Posted by Michelle Nielsen
Showing posts with label Military. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Military. Show all posts
Friday, 12 March 2010
Friday, 5 March 2010
The reality behind film
I’ve watched a million war movies but the only one that’s made me feel like I’m back there is The Hurt Locker 
By NICK FRANCIS
Published: The SUN 05 Mar 2010
IRAQ war film The Hurt Locker is a real edge-of-your-seat thriller and is up for an amazing NINE Oscars this weekend.
It tells the harrowing story of a US bomb disposal team's deadly mission in Baghdad - and the movie's producers were advised by a Brit hero of the campaign, Chris Hunter.
The 37-year-old major is the British Army's most successful bomb disposal expert ever. He has completed multiple tours in Northern Ireland and Afghanistan as well as in Iraq, where he disarmed 45 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), during a single two-month stint.
In The Hurt Locker, lead actor Jeremy Renner - nominated for the best actor Oscar on Sunday - plays Staff Sergeant William James, a reckless and fearless operator addicted to the perils of the job.
The movie - which bagged the best film Bafta last month - makes for compulsive viewing and provides a chilling illustration of the perilous work being carried out by real-life bomb disposal experts in Iraq and Afghanistan, where IEDs now account for 90 per cent of deaths.
Here, in Day Two of The Sun's Oscars Week series, bomb disposal expert Chris tells what he thinks of the film - as well as what life is really like on the front line.
Chris says: "I've watched a million and one war movies, believe me, but the only one that has made me feel like I am actually back out there is The Hurt Locker. It sent a tingle down my spine."
As an ATO - or Ammunition Technical Officer - Chris got so good at foiling bombs in Basra that he became a direct target himself when insurgents left devices intended specifically to kill him.
In one incident, outside a packed hospital in Basra, rebels left a car packed with explosives.
They assumed Chris would open the boot, which would detonate the bomb.
But sensing something was wrong, he sent in a robot to open the boot - and the car blew sky-high.
Chris is one of the lucky survivors of a job which claims many casualties, among them British servicemen Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, 30, Warrant Officer Gaz O'Donnell, 40, and Captains Dan Shepherd, 28, and Dan Read, 31.
Chris says: "I knew Olaf, we served together, and Gaz was a good friend. I was with him two days before he was killed.
"The Ammunition Technical Officers are a close-knit community. It's one thing The Hurt Locker gets across very well.
"The camaraderie between all the guys is huge, but there is also a real diversity in character.
"There aren't many of us doing the job and we have to work very closely together.
"It's incredibly competitive but you also have to watch each other's backs. You can take the p*** out of each other, but if anyone else tries to take the p*** you won't stand for it.
"It takes a minimum of four and a half years' technical and on-the-job training to get to the level those lads were at."
Olaf "Oz" Schmid was killed on October 31 last year as he attempted to disarm an IED in the Sangin region of Helmand province in Afghanistan.
He was close friends with Dan Read, the latest ATO to die in the line of duty. He was killed two months ago.
Chris says: "You never know when it is your last time. All four of those lads were experienced, highly trained and extremely professional. It's just the sheer volume of IEDs these days - it becomes a numbers game."
The ATOs have a term - the Long Walk - to describe their perilous approach to a bomb.
It is done entirely alone to minimise casualties and in a protective suit weighing a burdensome 85lb.
Chris adds: "If you do the Long Walk enough times, chances are something will go wrong one day. It's a very lonely but intense walk.
"To handle it you have to have tunnel vision, blocking out everything around you. It's just you and the bomb.
"Every bomb is unique, so every approach has to be considered carefully.
"It can take hours of crawling along the floor, face in the dirt, in case there's any other ordnance around it or it's been booby-trapped.
"At the same time you're under pressure to deal with it quickly. When a patrol is stopped it's a sitting duck, and an IED often goes hand-in-hand with an ambush."
During his 18 years as an ATO Chris has become skilled at developing profiles of the bomb-makers he has been up against. He says: "It's a game of cat-and-mouse. I could recognise a specific bomb-maker's work by the way it was put together.
"The Taliban are so dangerous because they are sophisticated and quick to adapt.
"Most of their bombs used to be made out of metal, using two saw blades which, when stood on, created a circuit and blew up.
"The British Army realised this and started to counter them using metal detectors.
"The Taliban are cunning, and immediately figured out a way to make bombs from non-metal substances.
"Whenever I hear of an ATO dying in Afghanistan, my heart goes out to the family. It is stressful on loved ones, who never know what could happen to you. Every time you leave for a war zone it could be the last time they see you.
"This is the same for any soldier's family. It takes great strength and relationships become strained very easily.
"An official military term for defusing bombs is Explosive Ordnance Disposal, or EOD. Ask an ATO and they'll tell you EOD really stands for Every One's Divorced."
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/film/2879226/Oscars-week-in-The-Sun-Real-life-stories-behind-the-films.html#ixzz0hmoZB9Jw
Posted by: Michelle Nielsen
By NICK FRANCIS
Published: The SUN 05 Mar 2010
IRAQ war film The Hurt Locker is a real edge-of-your-seat thriller and is up for an amazing NINE Oscars this weekend.
