British Military Current Events

[CougarKing]

So he's lasted this long? I thought he was on his way out a month ago last I heard from all those cabinet ministers resigning?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090711/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_afghanistan

British prime minister defends Afghan mission
By DANICA KIRKA, Associated Press Writer Danica Kirka, Associated Press Writer 44 mins ago

LONDON – The deaths of eight British soldiers in Afghanistan within 24 hours triggered a debate in Britain on Saturday that could undercut public support for the war just as the U.S. is ramping up its own participation in the conflict.

With pictures of hearses and anguished relatives splashed across Britain's influential media, the government is under pressure to explain the reason for the soldiers' sacrifice and to defend the quality of its support for combat troops.

The deaths, on Thursday and Friday, pushed Britain's overall toll in Afghanistan to 184 — five more than the total British deaths in the Iraq war. The number is less than a third of the 657 American forces' deaths since the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, according to U.S. figures.

But to a country that has not suffered significant casualties in years, the images of flag-draped British coffins are haunting.

Increasing British unease could have severe consequences for the Americans. With other European nations unwilling to send in more troops — and Afghan forces not ready to take up overall security — Britain's support is crucial to any American effort.

The high number of recent battle deaths has brought into focus the problems and inconsistencies of a war that started with a limited objective — find Osama bin Laden and defend Britain from terrorism — but which has now embraced broader goals.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended his country's course Saturday after the spike in combat deaths. In a letter to a senior parliamentary committee, he said that despite recent casualties, commanders in Afghanistan believed that they were succeeding in their objectives.

"This is a fight to clear terrorist networks from Afghanistan and Pakistan, to support the elected governments in both countries against the Taliban, to tackle the heroin trade which funds terrorism and the insurgency, and to build longer term stability," he wrote.

Britain moved into Afghanistan with the United States shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks as part of a coalition hoping to root out terrorism and build a stable government able to extinguish the Taliban.

President Barack Obama has said he wants to make Afghanistan — not Iraq — the main focus of the war against Islamic extremism and has ordered 21,000 additional U.S. troops there this year. There are about 57,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan and the number is expected to rise to at least 68,000 by the end of this year.

Obama said Saturday the British contribution to the war was critical.

"This is not an American mission," Obama told Sky News, noting European nations also have a great stake in its success. "The likelihood of a terrorist attack in London is at least as high, if not higher, than it is in the United States. And that's the reason why (former Prime Minister) Tony Blair, and now Gordon Brown, have made this commitment. It is not because they wish to put their young men and women in harm's way."

Britain's 8,000 troops are fighting in southern Helmand province with thousands of U.S. Marines in a major offensive intended to disrupt Taliban insurgents and cut their supply lines to Pakistan before Afghan elections planned for next month.

Much of the debate in Britain has focused on whether its troops are properly equipped to defend themselves, particularly whether they have enough helicopters and if Viking armored vehicles are effective.

Opposition Conservative Party leader David Cameron said the forces operating in Afghanistan need more helicopters and that it is a "scandal" they lack such equipment. Helicopters would allow the forces to avoid roadside bomb attacks like the one that killed Lt. Col. Rupert Thorneloe, the most senior British Army officer to die in combat since the 1982 Falkands War.

And opposition Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg shook the cross-party consensus on the mission in an opinion piece Friday in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper. Clegg said he now wondered whether the British were "giving our troops the means to do their difficult job."

Britain is fighting in an area where there are few civilians, making it simpler for the militants to plant roadside bombs without fear of killing civilians. That contrasts with the Americans, who have had success in the fairly well populated Garmser region, where people can inform troops about militants in the area and where bombs have been planted.

The Americans, with strong air support, have an advantage, wrote veteran foreign correspondent Jason Burke, who has written extensively about Afghanistan and terrorism.

"A lot has been made of the Taliban's increasing use of 'asymmetric tactics,' such as booby traps, roadside bombs or suicide attacks," Burke wrote in an analysis for The Guardian newspaper. "A few hours on an operation with American troops, supported by attack helicopters, jets and unmanned heavily armed drones, makes it clear why: if the insurgents do not stay out of the way, they will be killed, as many thousands have been.

"But once coalition troops establish a presence, they become vulnerable. They need supplies, they need to patrol; they are perfect targets for the hit and run tactics of the Taliban. Those tactics have been particularly honed in ambushes."

Britain has had a difficult history in Afghanistan, having fought two wars there in the 19th century to protect British interests in India. Afghans still view Britain's intentions in their country with deep suspicion — more so than the Americans and other coalition members.

In November, an ICM poll conducted for the BBC asked if Britain should withdraw its troops from Afghanistan within the following 12 months. Of the 1,013 adults questioned, 68 percent said yes and less than a quarter, 24 percent, said they should stay. No margin of error was given.

