public on the grounds of their own safety in custody.

Opening the case for the Crown, prosecutor Anthony Prosser told the jury that officers had carried out a drug raid at soldier A’s Glasgow flat on December 31 last year.

He was found hiding in the premises holding a shoebox containing £6,000.

Alongside 2kg or about 4.4lb of heroin, police discovered a black suitcase in a hall cupboard containing pyrotechnics, smoke grenades, parachute flares, rocket flares, 742 12-bore shotgun cartridges and hundreds of different-sized bullets, the court heard.

Officers found a British Army identification card in a wallet belonging to soldier Y, a long-time friend of soldier A, the jury was told.

DNA found on some of the explosives was traced to soldier B, also stationed at Howe Barracks in Kent.

A forensic search of the flat and soldier A’s vehicle revealed further traces of the compound RDX, an active component of military plastic explosives.

Strathclyde and Kent Police launched a cross-border investigation that led to the arrest of the four men on February 15. In a statement to police, soldier X claimed he had placed the explosives in his locker for safekeeping before going on leave, but denied taking them.

The trial continues.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Commander: Rescue of paratroopers from minefield 'delayed by red tape'

The battle group commander of a British paratrooper killed by a mine strike in Afghanistan has told how he was hampered by red tape as he fought to save his men.

By Aislinn Simpson
Last Updated: 5:40PM BST 08 Oct 2008


Colonel Stuart Tootal said he tried to send a US Black Hawk helicopter to rescue Corporal Mark Wright and his wounded colleagues but it was delayed by three and a half hours because he had to wait for clearance "at Nato level".
He told an inquest into Cpl Wright's death that he was forced instead to send a British Chinook which had no winch to lift the men to safety. The Chinook detonated the mine that killed Cpl Wright as it hovered helplessly overhead.
The 27-year-old, from Edinburgh, was posthumously awarded the George Cross for his brave efforts to provide first aid to wounded colleagues and keep up morale during the long wait for rescue.
He died onboard the US helicopter that eventually arrived with a winch while three of his comrades lost legs and a further three soldiers were injured in the tragedy.
Shortly after returning from Afghanistan, Col Tootal, the high-flying commander of 3 Para who was in line to be made a general, quit the Army, citing frustrations about lack of equipment, poor pay and conditions for his men and their families, and "shocking" treatment of the wounded.
He said in an interview shortly afterwards that a shortage of helicopters meant he often had to leave rescue missions to the last minute based on an estimation of how long an injured serviceman had to live.
Col Tootal had just seven Chinooks for his 1,200-strong battle group in a theatre where it was highly risky to move by road because of bombs.
"The lack of helicopters meant I had to make some very hard decisions," he said.
Andrew Walker, the assistant deputy coroner for Oxfordshire, asked him: "It's obvious, isn't it, to those preparing for operations in this type of terrain, that a rescue helicopter should have a winch?"
"I would agree with that, sir," said Col Tootal.
Col Tootal said the death of Cpl Wright came on the "day of days", on September 6, 2006, when he lost three men and had 18 injured in three separate incidents in Helmand Province, in southern Afghanistan.
After the first mine exploded, Col Tootal sent a request out for a Black Hawk helicopter but was told there was none available.
He eventually sent the Chinook despite knowing the potential risks of further mine strikes because, he said, at the time he had no alternative.
"We knew Corporal (Stuart) Hale had been badly injured and casualty evacuation was an absolute necessity," he said.
"We kept on saying 'we need a Black Hawk, we need a Black Hawk'."
When the twin-rotor Chinook arrived at the scene another member of Cpl Wright's patrol, Corporal Stuart Pearson, had had his leg blown off.
As the helicopter tried to land, the soldiers - concerned at the effect of the downdraft - made it clear they wanted it to leave.
Col Tootal said: "As it took off and flew away, there was a third mine detonation which tragically was the one which caused the fatal injuries to Mark Wright."
The Ministry of Defence has suggested that Cpl Wright had detonated the mine by moving.
But Col Tootall said that the injury pattern on Cpl Wright's body showed he had not triggered the mine himself.
"I think there is definitely a causal link to the helicopter and the detonation," he said.
Col Tootal also spoke at his frustration over the constant questioning of his need for a helicopter which, he said, contributed to the delay and subsequent casualty toll.
“I didn’t expect, as a battle group commander, for people to question my judgement in the way they did on September 6,” he said.
“If a British force had had the helicopter, they could have made it readily available in the time frame that I wanted it.
“Had we got the (winch) helicopter when we wanted it, I’m strongly of the belief we would be dealing with one casualty - Cpl Hale - and we would not have got into the subsequent events.”
The inquest continues.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/3159787/Commander-Rescue-of-paratroopers-from-minefield-delayed-by-red-tape.html