It tells the harrowing story of a US bomb disposal team's deadly mission in Baghdad - and the movie's producers were advised by a Brit hero of the campaign, Chris Hunter.
The 37-year-old major is the British Army's most successful bomb disposal expert ever. He has completed multiple tours in Northern Ireland and Afghanistan as well as in Iraq, where he disarmed 45 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), during a single two-month stint.
In The Hurt Locker, lead actor Jeremy Renner - nominated for the best actor Oscar on Sunday - plays Staff Sergeant William James, a reckless and fearless operator addicted to the perils of the job.
The movie - which bagged the best film Bafta last month - makes for compulsive viewing and provides a chilling illustration of the perilous work being carried out by real-life bomb disposal experts in Iraq and Afghanistan, where IEDs now account for 90 per cent of deaths.
Here, in Day Two of The Sun's Oscars Week series, bomb disposal expert Chris tells what he thinks of the film - as well as what life is really like on the front line.
Chris says: "I've watched a million and one war movies, believe me, but the only one that has made me feel like I am actually back out there is The Hurt Locker. It sent a tingle down my spine."
As an ATO - or Ammunition Technical Officer - Chris got so good at foiling bombs in Basra that he became a direct target himself when insurgents left devices intended specifically to kill him.
In one incident, outside a packed hospital in Basra, rebels left a car packed with explosives.
They assumed Chris would open the boot, which would detonate the bomb.
But sensing something was wrong, he sent in a robot to open the boot - and the car blew sky-high.
Chris is one of the lucky survivors of a job which claims many casualties, among them British servicemen Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid, 30, Warrant Officer Gaz O'Donnell, 40, and Captains Dan Shepherd, 28, and Dan Read, 31.
Chris says: "I knew Olaf, we served together, and Gaz was a good friend. I was with him two days before he was killed.
"The Ammunition Technical Officers are a close-knit community. It's one thing The Hurt Locker gets across very well.
"The camaraderie between all the guys is huge, but there is also a real diversity in character.
"There aren't many of us doing the job and we have to work very closely together.
"It's incredibly competitive but you also have to watch each other's backs. You can take the p*** out of each other, but if anyone else tries to take the p*** you won't stand for it.
"It takes a minimum of four and a half years' technical and on-the-job training to get to the level those lads were at."
Olaf "Oz" Schmid was killed on October 31 last year as he attempted to disarm an IED in the Sangin region of Helmand province in Afghanistan.
He was close friends with Dan Read, the latest ATO to die in the line of duty. He was killed two months ago.
Chris says: "You never know when it is your last time. All four of those lads were experienced, highly trained and extremely professional. It's just the sheer volume of IEDs these days - it becomes a numbers game."
The ATOs have a term - the Long Walk - to describe their perilous approach to a bomb.
It is done entirely alone to minimise casualties and in a protective suit weighing a burdensome 85lb.
Chris adds: "If you do the Long Walk enough times, chances are something will go wrong one day. It's a very lonely but intense walk.
"To handle it you have to have tunnel vision, blocking out everything around you. It's just you and the bomb.
"Every bomb is unique, so every approach has to be considered carefully.
"It can take hours of crawling along the floor, face in the dirt, in case there's any other ordnance around it or it's been booby-trapped.
"At the same time you're under pressure to deal with it quickly. When a patrol is stopped it's a sitting duck, and an IED often goes hand-in-hand with an ambush."
During his 18 years as an ATO Chris has become skilled at developing profiles of the bomb-makers he has been up against. He says: "It's a game of cat-and-mouse. I could recognise a specific bomb-maker's work by the way it was put together.
"The Taliban are so dangerous because they are sophisticated and quick to adapt.
"Most of their bombs used to be made out of metal, using two saw blades which, when stood on, created a circuit and blew up.
"The British Army realised this and started to counter them using metal detectors.
"The Taliban are cunning, and immediately figured out a way to make bombs from non-metal substances.
"Whenever I hear of an ATO dying in Afghanistan, my heart goes out to the family. It is stressful on loved ones, who never know what could happen to you. Every time you leave for a war zone it could be the last time they see you.
"This is the same for any soldier's family. It takes great strength and relationships become strained very easily.
"An official military term for defusing bombs is Explosive Ordnance Disposal, or EOD. Ask an ATO and they'll tell you EOD really stands for Every One's Divorced."
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/film/2879226/Oscars-week-in-The-Sun-Real-life-stories-behind-the-films.html#ixzz0hmoZB9Jw
Posted by: Michelle Nielsen
Sunday, 20 December 2009
Arabella Dorman
Paul Rogers/The TimesDorman in her studio in Chelsea, southwest London. She spent a month as an official war artist this autumn, embedded with the 2 Rifles Battle Group in Sangin
At work in Afghanistan. She spent several weeks with the Rifles as a war artist in Basra, Iraq, in 2007.
She returned with sketch books full of images that capture the end of the bloodiest six months suffered by any British unit in Afghanistan
A watercolour of the Helmand River, Afghanistan. "There was the juxtaposition of the beauty of the land that has been so devastated and is so catastrophically dangerous" Arabella Dorman
A watercolour of the District Centre in Sangin
Local men in Afghanistan. "Understandably journalists and photographers tend to focus on the drama and the action that they witness rather than the quieter moments in between," Dorman says.