Anti-war protesters have already called for a protest at the prime minister's Downing Street office on Monday. They are calling on him to bring troops home now.

 

 

[daftandbarmy]

Tribute to five soldiers killed in ambush in northern Helmand


Five close friends and comrades-in-arms from the same platoon died in the huge explosion that hit a foot patrol from the 2nd Battalion The Rifles in Afghanistan on Friday.

With five others suffering critical injuries, 9 Platoon, C Company 2 Rifles, which consisted of 30 men before it set off before dawn for a patrol near Sangin in northern Helmand, has been in effect wiped out.

One of the platoon’s leaders, an experienced non-commissioned officer who would have held the unit together, was among the five who died. The four others were riflemen, mostly teenagers who were only just old enough to be sent to Afghanistan — they have to be 18 to fight.

The roll-call of fatalities from the worst 24 hours suffered by the Army since the operation in Afghanistan began — eight killed between July 9 and 10 — underlined the loss felt by the whole British Task Force in Helmand: Corporal Jonathan Horne, 28, Rifleman William Aldridge, 18, Rifleman James Backhouse, 18, Rifleman Joseph Murphy, 18, and Rifleman Daniel Simpson, 20.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6695269.ece

 

[CougarKing]

Army chief wades into row over forces
4:00AM Friday Jul 17, 2009

- The row in London over the shortage of troops and helicopters for the British force in Afghanistan intensified yesterday with the head of the Army saying that more "boots on the ground" were needed.

Ministers were also embarrassed by the disclosure that General Sir Richard Dannatt was travelling in a United States Black Hawk helicopter on his valedictory battlefield tour before stepping down.

"Self-evidently," he said, "if I move in an American helicopter it is because I have not got a British helicopter."

Asked whether criticisms of the Government were justified, Dannatt said: "I don't want to go into whether the Conservatives are right or not ... But our mobility is a key enabler and I know the commanders need a lot of that."

Dannatt stressed: "I don't mind whether these feet in those boots are British, American or Afghan. But we need more to have the persistent effect to give the people confidence in us."

Defence sources pointed out that Nato helicopters are pooled and thus Dannatt was not short of an aircraft, even if a British one was not available.


The General acknowledged: "We share the assets, but we have got to put as much into the pool as we take out."

He said supplying equipment to Britain's 9100-strong force "has probably not moved as fast as I would have liked it to have moved, but we are increasing the numbers".

In angry exchanges in the Commons, Tory leader David Cameron doubted whether the Government had a "relentless commitment" to boosting helicopters. Gordon Brown said: "It is not the absence of helicopters that has cost the loss of lives."

General Sir Danatt's being forced to ride a US Blackhawk on his last tour in Afghanistan before his retirement again highlights the severity of the UK MoD's helo shortage in Afghanistan, as mentioned before.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/artic...jectid=10584987

 

[CougarKing]

Another RAF update:

Tornado provides sole UK fast-air support to ISAF operations

The UK's Joint Force Harrier (JFH) GR.9 aircraft returned to the UK from Afghanistan in early July, leaving the Royal Air Force's (RAF's) manned fixed-wing close air support (CAS) contribution to coalition forces in Afghanistan resting on the Panavia Tornado GR.4 strike aircraft. A UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesperson told Jane's that, with the necessary infrastructure at Kandahar Airfield now in place, GR.4s from 12 (Bomber) Squadron were deployed to Afghanistan in June and, after a period of joint operations with the Harrier force, took over sole responsibility for the RAF's fast jet support on 24 June

[first posted to http://idr.janes.com - 07 July 2009]

 

[daftandbarmy]

Henry Allingham, British Veteran of World War I, Dies at 113

LONDON — Henry Allingham, one of Britain’s last three surviving veterans of World War I, died on Saturday at a nursing home in the south coast town of Brighton, staff at the home said. Age 113, he was officially recognized as Britain’s oldest man.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/world/europe/19allingham.html?hpw

 

[daftandbarmy]