 

[Blackadder1916]

Armed forces personnel details go missing
http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKTRE49922F20081010
Reuters Fri Oct 10, 2008 10:35am BST
 
LONDON (Reuters) - The Ministry of Defence said on Friday it was investigating the loss of a portable hard drive used for storing personal information of armed forces staff.

The drive contained the private details of 100,000 Army, Navy and Royal Air Force personnel -- around half the armed forces -- the Sun said.

The drive includes passport numbers, addresses, dates of birth, driving licence details, and names and contact numbers for doctors and dentist, the paper said.

The information also included data on 600,000 potential recruits and their references, it reported.

The MoD said IT contractor EDS had told it on Wednesday that the hard drive could not be found.

The loss came to light after EDS conducted an audit of its data handling procedures to comply with new government guidelines brought in after details of 25 million child benefit claimants were lost by the Revenue and Customs department.

In July, the government said 747 laptops had been stolen or lost from the MoD in the last four years and only 32 had been recovered.

The loss is likely to prompt further calls for the government to end plans to bring in national identity cards.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have argued that a series of high profile information losses show the government cannot be trusted with personal data.

(Reporting by Tim Castle)

 

[daftandbarmy]

Armed forces personnel details go missing
http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKTRE49922F20081010
Reuters Fri Oct 10, 2008 10:35am BST
 
LONDON (Reuters) - The Ministry of Defence said on Friday it was investigating the loss of a portable hard drive used for storing personal information of armed forces staff.

The drive contained the private details of 100,000 Army, Navy and Royal Air Force personnel -- around half the armed forces -- the Sun said.

The drive includes passport numbers, addresses, dates of birth, driving licence details, and names and contact numbers for doctors and dentist, the paper said.

The information also included data on 600,000 potential recruits and their references, it reported.

The MoD said IT contractor EDS had told it on Wednesday that the hard drive could not be found.

The loss came to light after EDS conducted an audit of its data handling procedures to comply with new government guidelines brought in after details of 25 million child benefit claimants were lost by the Revenue and Customs department.

In July, the government said 747 laptops had been stolen or lost from the MoD in the last four years and only 32 had been recovered.

The loss is likely to prompt further calls for the government to end plans to bring in national identity cards.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have argued that a series of high profile information losses show the government cannot be trusted with personal data.

(Reporting by Tim Castle)

This feels like Groundhog Day. Hasn't this happened to them a couple of times before this, recently?

 

[OldSolduer]

Not just there. Here too in Manitoba, two laptops belonging to the Justice Department were stolen.

 

[daftandbarmy]

I bet they'll get this right soon after making sure a suitable number of 'visible minorities' are serving in the Guards Divsion.... like never

Army's top general makes history by addressing conference on homosexuality
The head of the British Army has made military history by addressing a conference on homosexuality, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/3179261/Armys-top-general-makes-history-by-addressing-conference-on-homosexuality.html

By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondents
Last Updated: 1:31AM BST 12 Oct 2008