An Afghan Soldier. When Dorman drew one Afghan, a man who worked as the gardener for the British base, he told her: "You haven’t captured the hate in my eyes"
A British soldier. "They fight for each other much more than they fight for Queen and Country"
"As a portrait painter I am drawn to the human drama, the psychology and bravery"
A Afghanistan Policeman. "In every face you see the same furrowed brow, the look that goes through you to what they’ve seen before"
A Afghanistan Policeman. "In every face you see the same furrowed brow, the look that goes through you to what they’ve seen before"
The Rear gunner. Dorman attempted to depict the vastness of the Iraqi landscape
Posted by: Michelle Nielsen
Friday, 18 December 2009
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Monday, 14 December 2009
Saturday, 12 December 2009
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Saturday, 5 December 2009
Protesters and police clash in Nottingham
Published: BBC Nottingham News Online 05/12/09
Police have clashed with members of the English Defence League during a protest in Nottingham city centre.
Some 500 demonstrators from the EDL marched through the city centre shouting: "We want our country back." Earlier there was a stand-off between the EDL and Unite Against Fascism, who held a counter protest in the city.
Police mounted on horses were forced to hold back some of the demonstrators with batons and punches were thrown at police on the cordons. Many of the EDL demonstrators had their faces covered with hooded tops and scarves and shouted anti-Islamic slogans.
'No surrender'
Other protesters had Union Jacks and St George's flags which they either waved or wrapped around their shoulders as a police officer barked instructions at the crowd from a helicopter circling overhead.
Some of the group waved placards which read: "Protect Women, No To Sharia" and "No Surrender".
The EDL insists it is not a racist organisation and has no links to the BNP and is simply standing against the threat of Islamic extremism.
"If we don't have a protest then it's letting them come into town and say 'this is our place for the day', which it isn't " Michael Vickery Unite Against Fascism
A spokesman said they had planned the demo for Saturday as the Second Battalion the Mercian Regiment were holding a homecoming parade in Nottingham following a recent tour of Afghanistan.
Earlier the EDL and UAF exchanged hostile words in the city's Old Market Square.
Four people had been arrested for minor public order offences, police said. As the Mercian Regiment paraded through the city in the morning thousands of Christmas shoppers gathered to watch the 500 troops.
'Anti-British'
The homecoming parade followed a six-month tour of duty in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan, where the regiment lost five soldiers and dozens of its men were injured.
A 43-year-old EDL member, a serving soldier who did not want to be named, said: "We came here to support our lads, and the UAF and other militants have turned up.
"I think it's disgusting. I look at their protest and there's a Pakistani flag flying with a Muslim symbol. Their protest isn't against the EDL, they're protesting against the troops and it's anti-British.
"They haven't got one Union Jack or St George's Flag. I'm not a fascist, I'm not a Nazi but I am British."
Michael Vickery, from the UAF, said: "It's not good enough not to have any kind of a response (to the EDL presence) because basically, if we don't have a protest then it's letting them come into town and say 'this is our place for the day', which it isn't, it belongs to everyone in Nottingham."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/8396994.stm
Posted by: Michelle Nielsen
Police have clashed with members of the English Defence League during a protest in Nottingham city centre.
Some 500 demonstrators from the EDL marched through the city centre shouting: "We want our country back." Earlier there was a stand-off between the EDL and Unite Against Fascism, who held a counter protest in the city.
Police mounted on horses were forced to hold back some of the demonstrators with batons and punches were thrown at police on the cordons. Many of the EDL demonstrators had their faces covered with hooded tops and scarves and shouted anti-Islamic slogans.
'No surrender'
Other protesters had Union Jacks and St George's flags which they either waved or wrapped around their shoulders as a police officer barked instructions at the crowd from a helicopter circling overhead.
Some of the group waved placards which read: "Protect Women, No To Sharia" and "No Surrender".
The EDL insists it is not a racist organisation and has no links to the BNP and is simply standing against the threat of Islamic extremism.
"If we don't have a protest then it's letting them come into town and say 'this is our place for the day', which it isn't " Michael Vickery Unite Against Fascism
A spokesman said they had planned the demo for Saturday as the Second Battalion the Mercian Regiment were holding a homecoming parade in Nottingham following a recent tour of Afghanistan.
Earlier the EDL and UAF exchanged hostile words in the city's Old Market Square.
Four people had been arrested for minor public order offences, police said. As the Mercian Regiment paraded through the city in the morning thousands of Christmas shoppers gathered to watch the 500 troops.
'Anti-British'
The homecoming parade followed a six-month tour of duty in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan, where the regiment lost five soldiers and dozens of its men were injured.
A 43-year-old EDL member, a serving soldier who did not want to be named, said: "We came here to support our lads, and the UAF and other militants have turned up.
"I think it's disgusting. I look at their protest and there's a Pakistani flag flying with a Muslim symbol. Their protest isn't against the EDL, they're protesting against the troops and it's anti-British.
"They haven't got one Union Jack or St George's Flag. I'm not a fascist, I'm not a Nazi but I am British."