A soldier's tale

This picture is, for me, one of the most haunting images of the Afghanistan war – Sally Thorneloe at her husband’s funeral last week.  Lt Col Rupert Thorneloe, who was killed by a Taleban roadside bomb three weeks ago, told me about her when we were on a trip to Iraq last summer. It’s weird, he said, he felt he saw her less working in London than he did on deployment. That day we left for the trip, he had arrived home at 2.30am – and left at 7am. Sally had seen him off. “Did you work as late as he did last night?” she asked the special adviser who had dropped by Rupert’s house to pick him up. But no-one worked like Rupert: 7am to 10pm every day. Then, he was military attaché to Des Browne- a bureaucratic job, but he approached it as if he were fighting on the frontline. I write about him in the News of the World today.
I took plenty notes on that trip. There wasn’t much news, but as there were just six of us – with me the only journalist - it was an invaluable chance to watch, at close quarters, how things were done. I sat in on some of Browne’s briefings, and in others I’d wait outside. For various reasons, I spent some time with Rupert. We shared a room in Kandahar, and while he was never going to tell me anything sensitive – nor would I ask – I learned plenty from him about the military and the battle.
It struck me as rather odd that a soldier like Rupert would throw his heart and soul into a job where the main weapon was a highlighter pen. I asked him about this, and he put me straight. Wars, he said, are lost when the people making the decisions in London have only a foggy understanding about the mission in the field. Such job rotation is crucial, and is partly why the British Army works so well. A soldier will know, in a way no career bureaucrat can, about the value of the flak jackets and other items he’s being asked to approve. And when that soldier heads back to the frontline, he will know the way the Ministry of Defence thinks.
Rupert worked those 75-hour weeks because he saw it as being important as being in theatre. He had the chance to sift through everything that came into the MoD, then point out to Browne what was important and what needed action. Rather than a chore, he saw it as an immense honour and told me that the hours were “the price you pay for working at the very top”. His next assignment, he told me, was to lead his men in Afghanistan and that was “the light at the end of the tunnel”. To a coward like me, this sounded odd: I’d take the safe desk job anytime. But as Sally Thorneloe said at his funeral, he was a born soldier. He felt that being with his men, leading front the front, was where he belonged.
Rupert’s role as MA was to bridge the gap beween civil and military explaining to a politician (Browne) what mattered. It is becoming horribly clear that more broadly, this gap is growing – to the extent where it sometimes seems that the two sides don’t understand each other. I have heard civil servants complain that the military speaks in a language of acronyms and can’t make a case beyond ‘give us more troops’. Just last week, I told a general how the Treasury say the cost-benefit case for 2,000 troops not made. He replied by flicking up V sign at Treasury’s direction (itself quite a feat – we were about a mile away from it) and saying that the military only asks if it bloody well needs. You can, perhaps, call it a Mars and Venus thing. But there a cultural chasm is opening up.  Dannatt is protesting as he is because he feels other methods have failed him. I sympathise with his cause, but not his methods: you can’t have the military attacking the government. But nor can you have the government abusing the military’s ability to take pain quietly. The relationship is in a bad way.
Part of this is generational. Too few MPs have any experience of the military, which is perhaps the inevitable result of 64 years of peace. Gone are the days when people like Dennis Healey would address the Labour Party conference in army uniform. Now, party confernces can pass with scarcely a mention of the war. To talk to the MPs, and many civil servants, it’s as if we’re not at war. We have a huge monument to the Bali nightclub bomb victims in Westminster, for example, right next to the Treasury.  But nothing for those who have fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s seems like no one really wants to admit it.
This chasm is very keenly perceived by the Taleban. They know they can’t defeat us in the field, but they also know the soldiers are controlled by politicians who are very different beasts. They think British political consensus will not tolerate casualties, that the West now lack the attention span to achieve anything serious. Fundamentally, they believe the West has no stomach for fighting. That the British soldiers may put everything into the war, but those back at home will not.
Rupert did. He worked as if it were a mission, not just a job. Last month he saw Tom Coghlan from The Times and told him that, ultimately, the Taleban’s only option was to outlast us. The Taleban are betting that those in London don't have the energy or resolve that Rupert showed - on and off the battlefield. He didn't just die for his country, but lived for it too.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/5194863/a-soldiers-tale.thtml

 

[daftandbarmy]

Another RAF update:

Here's an article about their work up training. Tornados on CAS... good luck with that!

http://www.air-attack.com/news/article/3538/RAF-Tornado-crews-train-for-Afghanistan.html

 

[daftandbarmy]

Soldier decorated for bravery in Iraq battles for Miss England title... and says it's the scariest thing she's ever done


She has dedicated her life so far to fighting for her country, but tonight, lance corporal Katrina Hodge has a very different goal. The squaddie is to swop her camouflage gear for a bikini to compete alongside 50 other girls for the title of Miss England.
The accidental beauty queen was entered into the local heats in her hometown of Tunbridge Wells by a friend, and was stunned when she took the crown, winning herself entry into the Miss England race. 

But despite touring Iraq and engaging in hand-to-hand combat in Basra, the 22-year-old, who has been decorated for her bravery, claims that the most frightening thing she has ever done is to take to the catwalk.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1200950/Soldier-decorated-bravery-Iraq-battles-Miss-England-title--says-scariest-thing-shes-done.html#ixzz0LpevsYPz

 

[CougarKing]

Soldier decorated for bravery in Iraq battles for Miss England title... and says it's the scariest thing she's ever done


She has dedicated her life so far to fighting for her country, but tonight, lance corporal Katrina Hodge has a very different goal. The squaddie is to swop her camouflage gear for a bikini to compete alongside 50 other girls for the title of Miss England.
The accidental beauty queen was entered into the local heats in her hometown of Tunbridge Wells by a friend, and was stunned when she took the crown, winning herself entry into the Miss England race. 