Gen Sir Richard said that respect for gays, lesbian, bi-sexual and trans-sexual officers and soldiers was now 'a command responsibility' for the Army Photo: GETTY
General Sir Richard Dannatt, the chief of the general staff, told members of the Army-sponsored Fourth Joint Conference on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transexual Matters that homosexuals were welcome to serve in the Army.
In a speech to the conference in London on Thursday, – the first of its kind by any Army chief – Gen Sir Richard said that respect for gays, lesbian, bi-sexual and trans-sexual officers and soldiers was now "a command responsibility" and was vital for "operational effectiveness".
In the speech, he said: "We have made real progress in our understanding of equality and diversity in the military context, and there is a desire to achieve more yet. My recent Equality and Diversity Directive for the Army sets the standard that we must live by, and, importantly, it communicates that standard to everyone in the chain of command.
"Respect for Others", one of the Army's core values, is at the heart of this directive.

 

[Blackadder1916]

. . .  respect for gays, lesbian, bi-sexual and trans-sexual officers and soldiers was now 'a command responsibility'
. . . were welcome to serve in the Army.

Isn't that what the major in the Paras was doing?  Exercising his "command responsibility" and "welcoming" someone of the same sex.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Isn't that what the major in the Paras was doing?  Exercising his "command responsibility" and "welcoming" someone of the same sex.

It was probably a renactment of his last battle where they took the enemy from behind.

 

[Old Sweat]

Maybe it's a bum rap.

 

[geo]

The fella dropped his bar of soap while being followed (a little too closely) from behind .....
and when he bent over to pick the bar up.....WHOA!  Crowbar!!!

 

[Blackadder1916]

Armed forces thank a town for caring
http://news.scotsman.com/uk/Armed-forces-thank-a-town.4583956.jp

By Aleisha Scott The Scotsman Published Date: 13 October 2008

MEMBERS of the armed forces yesterday paraded through a small town to thank residents for honouring dead British service personnel.

Since April 2007, Wootton Bassett locals have lined the streets more than 100 times as funeral corteges drive through the town, near RAF Lyneham.

The base is where the bodies of servicemen and women are repatriated after deaths in Afghanistan or Iraq.

Thanking Wootton Bassett for its show of respect, the head of the British Army, Sir Richard Dannatt, said in a letter: "In many respects, it is the things that cost nothing that are the ones that are the most important – a friendly greeting in the street, a prayer in church. But the gestures shown by the people of Wootton Bassett surpass these at every level."

 

[geo]

BZ to the people of Wootton Bassett for doing the right thing at the right time.

(just a darned shame that the people on the roadway beyond often impede the movement of the fallen.)

 

[daftandbarmy]

British soldier faces court martial friendly fire deaths - Telegraph


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/3183824/British-soldier-faces-court-martial-friendly-fire-deaths.html

 

[daftandbarmy]

Moral of the story: War sucks...

Military chiefs told to 'hang heads in shame' over paratrooper Cpl Mark Wright's death

British military chiefs should "hang their heads in shame" for a catalogue of failings which led to the death of paratrooper Corporal Mark Wright in a minefield in Afghanistan, a coroner said.

Coroner Andrew Walker ruled that the explosion which killed 27-year-old paratrooper Cpl Wright was caused by the "downwash" from a Chinook helicopter which had been sent to rescue a platoon of soldiers stranded in an unmarked minefield in the Kajaki area of Afghanistan's Helmand Province.
Recording a narrative verdict at the end of a two-week inquest at Oxford Coroner's Court, he said that Cpl Wright's death could have been avoided but for a lack of equipment. He also criticised the availability of British helicopters in Afghanistan, an administrative delay and training methods.
Cpl Wright, from 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, was marooned with a group of comrades in the minefield on September 6 2006 after going to the rescue of a sniper who had earlier been injured by a mine after straying into the unmarked danger zone.

The disastrous operation, which has become one of the moist notorious incidents of the British mission to Helmand, left six other soldiers injured, including three who lost limbs.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/onthefrontline/3216428/Military-chiefs-told-to-hang-heads-in-shame-over-paratrooper-Cpl-Mark-Wrights-death.html