Michael Vickery, from the UAF, said: "It's not good enough not to have any kind of a response (to the EDL presence) because basically, if we don't have a protest then it's letting them come into town and say 'this is our place for the day', which it isn't, it belongs to everyone in Nottingham."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/8396994.stm
Posted by: Michelle Nielsen
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Summary of the Iraq War files
Published: Sunday Telegraph 22 Nov 2009
On the eve of the Chilcot inquiry into Britain’s involvement in the 2003 invasion and its aftermath, The Sunday Telegraph has obtained hundreds of pages of secret Government reports on “lessons learnt” which shed new light on “significant shortcomings” at all levels.
They include full transcripts of extraordinarily frank classified interviews in which British Army commanders vent their frustration and anger with ministers and Whitehall officials.
DAY ONE
Iraq report: Secret papers reveal blunders and concealment
The “appalling” errors that contributed to Britain’s failure in Iraq are disclosed in the most detailed and damning set of leaks to emerge on the conflict.
The reports disclose that:
Tony Blair, the former prime minister, misled MPs and the public throughout 2002 over the timing of Britain's military planning.
The Foreign Office unit to plan for postwar Iraq was set up only in late February, 2003, three weeks before the war started.
The plans “contained no detail once Baghdad had fallen”, causing a “notable loss of momentum” which was exploited by insurgents.
Iraq report: Secret plans for war, no plans for peace
In the bitter aftermath of the Iraq invasion, Tony Blair was many times accused of sending British troops to war on a deceit. Troops 'rushed' into battle without armour or training
“Never again,” says the main “lessons learnt” report, “must we send ill-equipped soldiers into battle.” Britain 'unprepared' for nation building
“As soon as Saddam Hussein’s regime falls,” promised the Prime Minister, “the work to build a new, free and united Iraq will begin. A peaceful, prosperous Iraq which will be run by and for the Iraqi people.”
DAY TWO
Hostility between British and American military leaders revealed
Government documents leaked to The Telegraph reveal the deep hostility of Britain's military commanders towards US allies.
Iraq war caused rupture between British and American military
Iraq was supposed to cement Britain as America’s closest ally. But if the papers leaked to the Daily Telegraph are any guide, it caused not an improvement, but a significant rupture between the two countries’ military top brass
The Chilcot Inquiry: leaks at the heart of key issues
At 10 o’clock this Tuesday in the bland surroundings of Westminster’s Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, a retired Whitehall mandarin called Sir John Chilcot will begin the first hearings of the long-awaited public inquiry into the Iraq war.
Posted by: Michelle Nielsen
Saturday, 14 November 2009
Friday, 13 November 2009
"For your tomorrow, we gave our today"
By TOM NEWTON DUNNPolitical EditorPublished: The Sun Monday 09 Nov 2009
A BOY of seven symbolises the gratitude - and sadness - of a nation yesterday as he wears his grandad's medals at the Remembrance ceremony in London. Proud Connor Stickels - standing on a postbox so he could see above the crowd at the Cenotaph - gently touched the military awards presented to his 'gramps' - a Royal Navy veteran from World War II.
Connor had waited patiently in the crowd for three hours to pay the tribute to his beloved grandad, deceased Allan Slater, who took part in missions in the Atlantic as well as in Burma.
But the youngster's touching display of affection and pride on a cold November morning in London was being repeated across the country.
But the youngster's touching display of affection and pride on a cold November morning in London was being repeated across the country.
In the capital, it was the Queen who led the tributes. Under the heavy grey skies, she stood ramrod straight in respect in front of the Whitehall memorial as Big Ben chimed 11 o'clock to mark the start of a perfectly-kept two minutes' silence.
Prince Harry was representing Prince Charles, who is on a tour in Canada. The message on his wreath, written by his father, read: "In grateful and everlasting memory." But the wreath of other son Prince William was more touching.
Trainee RAF pilot William dedicated his message to two close Sandhurst friends who were killed in action in 2007. Referring to his mentor Major Alexis Roberts, killed in southern Afghanistan, and fellow officer cadet 2nd Lt Jo Dyer, it read: "In memory of Lex, Jo and others who have made the ultimate sacrifice."
The day had extra poignancy as it also marked the passing of a generation that had given so much. It was the first Remembrance Sunday ever - in 90 years - held with no World War I Army veterans left alive. The last Tommy from the 1914-18 conflict, Harry Patch, died aged 111 in July.
But with 2009 the most tragic year for the Forces since the Falklands War 27 years ago, the day had a special significance for people across the country. In many minds were the words that appear on the Kohima Memorial commemorating Allied troops who died in 1944 in the Burma campaign - "When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today."
One little girl facing a lifetime of sorrow, after the sacrifice made by her dad, was 11-year-old Poppy Griffith-Gibson.
Her Flight Sergeant father Mark was killed aboard an RAF C-130 in Iraq nearly five years ago.
She laid a poppy memorial to her dad at a service in Wootton Bassett, Wilts.
It was an appropriate location. The market town regularly turns out in its thousands to pay tribute to service victims being returned home from Afghanistan.