But despite touring Iraq and engaging in hand-to-hand combat in Basra, the 22-year-old, who has been decorated for her bravery, claims that the most frightening thing she has ever done is to take to the catwalk.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1200950/Soldier-decorated-bravery-Iraq-battles-Miss-England-title--says-scariest-thing-shes-done.html#ixzz0LpevsYPz

You forgot the pics again.

 

[daftandbarmy]

You forgot the pics again.

I didn't want to give away the reason I joined the British Army (not, oh so very not) 

 

[CougarKing]

And Brown receives more sharp criticism from Lord Guthrie, an ex-CDS of the British forces as well as a retired SAS officer, IIRC.

From The Times July 25, 2009

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6726512.ece

Guthrie attacks Gordon Brown over helicopters for Afghanistan troops

Alice Thomson and Rachel Sylvester

Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank was Tony Blair's favourite general. The Colonel-Commandant of the SAS was more famous in Whitehall for reputedly slitting people's throats in the jungles of Malaysia than stabbing enemies in the back in the corridors of power.
"I'm probably the last British officer to have had a spear thrown at him in anger," he says, narrowing his eyes as he sips a strong, black coffee at his flat in Victoria. "It was in Somalia. I'm not going to tell you what I did in return."
Lord Guthrie is the former Chief of the Defence Staff who won the war in Kosovo and who survived for months in the desert while serving in the SAS. According to one major-general, he won the respect of his men because "he mixes steely street cred with sure political judgment".
Now, as a crossbench peer who advises David Cameron on military matters, he has swapped his uniform for leather loafers and a Hermes tie. He looks comfortable on a chintz sofa, but even at 70 he is not a man to pick a fight with. It is clear that he has Gordon Brown in his sights. "It's no good the Prime Minister one moment saying success is all important and then for the sake of a few extra helicopters and 2,000 men allow the mission in Afghanistan to fail. You can't go to war in a penny-pinching way."
Lord Guthrie has been angry with Mr Brown for years. "As Chancellor, he was particularly unsympathetic to defence," he says. "It's certainly not a Labour thing - old Labour were extremely patriotic and some of our best defence secretaries were from the Labour Party - but Gordon Brown doesn't understand the military.
(...)

In Lord Guthrie's view, Sir Richard Dannatt, head of the Army, is right to speak out about the lack of troops and helicopters in Afghanistan. "He's got to the end of his tether. It's all very well saying he's got to be loyal to the Government, but he's also got to be loyal to the people who work for him."
British lives are, Lord Guthrie says, being put at risk. "Peter Mandelson said this week he was convinced that no one had been killed through lack of helicopters - well, I don't believe that's so. And when Alistair Darling says we will give the Army everything it asks for, that is patently not true."
To anyone who has been on the ground in a war, "helicopters are obviously better than winding columns of troops who can be seen miles away. They are easy to ambush and having more helicopters would avoid much of that. Helicopters give you huge flexibility. The Taleban don't like people popping up unexpectedly behind them."
(...)

The Government is, in his view, focusing on the wrong areas. He wants the cheapest nuclear deterrent rather than a replacement for the Trident nuclear submarines. "We need more soldiers - ideally about 25,000 more."

(...)

[color-yellow]It was no good just bombing the enemy from a great height. "You can't cut off al-Quaeda's head. You can't take out its headquarters. Bombs and missiles are counterproductive in the long term because they are indiscriminate and what you really need is people working among the people, trying to divide the good from the bad. To have a policy of bombing people into submission creating a desert and calling it peace is not a good idea."

Lord Guthrie, a member of David Cameron's foreign policy advisory group, says that the Tories have to work out what their foreign policy is before deciding their defence priorities. "Liberal interventionism is going to become less fashionable. But the world has become globalised in such a way that terrorist camps in Afghanistan affect the London Underground, so you can't now keep Britain safe by pulling up the drawbridge."[/color]

(...)

Lord Guthrie does not have any regrets about his own career. "When I was at school I couldn't make up my mind about anything. I had a wise master who asked me to write on a bit of paper what I thought I wanted to do. I wanted excitement, I wanted to travel, I was good at sport I was a bit romantic about the military, I wanted to do something for the country."
Having served with the Welsh Guards, he joined the SAS. He is still an adrenaline junkie. "I'm probably the most senior officer who's been under fire of late - I ran into an ambush between the airport and the green zone in Baghdad last year."
"The most exhilarating thing about being under fire is when you realise they've missed. Human beings need challenges, battle is a very big challenge. The bonding, the friendships are amazing. I would do it all again."

