Campaign News

what the hell is going on???...have they totaly lost the plot???...overstretch is an understatement when it comes to present infantry levels!!!...they really really dont have a clue do they?...now it seems the TA will be called on to make up the numbers, but not NCO`s or officers they are not needed...so...all the grunts deploy and return with the medal and combat experience to be commanded by NCO`s and officers with no gong and no combat experience...result...grunts resent being junior to those that aint been there and got the tee shirt...unit moral collapses...now forgive a dumb ex-infantry grunt like me but this sounds like the start of a massive problem????

You couldn't make it up!!!!

Too bloody thick to make a good porridge!

gibbo says...
what the hell is going on???...have they totaly lost the plot???...overstretch is an understatement when it comes to present infantry levels!!!...they really really dont have a clue do they?...now it seems the TA will be called on to make up the numbers, but not NCO`s or officers they are not needed...so...all the grunts deploy and return with the medal and combat experience to be commanded by NCO`s and officers with no gong and no combat experience...result...grunts resent being junior to those that aint been there and got the tee shirt...unit moral collapses...now forgive a dumb ex-infantry grunt like me but this sounds like the start of a massive problem????

Yeah i think youv got the nail right on the head mate. Recent R.Signals TA units are in the process of being disbanded. But it seems the recession is helping numbers although right now as we speak,and still in Kabul Afghanistan, TA Soldiers are guarding ISAF HQ.

It appears recruitment is fine and they could actually increase infantry numbers if they desired. However they do not want to expand the capacity to take advantage of the current economic climate, why?
Well, it will be up to the mandarins at Whitehall to explain this strategy.

There aren't any problems at all. I spoke with an MoD Vice-Admiral at an Armed Forces Day event and he was quite hostile to the suggestion that the armed forces lacked money or resources and said it must be accepted that the size of our Military was being reduced for a variety of reasons. He said that he had not seen anything to suggest that our fighting men and women lacked the very best in care and support.
The fact that it lacks manpower and is totally overstretched seems to be overlooked. I spoke with a number of senior Air Cadets who had applied to join the RAF and they had been told that there were very limited vacancies at present. Rumour has it that the RAF is to lose all its Harrier Fast Jets?
Also read a newspaper article a couple of weeks ago that said Civil servants get more gongs pro rata than the armed forces. A total bloody shambles run by misfits!

From the sound of the last two messages, it appears that you have to have tunnel vision to rise above the common herd and be able to understand why less means more and how to do everything with almost nothing. I think I prefer rocket science..........

Snow drop are you for real?????
Ten months ago i was in iraq, we had seriouse helicopter shortages, infact when a MP visited he got a lift in an american one because we had none, we had to evacuate causilites and the RAF had no helicopters to help and the americans offered assistance. Our rifles can fill with sand and jam, yet M16's dont have this fault of open breaches, lack of Torches that fit to our rifles ment only one men in every 6 had one and wore head torches resulting in sniper targets . The batteries in our warrior (armoured troop carriers) fail in the air con, it was 40 degrees outside and 55 degrees inside, the water inside boiled, we were told they had no batteries in iraq. This ment the heat inside and out side cause seriouse heat illness. For 4 months we had no working aircon in our tents in 50 degrees out side (summer) and 40 inside, we sweated in our sleep, soldiers prefered to sleep out side were their was no rocket protection but a cool iraqi breeze of 30 degrees. The body armour was too heavy and still is, compared to the americans. A shortage in funding means soldiers training in cattrick cant wear the body armour they wear on tour untill several months/weeks before deployment. The poorly funded phone/internet facilites went offline regularly for days/weeks, being the only point of home contact for many. We have to pay to send parcels or cards home unless blueys. Rations wernt designed for the desert, our boots and sandels would often have the soles melted off in the heat (kit made by the lowest bidder?). The clothing requires more money spent on them, some airtex vents wouldnt go a miss. Man shortages were a seriouse problem, i wont go into it too much, somthings might make people ashamed, but what i will say is a WO1 asked me to guide a blind soldier to the guard room to answer phones and got angry when the blind soldier refused. Radio s would fail, leaving an isolated sqaud on the iranian boarder. We were never given a war fighting rossette to our medals, we dont care, but an apology for the iranians shooting at us with MGs on American independance day would have been nice ;)

[RedRat]
Snow drop are you for real?????


Nah Redrat mate, he was being facetious, we have all made comments on the MoD Oracle site and I copped a blasting for daring to suggest that the lads and lasses at the sharp end were doing it tough. I refused to back down and although it saddens me to see it, your comments fully vindicate the position that we have been taking. If you go onto the MoD Oracle forums, you will see my comments under 'ExBrat.

I am appalled at the way the MoD have been denying what everyone else seems to know as regards the lack of facilities, poor equipment, lack of vital hardware and weapons/supply shortages. It does not make me happy to see my worst suspicions confirmed mate, far from it. In an instance where peoples lives are at risk, I would much rather be proved wrong and see that my fears were groundless. I do not know how these bloody people can sleep at night after reading what you have had to say. I take my hat off to you and all the others that have had to live like rats in order to do the governments bidding and I sincerely apologise to you all, for not having been able to do more to see you blokes right.