Christina Schmid, 34 - widow of bomb disposal hero Olaf Schmid - had to battle with her emotions as she honoured the staff sergeant at a service in Truro, Cornwall. Her husband, 30, was killed a week ago as he tried to defuse a bomb in Helmand.
With tears in their eyes and poppies pinned to their winter coats, ten year-old Adam Chant and sister Victoria, eight, stood proudly in line to remember their dad at a Remembrance service in Horndean, Hants.
Regimental Sergeant Major Darren "Daz" Chant, 40, was one of the five British troops murdered in cold-blood by a Taliban assassin posing as an Afghan cop last week.
Roger Patch, 52, grandson of last World War I Army veteran Harry Patch, paid an emotional tribute to him at his graveside in Monkton Combe, Somerset.
And in another touching tribute Alex Flintham, five, from Chadwell Heath, Essex, carried a cross with the names of four of his great great-grandads and great uncles who died in World War I.
There were services too in Afghanistan, with Britain's 9,000 troops holding frontline tributes to mark the loss of close comrades - including two over the weekend.
The Household Cavalry Regiment gathered around a wooden cross they had erected in Musa Qalah - the most remote forward operating base in Helmand. And the British task force's commander there, Brigadier James Cowen, laid a wreath at a memorial wall in Lashkar Gah.
The two troops to fall over the weekend were both killed near the hotspot town of Sangin, and both members of The Rifles.
The two troops to fall over the weekend were both killed near the hotspot town of Sangin, and both members of The Rifles.
Back in Britain, Chelsea players invited over 200 soldiers to their sell-out clash with Manchester United yesterday as a Remembrance Day tribute. CHIEF of the Defence Staff Sir Jock Stirrup yesterday said more needed to be done to show the British public that the mission in Afghanistan was "do-able". t.newtondunn@the-sun.co.uk
Posted by: Michelle Nielsen
Thursday, 12 November 2009
Soldier mum's disgust at condolence letter: PM couldn't even get our name right
By TOM NEWTON DUNNPolitical Editor
Published: The Sun Monday 09 Nov 2009
GORDON Brown was accused of disrespecting our war dead yesterday with TWO shameful blunders. He got a dead soldier's name WRONG in a letter to the hero's mum - and FAILED to bow at the Cenotaph.
His gaffes came despite The Sun's campaign to remind him there is a bloody war on.
Blundering Mr Brown left war hero Jamie Janes's grieving mother in tears by sending her an error-filled letter of condolence in which he even mis-spelled their name.
The hand-written note to heartbroken Jacqui JANES about her 20-year-old son, began: Dear Mrs JAMES.
Grenadier Guardsman Jamie was killed by a bomb in Afghanistan on October 5. PMs write to all next-of-kin of the fallen. Mr Brown's mistakes fuelled claims he does not care about Britain's forces. He telephoned Jacqui today to apologise for his mistake.
No comfort ... Jamie's mum Jacqui with a photo of him
Jacqui, 47, said: "He couldn't even be bothered to get our family name right. That made me so angry. "Then I saw he had scribbled out a mistake in Jamie's name. "The very least I would expect from Gordon Brown is to get his name right. "The letter was scrawled so quickly I could hardly even read it and some of the words were half-finished. It's just disrespectful."
In the original letter, Mr Brown: SPELLED Jamie incorrectly and then corrected it by scrawling over the last letter. COMMITTED four other spelling mistakes: Greatst for greatest, condolencs for condolences, you instead of your, and colleagus for colleagues. He also wrote the letter "i" incorrectly 18 times - mostly by leaving the dots off them but once by using two in "security".
And he ended with a repetition - writing "my sincere condolences" and then signing off "Yours sincerely".
Tragic ... Guards heroJamie Janes
Mum-of-six Jacqui went on: "In the days after Jamie's death I got letters from Prince Philip, Buckingham Palace, the Defence Secretary and his regiment. "They were all written from the heart and made me feel Jamie's death was important to them. Then I got Gordon Brown's. I only got through the first four lines before I threw it across the room in disgust.
"I re-read it later. He said, 'I know words can offer little comfort'. When the words are written in such a hurry the letter is littered with more than 20 mistakes, they offer NO comfort.
"It was an insult to Jamie and all the good men and women who have died out there. How low a priority was my son that he could send me that disgraceful, hastily-scrawled insult of a letter?
"He finished by asking if there was any way he could help.
"One thing he can do is never, ever, send a letter out like that to another dead soldier's family. Type it or get someone to check it. And get the name right."
Jamie joined the Grenadier Guards just after his 16th birthday, following his older brother Andrew, 26, into the Army. He died two weeks into his second Afghan tour, blasted by a hidden Taliban bomb.
His mum, from Portslade, East Sussex, said: "Jamie was the fifth generation from our family to join the infantry. "He was so proud to be serving his country and making life better for the people of Afghanistan. He told me how rewarding it was. "But the Government sent Our Boys and Girls out without the best equipment and my little boy came back in a coffin."
Four ex-military chiefs told Mr Brown on Friday that the Armed Forces "felt he has never really been on their side and they have not had his support".