 

[daftandbarmy]

And Brown receives more sharp criticism from Lord Guthrie, an ex-CDS of the British forces as well as a retired SAS officer, IIRC.

Too bad. More criticism from serving Generals is needed too.

 

[CougarKing]

Another update:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32239385/ns/world_news-europe/

Sikh soldiers guard Queen Elizabeth II
Two Sikh soldiers are the first to guard palace, patrol Tower of London
The Associated Press
updated 12:15 p.m. PT, Fri., July 31, 2009
LONDON - Queen Elizabeth II has switched bearskin hats for turbans outside Buckingham Palace, where Sikh soldiers have begun guarding the monarch and her treasures, Britain's defense ministry said Friday.

Signaler Simranjit Singh and Lance Cpl. Sarvjit Singh are the first Sikhs to take part in patrols outside the queen's residence and to stand watch over the Crown jewels at the Tower of London across town.

Guard duties are usually carried out by the Guards of Household Division, famed for their bearskin hats and crimson coats that attract picture-taking tourists in their thousands. The ministry said the Sikh soldiers instead wore turbans and blue uniforms.

Other army regiments often help carry out guard duties at Britain's Buckingham Palace when the Household Division is on operations. The ministry said the two soldiers are the first of the 90 Sikhs in Britain's army to be handed the task.

"It's purely a coincidence that this has happened now," said a defense ministry spokeswoman, on condition of anonymity in line with policy. "Regiments take it in turn to stand in for the Household Division and it just happens that two of the soldiers this time round are Sikh."

Sarvjit Singh, who was born in India and is a member of 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, said he was thrilled to have had the opportunity to guard the queen.

"My experience being a Sikh on the queen's guard is beyond words," said the 28-year-old. "It is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I feel privileged to have this honor."

"Being in London and parading in front of hundreds of people has been brilliant. Being Sikh hasn't made any difference," said Simranjit Singh, 26, from Coventry in central England, who is attached to the 21 Signal Regiment (Air Support).

"It's been hard work, but definitely worth it," he said.

He said the toughest part of the role is keeping perfectly still when on sentry duty outside the queen's home.

Sikhs routinely guarded Queen Victoria — a colonial ruler of India. At the time of World War I, Sikhs formed about 20 percent of the British army, but numbers dwindled following India's independence.


Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

[CougarKing]

Part of his speech is quoted below:

General Dannatt gives last speech as CGSA
Defence Policy and Business news article 30 Jul 09

In what is expected to be his final public speech as Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt addressed the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) today, Thursday 30 July 2009, on the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) and his conviction of the vital role it will play in ensuring that we are suitably placed for the future.

Gen Dannatt touched on the UK's relationship with the United States of America and the future of the combat mission in Afghanistan as well as taking time to pay tribute to all personnel within the Armed Forces and their bravery and courage in defending the nation:
"Now unless something untoward happens, this is very likely to be my last public speech as the Chief of the General Staff and, given the valuable contribution that IISS has made to stimulating debate and policy-making in the defence and security areas, it seems appropriate that I should be here making my final speech today.
"That said, I am not sure that, as his next chairman, Michael Clark of RUSI [Royal United Services Institute] quite agrees. However my comments today build on and underline what I have said earlier this summer at both Chatham House and at RUSI.
"So my aim today is to continue to contribute to that Defence debate. We, in Defence and across Whitehall, are all now agreed that a Defence Review or perhaps more appropriately what some are calling a Review of Defence is required, but we need to clarify what the outcome of that review needs to be and, perhaps more importantly, how we get to and conduct the review.
"And we need to do this in a way that prevents some comments being taken out of context, and becoming tomorrow's headline. Frankly, defence of the realm must be the stuff of considered debate and not just of catchy headlines.
"But to answer the questions that must be addressed in a Defence Review, I think context is all important. I believe we need to look back, to look around, and to look forward, at Britain's role in the world yesterday, today and tomorrow and also conduct a proper analysis of the character of future conflict and thereby identify the challenges for our country's overall security.
"Now in looking back over our shoulders we could go back to Duncan Sandys' Review of 1957, but an immediate backward glance usefully goes back as far as the SDR of 97/98 and it is worth examining how the world seemed then.
"I will be brief but in summary I would suggest that the thoughts of those conducting that SDR included:
"First, a realisation that the New World Order post the Cold War was neither the end of history nor very different from previous eras.
"Second, that while for some the first Gulf War was an aberration, for others it was a sign post - but we soon fell into a preoccupation with the Balkans and agonised not about war-fighting, but about how to keep a peace within someone else's war. This was a fundamental change.
"And third, as background noise, during the nineties and running up to 9/11, we believed that liberal interventions could be conducted on the basis of 'Go Fast, Go First, Go Home'. After all it seemed to work in Sierra Leone, East Timor, a small intervention in Macedonia, and even after 9/11 with our first ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] experience in Kabul.
"And finally, the run up to the 97/98 SDR was conducted in a period when UK Defence, while busy in Bosnia and Northern Ireland, was broadly in balance. Debate could be had and choices could be made, and were. A balanced outcome, foreign policy-led, was the result - whether it was fully funded remains a moot point, to which I will return.