I hang my head in shame for all that you have lacked and gone short of.

Red Rat, I'm for real and I was being fecitious. Let's say I had something of a 'debate' with a Vice Admiral from the MoD in the presence of some regular soldiers who had returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. I put forward the NDM campaign to raise funds for our troops and those who are wounded . 'I' know that there are problems and no doubt so does the general public, but it seems that geting the brass to admit it is another thing. The comment to me from a regular SNCO afterwards was that we were trying to do more for them than those who had sent them out to fight. I can assure you that I fully support and accept what you say.

Why am I not surprised with what RedRat has to say?
Nothing has changed in over fifty years. In Germany in the early fifties we had very little rifle ammunition, grenades, rockets etc to train with. The British forces were reduced from eighty thousand to sixty thousand, that at a time when we were facing off millions of Soviet troops, better supplied and with up to date weaponry and mostly motorized.
It is certainly time that Britain got themselves a government of people who knew what they were doing instead of spending their time renovating and selling houses.
The present lot are nothing but a disgrace and should be replaced ASAP.

We are proud of you RedRat and all those serving and who have served and you have our thanks.

Most of the 'Brass' are politicians in DPM (there are obvious exceptions) they have half an eye on their next promotion or role when they retire. Too many are far to detached from the Tom on the ground to really understand what is going on.

Having worked both as a serving soldier and as a civil servant, I think there should be a massive inquiry into the civil service and all the fiddles/perks that abound within the service, that they all seem to think are deserved or Normal, let alone expenses claims.

We should stop picking at our wounds, ie civil service etc, and start looking beyond the blinkers, prisons full of people getting paid to do jack sh1t, also layabouts on benefits, get the fraud squad to track these people, they have free gym membership in my town then they nip down the local after it for a few pints, same squad of spongers sat in the beer gardens every day, target them first and all the other scams, if we keep picking our own wounds we will fester and die and no one will care,

John says...
We should stop picking at our wounds, ie civil service etc, and start looking beyond the blinkers, prisons full of people getting paid to do jack sh1t, also layabouts on benefits, get the fraud squad to track these people, they have free gym membership in my town then they nip down the local after it for a few pints, same squad of spongers sat in the beer gardens every day, target them first and all the other scams, if we keep picking our own wounds we will fester and die and no one will care,

Whilst i agree with some of what you say John i think we have to start somewhere and a fish rots from the head down so a good place to start is at the head, hence the people running the ship need checking first to be able to continue down the ladder, to be fair to all, in the giant pustule that this country is in danger of fast becoming.

Oggy says...
Having worked both as a serving soldier and as a civil servant, I think there should be a massive inquiry into the civil service and all the fiddles/perks that abound within the service, that they all seem to think are deserved or Normal, let alone expenses claims.

Having too worked as MOD civil servant, yes we have put our claims in, not to the grand expence as the MP's did, normal allowances which are a perk but then remember when you are working for the MOD the wages are low ie £14.644 example, and remember all the travel claims subsistance, MMA allowances etc, go to deep and the poor serving servicemen will suffer to and loose any expences already under threat, a lot of hatred is brought to the surface to distract the public from more impeding matters, and this expences farce is doin fine, look further Piracy off ADEN hweres the Navy ? what Navy, see its gonna bite us in the ass, you can put Airpower, armour, people on big carriers etc and sail it to any hot spot in the world we are loosing this capability, pirates have found the chink in our armour and are exploiting it while thyey can, how long before a cruise ship is held to Ransom? bet it happens

I was a Civil Servant - am I allowed to chuck the mustard? Or was being a Part One Order clerk acceptable and lowly? Only I don't want you to start blaming me for all the ills of the MOD.

I got a cracking leaving prize too. It didn't even tick ;)

It would be comforting to think that all of these "... civil servants and officers (there are more civil servants in the MoD than soldiers in the Army) whose pay, allowances and pension rights could fund several infantry battalions..." would be immediately kitted-out to form the vanguard sent into the fray in the likely event of future conflicts.

The gradual depletion of the services to fund the "civil" servants and MP's pay and pensions has been going on for so long now that it has almost become the norm. From Malaya when the choppers were grounded due to cracks in the rotos, to germany where there were not enough engines for the Chieftain, to troops going to war with the Falklands where the Fleet Auxollary was so depleated that ships had to be leased from Cunard, to the wars of today where the forces are sent to war by people who have never worn a uniform and the only guns they have handled are the 12 bores on the "Glorous 12th"
Now they are talking of reducing the forces even more, but will still send them off at the bidding of the USA.
But it is a funny thing that there is always plenty of money for the illegal immigtants and the EU workers who claim benifits for unseen families back in their own country!
This Gov is only concerned as to how they appear to their masters in USA and the EU not to those who pay their wages.