A spokesperson for Mr Brown said last night: "The PM takes a great deal of time writing letters of condolence. "The reason he personally writes to every family is to acknowledge the debt of gratitude owed by the country to those who have died. "He would never knowingly mis-spell anyone's name."
Mr Brown has previously spoken of how he lost an eye in a rugby accident as a schoolboy.
He told the BBC's Andrew Marr in September: "I have had very serious problems with my eye and it has been very difficult over the years. But you can do a job, you can work hard."
t.newtondunn@the-sun.co.uk
Posted by: Michelle Nielsen
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
My Hero Oz saved lives, says his wife
(wearing Help for Heroes wristband)
Metro Friday 6th November 09Posted by: Michelle Nielsen
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Hero comrades reunited by Taliban bomb
Written by: Michael Smith
Published: Sunday Times 25/10/09
When Lance-Corporal David Timmins woke up in a British hospital after being badly injured by an explosion in Afghanistan, he was astonished to see his close friend, Sapper Matthew Weston, lying nearby. “When I came round, there was Matthew a few beds away,” Timmins said. “I couldn’t work out what had happened for a while.”
Timmins, 28, and Weston, 20, had been part of an army bomb disposal team. On the front line in Helmand province, Timmins’s quick thinking had helped to save Weston’s life when one of the Taliban bombs they had been trying to clear went off. Weston lost both legs and an arm.
Ten days later Timmins fell victim to another insurgent bomb that blinded him in one eye, punctured his liver and a kidney, took a chunk out of his skull and damaged his hearing.
Reunited in hospital, they found their injuries were so severe that they were barely able to communicate at first. Yet the two friends are now helping each other recover.
“Even if we couldn’t talk, we were pleased to see each other,” Timmins said. “We both knew exactly what the other had been through. We had shared so many experiences ... it was just good to have a mate close by. When we could talk, we spoke about everything under the sun except Afghanistan. Both of us wanted to concentrate on moving forwards.”
For Weston, the bond has been accentuated after he was verbally abused during hospital outings in a wheelchair with his mother and girlfriend. One youth taunted him with the sick joke: “Haven’t you forgotten something? Oh yeah — your legs.” Another told him: “If you didn’t want to be blown up, don’t go to war.”
The two soldiers met in April when they were deployed to Afghanistan and paired in a bomb disposal team. Weston, from Taunton, Somerset, a member of 33 Engineer Regiment, was a “high-risk search” expert who tracked down improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Timmins, a Glaswegian from 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, was a specialist infantry escort providing cover.
Describing the close-knit unit, Timmins said: “Normally there would be one or two blokes you didn’t get on with, living so close and in such stressful conditions. But in this case it was a really good bunch of lads and everybody gelled.
“Matthew stood out because he was so keen and had such a cheeky sense of humour — it was impossible not to like Westy. He was one of the best searchers on the team. It didn’t matter how long we’d been going, he was always super-switched-on during a patrol.
“We didn’t talk about the possibility of getting hurt, although I’m sure it was in the back of everyone’s mind — it certainly was in mine. You are going into the unknown every day so you don’t dwell on the worst that can happen.”
The team had been working hard, clearing 80 bombs over a three-month period, when the first explosion went off in July on a dirt track outside Sangin. “It was tense because we knew there were likely to be devices in the ground on the road ahead of us,” said Timmins, who is married with an 18-month-old son called Rhys.
“You really had to focus hour after hour, no matter how knackered you might have been or how hot it was.
“If your mind started to wander, if you started thinking about home or anything except the task at hand, you were going to get yourself and the team into a world of trouble.”
Timmins recalls kneeling down to pass some kit to a colleague: “And then, ‘Boom!’ Shrapnel and rock debris went flying over my head. We were totally stunned for several seconds. Our captain was yelling at us not to move in case we set off secondary devices.” Then Timmins realised that Weston had been caught in the blast and was rapidly losing blood. Three of his limbs had been blown off.
“We didn’t have time to clear a path to him. Three of us just ran over and started giving him first aid. None of us were medics but we knew what to do. I concentrated on his leg because he was bleeding from his femoral artery, which was a life-threatening wound in itself.”
After a helicopter airlifted Weston to the field hospital at Camp Bastion and the adrenaline of the moment drained away, team morale sank. “In our heart of hearts, we didn’t think he’d make it,” Timmins said. “If you talked about it, there was a risk you would break down.” However, the vital work of tracking down Taliban bombs could not stop. “We had no choice but to crack on.”
When news reached the unit that Weston had been transferred to Selly Oak hospital, Birmingham, and that his condition was stable, it provided a “massive boost”.
“We felt brilliant that he’d made it and it gave us confidence that if you could get back to Bastion still breathing, you’d have a good chance whatever the injury,” Timmins said.
Little did he know that he, too, would soon be testing the skill of the army’s medics. Less than a fortnight after the blast that had seriously injured Weston, Timmins and his team became suspicious as they were clearing a road into Sangin. “I took up a fire position beside a wall to cover the team in case they were attacked.
“We still don’t know how the IED was triggered, but a device hidden in the wall initiated [exploded] and that was the last thing I knew about it.”