(...)

http://www.mod.uk/Defence...efencePolicyAndBusiness/

 

[Yrys]

'Doctors used ribs to save my hand'

Private Neil McCallion was handing out vital supplies to Afghan schools
when his convoy was hit by a suicide bomber. The explosion blasted his
Land Rover onto its side, leaving a colleague dead and his left hand
feeling numb and badly damaged.

"I saw a six-inch piece of metal sticking out of my hand. It was a mess,"
he said. "My index finger was hanging on by a wee white string, a tendon.
I had to grab my hand and hold on to it."

Damaged hand

His left hand was shattered by the shrapnel wound - four of the five meta-
carpal bones (which connect the fingers to the wrist) were missing. Doctors
stabilised the Argyll and Sutherland Highlander at a field hospital in Kabul.
That night, after being heavily dosed up with morphine, he was flown straight
to the UK's Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, which specialises in treating
injured service personnel.

Here doctors were able to save his hand. His story is told as part of the NHS
Choices' focus on military health.

Consultant plastic surgeon Garth Titley told the BBC that they had little textbook
guidance on how to treat a wound like this and had to adapt surgery carried out
in Japan on a foot. "Personally I had never done this operation before with the
ribs," he said. "In plastic surgery we quite often move pieces of tissue around
the body using micro vascular surgery to restore the blood supply.

"It is like a transplant to yourself.

"What we would typically do is take either skin and its blood supply, or a piece
of muscle and its blood supply and move that tissue or part of the body to repair
a defect and re-establish. "Just putting a lid on the back of Neil's hand would not
have been enough it would not have had the stability."

The technique involved rebuilding the hand, in a 17-hour operation, using a section
of three of his ribs and muscle from the right side of his torso. "It's called a serratus
anterior flap with ribs procedure," he said "As far as I'm aware, this has not previously
been performed to this extent on a hand."

The ribs were used to join the fingers to the wrist, using tiny plates and screws.

Basic tasks

After several operations, Private McCallion can now perform basic tasks with his rebuilt
hand. "He can pick up a pint and he's learned to drive," said Mr Titley. "He has a hand
that enables him to perform most of his daily activities."

Private McCallion, aged 24, from Dunbartonshire, Scotland can now wriggle his thumb
and fingers of his left hand and can close them in a gentle grip, something he thought
would never have been possible when he was first injured. "After the incident I thought
they wouldn't be able to save my hand," he said.

Since then, he has had 14 operations, including one two weeks after the attack. He said
it had been a shock when he first saw the results. "The back of my hand looked big, like
there were 10 burgers stacked up on it. I started crying and shouting that they might as
well have taken my hand off. My mum ran out in tears."

But a month later he was able to move a finger for the first time. Since then, a couple of
setbacks have delayed Private McCallion's recovery by around 18 months. The ribs in his
hand broke when he leant on it after his sixth operation and then a fall snapped the titanium
plates that were used to mend them.

But with surgery and rehabilitation, including stretching elastic bands with his fingers, he is
making good progress.

For five weeks in early 2009, his hand was temporarily attached by a flap of skin to his lower
abdomen so that the blood supply could help regenerate skin on the back of his hand. In future
operations tendons will be removed from his leg and placed in his hand to allow him to
straighten his fingers.

But despite his restricted hand movement, he has still passed his driving test and still walks
his dogs. He is now looking forward to the day his hand is strong enough to go fishing again
on Loch Lomond.

Neil's hand was extensively damaged

 

[Old Sweat]

And for the latest in the "Why we don't have enough helicopters and it's not our fault" saga, the following story from the Daily Telegraph is posted under the fair comment provisions of the Copyright Act.

'Too little parking' to boost Afghanistan helicopter numbers
Britain can only send a limited number of helicopters to Afghanistan because of a shortage of “parking” spaces, Air Cdr Simon Falla, a senior officer, has disclosed.

By Nick Allen and James Kirkup
Published: 8:18PM BST 11 Aug 2009

British troops in Helmand have the use of 10 Chinooks and five Lynxes Photo: AFP/Getty
Air Cdr Falla, Deputy Commander, Joint Helicopter Command, said that finding extra facilities to transport, park and maintain helicopters on Nato bases there would be a problem.

