My grandfather was one of 4 brothers ... the youngest, and physically least imposing, was only about 5ft 6" was a despatch rider in the first world war ... won a distinguished conduct medal for delivering messages by motorbike along the front line with German snipers taking pot shots ... only my grandfather had a male child so my great uncle's medals, commendation letters and even a painted portrait of him in uniform came to me ... prized possessions ... find my eyes watering (with pride) when I get them out ...
This is my gran (still alive) and the grandad I never saw. She was a young nurse. He was in the tanks with Monty.
Afghanistan is a strange one. We used to get loads of Afghani refugees camping on our land in Kashmir when I was a kid. Done of the nicest people if you made friends. ****s if enemies. The Taliban were seen as saviours of Afghanistan when they first appeared and I recall bush having them as guests before the bin laden thing. Basically because communism has a large presence in Afghanistan. I don't mean Russians but in terms political parties. The whole malala issue in pakistan is linked to communism as is the whole women and education.
Exactly. People for some reason forget that part and send them for better manners etc. I'd never let my son join the Army. I can teach him manners and respect at home, and I don't want him fighting for a terrorist regime like Britain.
Mate. I respect you a lot but that first sentence is nonsense. The amount of people that leave the army totally ****ed is insane. Homeless, alcohol and drug addiction, ptsd, jail, suicide, depression - the list goes on. They all have a massive correlation with going to war, significantly proven too when empirical studies have been done. There is no way in a million years I'd put anyone I cared about in the armed forces. Also I should imagine being a woman in the forces is very hard, the sexual abuse is common and almost allowed. I suppose if you're from a military family you may want to carry that on, but in reality being a British solider is a nightmare waiting to happen.
When I was down in Winchester, we had females there and I never seen anything untowards going on there. They would have been to busy licking each others fannies by the looks of them. Will they be rare cases of sexual abuse? Probably, but that also happens in most environments. Not just the army. Loads of lads up here join the forces, I know dozens and not one single person is ****ed up from the service they've gave. Honestly, not one. It's the kind of environment that from time to time, might and will deeply affect people. Probably the same people who didn't really think about what they were letting themselves in for. Seeing bodies blown to pieces will torture some people. It goes with the job, I'm afraid.
Same place, our professional army was beaten in a month and had to be rescued from Normandy in June 1940 It all seems fairly glamorous, exciting and heroic when you're young, who hasn't run around a playground pointing fingers at people going 'peow peow peow' pretending they were in the army killing nazi's? We are bombarded with war films, most of which make killing people look heroic, and, as a species, we like killing, it's in our nature. Of course only young people are recruited, as once you reach a certain age you realise it's a load of bollocks and an army is just a well armed and trained gang used to commit robbery with violence, none of whom will get to share in the spoils. With the exception of WW2 and the Falklands (which could have been avoided) the British army has never fought a war for freedom, it's mainly fought them for oppression and money.
I suppose a lot of my previous jobs (prison work and substance misuse work) had a over proportionate amount of ex servicemen so I saw things in a different light. Everyone's different and clearly this will show different opinions. I just know from what I've seen it's far from worth it, especially as the reason for going to war is suspect at best A LOT of the homeless people over 40 were in the forces. Now they've been left to rot. Shameful from our government. But it is reality.
I think it depends on your experiences and the person themselves. Some will be traumatised by the horrors of war and will suffer with it forever. Others become inured. Just kind of shut down emotionally I’m going back a lot of years, but I had a mate who was SAS for 9 years. Spent a good part of it undercover in Northern Ireland. He only ever talked to people close to him about what he saw and experienced, but suffice to say some of it was pretty horrific. No doubt it ****ed him up. He was ok most of the time, but if he’d had too much to drink or was in a funny mood, you really had to watch him. He could turn violent in a flash, not towards his mates, but if anybody said or did anything he didn’t like!!.... And this was a guy you did not want to **** around with. Very dangerous fella!...
I don't like the SAS they almost ran me over in their aeroplane one night. I was walking down a shut down runway in the early hours on patrol with my dog when I hear an aircraft, it started getting louder so I legged it to the side and the ****ers touched and took off no lights at all.
to be fair, we went into war with germany before they dropped bombs over our heads as they invaded a few places. Now i'm not saying we should go venturing into every war when a country invades another.... but this really is a grey area for me. edit: Just to add the wars we have been going into recently have been an absolute travesty. I think the closest thing to something justified was in yugoslavia after bosnia but i wonder how much of that was spin as the internet wasn't what it is nowadays
Think we should have a group night out in Winchester ... sounds like there might be some interesting sightseeing
We haven't actually got the best track record if you ignore Winny and WWII... please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