Timmins took the brunt of the explosion and lost four pints of blood as he was caught up in a hail of shrapnel. “The blast ‘fragged’ me from head to foot. The injuries were bad, I’ve lost my right eye and the hearing in my right ear. My face is paralysed on that side.”
Doctors at Camp Bastion managed to stabilise Timmins but he remained unconscious as he was flown back to Britain.
At Selly Oak hospital, the soldier’s wife, Zoe, kept a vigil. “I just sat at his bedside, holding his hand and telling him all about my day, talking about everything, hoping he could hear my voice,” she said.
When Timmins woke from his coma, he was surprised yet relieved to see Weston on the same ward. “Since the blasts we’ve become really good mates,” Weston said this weekend. “It’s hard to explain. He has been through the same stuff — maybe not as much — but he understands what it’s like.”
The soldiers are now both recuperating at Headley Court, an army rehabilitation centre in Surrey. “There’s loads of banter from the lads, no pity at all, no feeling sorry for yourself,” Timmins said. “It’s a massive part of life getting back to anywhere near normal. A bunch of civvies would probably find the humour a bit sick, but it’s how we cope with it.”
Weston, who has managed to move almost 100ft using prosthetic limbs, is not bothered by the insults he received from the “drunken idiots” in Birmingham. “I’m quite happy to take the piss out of myself,” he added.
“One of the first things they said to me after I regained consciousness was, ‘The bad news is you’ve lost your legs; the good thing is you’ll never suffer from athlete’s foot or ingrowing toenails again.’ You have to be positive. I survived. I’m determined to walk again.”
Timmins, who will be fitted with a false eye, hopes to make a full recovery. “I’m fantastically proud of him,” said Zoe. “His injuries are bad but I just feel very lucky that he made it back home to us. We know that some men will never be coming home from this tour.”
Posted by: Michelle Nielsen
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Army draws up plan to send 1,000 more troops to Afghanistan
Written By: Michael Evans and Giles WhittellPublished: The Times Tuesday 22nd September 09
Britain is making plans to send up to 1,000 extra troops to Afghanistan to meet the call for reinforcements made by the US commander in Kabul.
The troops would be Britain’s contribution to a military surge called for by General Stanley McChrystal, who commands Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan, some details of which were leaked to an American newspaper yesterday.
A similar surge in troop numbers was credited with turning the tide in the war against insurgents in Iraq.
An extra 1,000 troops, the equivalent of a battlegroup, would increase Britain’s military presence to about 10,000. Britain’s force is already the second biggest after the US, which has 62,000 troops in Afghanistan and will increase this to 68,000 by the autumn.
In a choreographed plan by the Pentagon and the MoD, Nato would be requested for up to 30,000 extra troops to support the new strategy recommended by General McChrystal. Most of the reinforcements would come from the US.
Although Downing Street insisted yesterday that no formal proposals have yet been made, senior government figures acknowledge that a detailed request for more troops is being drawn up and will be presented to Gordon Brown and the Defence Secretary, Bob Ainsworth, once the McChrystal report has been published officially.
In his report General McChrystal calls for a surge in troops to accelerate the training of the Afghan National Army. He warns that without more troops and a new strategy Nato will fail to defeat the Taleban. He gives Nato 12 months in which to regain the initiative.
The Ministry of Defence, which now has a copy of the McChrystal report, is carrying out a review to see where there are gaps in Britain’s “theatre capability”.
Mr Brown had previously been reluctant to increase the number of troops beyond the exisiting level of 9,000 but is now said by Whitehall sources to be considerably more supportive of the need for more troops. The reason for his change of heart is that he sees the logic of boosting the number of troops to train the Aghan Army - a crucial step in Nato and Britain’s eventual exit strategy.
The Government and the military now believe that combat troops will be needed for at least another three to five years before there is any opportunity to draw back from the front line, allowing the Afghan troops to take over the principle security role.
Decisions on deployments are being delayed by continuing questions about the conduct of the Afghan elections, and it is highly unlikely that more troops will be announced until those questions are settled. MoD officials indicated yesterday that it was more likely that troop reinforcements would be fewer than 1,000.
A senior Nato diplomatic source said that Britain had a “spare troop capacity” of about 2,000 soldiers that could be provided for Afghanistan.
However, MoD officials said that about 1,000 extra troops had already been sent to Afghanistan this year - 200 specialists in countering roadside bombs and 700 soldiers for the election period, all of whom are staying, maintaining a baseline figure of 9,000 service personnel.
The reluctance by MoD officials to confirm a potential permanent force of 10,000 reflects the concern expressed by Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff, about imposing the same pressures on the Armed Forces as were experienced when they were fighting in two simultaneous campaigns - Iraq and Afghanistan. Before the Iraq campaign ended in July, there were 4,100 troops in Basra and 8,000 in Afghanistan.
The MoD officials also said that the Government would want to see which other Nato countries stepped up to the mark once the alliance’s North Atlantic Council formally discussed the requests for more troops made by General McChrystal and approved a “force-generation” programme for Afghanistan.
The senior Nato source said that Germany, France and Italy also had spare troop capacity. However, the death of six Italian soldiers in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan may have put paid to any offer of extra troops from Rome.