Ministers are under intense pressure after military leaders said that more helicopters would cut the number of British soldiers killed by roadside bombs - 196 British personnel have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001.


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Helicopter shortage forces commanders to dump Helmand towers planThey have promised to add to the fewer than 30 helicopters that are there, starting with Merlins, the last of which returned from Iraq yesterday.

However, Air Cdre Falla warned that there were logistical constraints.

“There is this cry for more helicopters,” he said. “Where are you going to park them? Because they all have to park somewhere. It’s quite a small place we are flying in. There is pressure on space and you have to be careful in deploying extra helicopters.”

British troops in Helmand have the use of 10 Chinooks and five Lynxes while US forces in Afghanistan have access to more than 100 Chinooks. The British often borrow US helicopters, but the American aircraft may also be limiting the scope for British deployments.

“We talk about America having lots of helicopters; they have to park somewhere,” Air Cdre Falla said. More helicopters also meant more ground crews and transport planes to carry parts, he said. An increase in the fleet could only be gradual.

British forces operate from two main bases in the country, Camp Bastion and Kandahar Air Station. Camp Bastion’s runway is dominated by a US fleet which is operated “inefficiently” according to some British commanders. A second tarmac runway is due to be completed this year. At Kandahar, another parking area will soon be required and will be complicated by the need for protection from regular Taliban rocket attacks.

The number of British helicopters that can be sent to Afghanistan is also limited because no more than 25 per cent of the total can be on operations at one time, it was disclosed. The others are being serviced or used for training in the UK.

Air Cdre Falla said: “When you get a headline saying there are more helicopters in Hampshire than Helmand, there might well be, but there’s a bloody good reason for that.”

Just six of the fleet of 28 Merlins will be in Afghanistan at any one time. Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, indicated that they would not be armour-plated, despite pilots telling The Daily Telegraph that a lack of protection from bullets and rocket-propelled grenades would endanger the lives of passengers and crew. He said he was confident the helicopters were “perfectly capable of the job”. He added: “We can’t compete with America. People need to accept we are part of a coalition. We share their helicopters and they share ours.”

It was also confirmed that eight Chinooks grounded by computer problems since 2001 will be in service next year but only two will be in Afghanistan at any one time.

 

[daftandbarmy]

More importantly....

Court orders eviction of (Transvestite) M15 whistleblower

The former MI5 whistleblower David Shayler said today he would defy a court order to leave a National Trust property in which he has been squatting because he did not accept its legal validity.

Mr Shayler and his fellow squatters were not in court for the brief hearing at Guildford County Court this morning when the order was handed down for the possession of Hackhurst Farmhouse in Abinger, Surrey. Because of that fact, Mr Shayler said that he did not feel bound by the court ruling - that, and the fact that he considers himself the Messiah and "Authority of the Law".

A group of around eight to 10 people have been squatting at the Hackhurst farm since June 26, when Mr Shayler and his "Rainbow Movement" were evicted from the nearby Tyting Farm.

The 43-year-old was briefly imprisoned in 2002 for breaching the Official Secrets Act by passing on state secrets to a national newspaper.

Since then he has been involved in a number of causes and conspiracy theories, questioning the official version of the 9/11 attacks for example, and deciding that he was the son of God. More recently he has been photographed as his transvestite alter ego, the long-legged blonde Dolores Kane.

Reacting to today's verdict, Mr Shayler said that he and his group would sit tight and await the arrival of bailiffs, whom they would resist peacefully.

Talking about his cross-dressing, he added: “I’ve been doing this for years and it is a part of myself. Jesus was both man and woman and one of the goals of the spiritual journey is to be both masculine and feminine.

“It is what stopped me going insane during my court appearance for whistleblowing. In a way it is God’s biggest joke on humanity, making his chosen one a ’Tranny’.”




http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6793458.ece

 

[daftandbarmy]

Kind of like 'Afghanada', eh?

War and words
KATE CHISHOLM
WEDNESDAY, 5TH AUGUST 2009
‘Aggressive camping’ is how one of the characters in Andy McNab’s first play for radio describes his activities in Helmand province in Aghanistan.
‘Aggressive camping’ is how one of the characters in Andy McNab’s first play for radio describes his activities in Helmand province in Aghanistan. Last Night, Another Soldier... (Radio Four, Saturday) received a lot of advance publicity because of McNab’s reputation as a former SAS soldier whose books about his experiences at war have zoomed off the shelves faster than he can write them. His play focuses on a platoon of riflemen engaged in hand-to-hand fighting with the Taleban, mostly young, sometimes brave, and always doomed, either to die in battle, be maimed for life, or suffer from the psychological ravages of PTSD.
The language of war has acquired a lexicon that would have horrified Orwell. In his essay ‘Politics and the English Language’, which he wrote just after the second world war had ended, he campaigned against the way that the English language was being used even then to obfuscate meaning, distort reality, encourage the advance of ‘foolish thoughts’. Prose, Orwell writes, ‘consists less and less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning, and more of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated hen-house’. McNab’s script veered from the south London lingo of squaddies from Peckham to the euphemisms which anaesthetise us from war’s realities.
‘Take him down’, ‘Body bag’, ‘Poppy field’ — the words being used by the characters were at odds with their blood-curdling shrieks as they fought for their survival. This was not a play for the faint-hearted. Nor was it a play that sought to explain why our men and women have been sent out to do battle once more on the ravaged plains of Afghanistan. Last Night, Another Soldier... tried instead to take us to that battlefield and recreate the feelings of a terrified 18-year-old hiding in a maize field from the mob of ‘Tallies’ who have surrounded him and his comrades. What does it feel like to shoot a man in the mouth as he clutches hold of you? How do you push a bayonet into a man’s stomach hard enough to ensure you kill him before he kills you?
McNab has been praised for the way in which he doesn’t idolise war. But to write a drama about the reality of war without adding some other dimension is no longer enough. We’ve seen and heard so much of the horror through the 24-hour news commentaries, ‘embedded’ reporters and mobile-phone footage taken by the soldiers themselves while involved in running combat that we’ve become inured to it. To tune in to an artificial drama about something that is actually taking place as we listen is disquieting rather than instructive.
Late on Sunday night I caught by chance a few lines from a very unfashionable Victorian poet who actually said so much more than McNab for all his battle-scarred veracity. Mark Tully’s Something Understood (Radio Four) was this week dedicated to cricket in honour of the current Ashes series against Australia. Tully quoted Sir Henry Newbolt’s famous lines about the game, ‘Play up, play up, and play the game,’ written in 1897 when British troops were fighting in Africa. Newbolt was urging the soldiers to valour, but he also pins down with a poet’s precision what they were up against, ‘The sand of the desert is sodden red/ Red with the wreck of a square that broke,/ The Gatling’s jammed and the colonel dead,/ And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.’ When poetry plays with language it can enhance the truth rather than distorting it — just as Carol Ann Duffy had done earlier in the week when she read her poem ‘Last Post’ on the Today programme.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/arts/5244463/war-and-words.thtml

 

[CougarKing]

RIP Soldier. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090815/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_afghanistan

Britain suffers 200th Afghanistan death
By JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press Writer Jill Lawless, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 43 mins ago

LONDON – A British soldier wounded in an explosion in Afghanistan died Saturday, the defense ministry said, bringing the country's military death toll there to 200.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the grim milestone "deeply tragic news." It is sure to raise more questions about Britain's increasingly perilous mission in Afghanistan.

The Ministry of Defense said the soldier from 2nd Battalion the Royal Welsh died Saturday at a military hospital in England.

He had been wounded in a blast while on vehicle patrol Thursday in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. Three other British troops were killed by roadside bombs in a separate incident in Afghanistan the same day.

Britain has about 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, most based in Helmand, a center of Taliban insurgents.

The British military suffered 22 fatalities in July, its bloodiest month since the invasion of Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Nine British troops have been killed so far this month.

The rising toll — more than the 179 personnel who died in Iraq — has reignited a debate in Britain about its role in the war and the quality of its military equipment. The Afghan campaign has long been divisive, with polls showing Britons about evenly split between supporters and opponents of the mission.
Graham Knight, whose son Ben was killed when a Royal Air Force Nimrod plane exploded over Afghanistan in 2006, said it was "time for an end to military action" in Afghanistan.

"We are ill-equipped and ill-advised," he said. "We should be getting the non-militant Taliban around the table and begin talks so we can embark on a withdrawal."

The prime minister said the mission to defeat the Taliban was essential to British security because "three-quarters of terrorist plots against Britain come from the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan."

"British troops are fighting bravely there to protect us," Brown said. "The best way to honor the memory of those who have died is to see that commitment through."

Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth said it was a "grim day" but that Britain must stay focused on its mission in Afghanistan.

"This is a difficult time but we must all take solace from the fact that, although sometimes slow, we have been making good progress in Afghanistan," Ainsworth said. "We must all stay focused on the mission, on why it matters and what is at stake."

Afghans are due to vote Thursday in presidential elections, seen by the international community as a key marker of the country's progress towards becoming a stable democracy.

Militants have staged a series of attacks in the run-up to the vote, including a suicide car bombing Saturday near NATO headquarters in Kabul that killed seven people and wounded nearly 100.

 

[CougarKing]

This is supposedly just a rumour: Prince William and his longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton are now going to be married!

So will he take her flying in a Chinook afterwards?  ;D