Silvio Berlusconi, the Prime Minister, said that his Government planned a “strong reduction” in Italy's total contingent of 3,100 troops. "We are all anxious and hopeful to bring our boys home as soon as possible,” he said.
The German Government might also find it difficult to send more troops given the increasing number of casualties its forces are suffering in northern Afghanistan. The French still have a heavy committment in the UN force in Lebanon and are unlikely to have sufficient troops to add substantially to their presence in Afghanistan until that commitment is reduced.
General McChrystal’s new strategy is based on the premise that more Western troops can mean fewer Western casualties in the long run, provided they are better briefed on how to interact with their hosts.
In his report, General McChrystal says that Isaf is too preoccupied with its own protection, too detached from the Afghan people it is meant to protect and “historically under-resourced” to fight a growing insurgency.
The result is a deteriorating security situation, despite the dispatching of 21,000 US reinforcements, and a “crisis of confidence” among Afghan civilians who might side with the insurgents at any sign of slackening Western resolve, the general states.
His assessment calls for “classic counter-insurgency operations” that “cannot be focused on seizing terrain or destroying insurgent forces; our objective must be the population”.
To win over wavering civilians, Western troops must first guarantee their security, and “security may not come from the barrel of a gun”, he says. “Better force protection may be counter-intuitive; it might come from less armour and less distance from the population.”
To induce low and mid-level Taleban fighters to switch sides, the assessment says that it must offer them a third option of “reintegration”, complete with wages and protection, in addition to the two options of capture and death that have faced them hitherto.
Yesterday a soldier from the 2nd Battalion The Mercian Regiment was killed by an explosion while on patrol in the Gereshk district in central Helmand. He was the 217th British serviceman to die in Afghanistan since 2001.
Posted by: Michelle Nielsen
Monday, 21 September 2009
Dame Vera Lynn: 'Stars need to do more for troops'
Dame Vera Lynn, back on top of the charts, tells Celia Walden politics should not stop us supporting the Forces.
She beat the Arctic Monkeys, the Kings of Leon and the Beatles to the top of the charts this month, becoming the oldest recording artist ever to have a number one album – but the best thing about Dame Vera Lynn is that she hasn't got the faintest idea who the first two are. "They were just names to me," she says, eyes creased up in amusement. "And fairly odd ones at that."
Despite selling more than 24,000 copies of her re-released wartime anthem of hope, We'll Meet Again, in the past week alone, Dame Vera – on a working holiday in Antibes yesterday to promote her autobiography, Some Sunny Day – remains matter-of-fact. "It was a surprise, obviously, a wonderful surprise," she says, agile and Riviera-tanned in white linen slacks and a coral jersey top, "but when my lawyer called to say that I was in the top 10, I assumed he was joking."
At 92 years of age, this Dame is unlikely to let the success go to her head.
"When I hear the songs come on the radio now, it feels so strange," she says, shaking her silver hair, fine as spun glass. "They were from another era, but I suppose something must resonate with people now. Maybe it's because young people are living through another war, albeit a far away one, that they have a renewed interest in what came before."
Released for the 70th anniversary of the declaration of the Second World War earlier this month, Dame Vera's album was originally recorded at the Decca studios when she was just 21.
Something in the unabashedly sentimental nature of the album's title song, We'll Meet Again, coupled with the genuine, unsophisticated quality of her voice struck a chord: overnight Dame Vera became the "Forces Sweetheart", as she is still remembered more than half a century later.
Through the early 1940s, she toured Egypt, India and Burma tirelessly, baring her mosquito-bitten arms in the evening wear that she was given extra coupons to buy, visiting hospitals and setting up her own radio show, Sincerely Yours, especially for the boys.
Her generation will tell you that she was an anti-celebrity from a purer time, a time when stars wore civvies not Versace, a time of poverty and patriotism when entertaining the troops was about them – not you. "I didn't think I was doing anything special," she shrugs. "All I wanted to do was to help the boys. When I went to see them I lived just like they did, in grass huts with buckets of water instead of facilities." Hard to imagine Madonna doing that now. Is she surprised by the lack of public support famous musicians like Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Bob Geldof are prepared to offer the troops now, scared, perhaps, to take a view in a politicised war?
"I am," she nods sadly. "I don't know why it is that they don't do more and I don't think any young stars are writing songs for them either. Look, I don't really know what this war in Afghanistan is all about or what our boys are doing there," for the first time in our interview her voice loses its steadiness. "They're not getting killed for their own country and Gordon Brown needs to bring them home, but public figures shouldn't look at war in terms of politics: they should just think of the boys and want to help them in any way they can. When you're on the front line, you need to know that you are not being forgotten, but that means going out to wherever the war is."
Fame, in her view, comes with its own responsibilities. "It is your duty, part of the business, to take on the tough stuff otherwise you have no right to be in this business.
"I used to bomb around London in my little Austin 10 throughout the raids to appear on stage and if there was a raid before the show was over I would be there, crouching on a floor wherever I could find a big thick wall.
"You can't have it all one way – be on the telly and the radio and make lots of money – and not offer anything to your followers when they need you."
But today's cult of celebrity, she fears, now means that "so many go into the business just to be famous, not because they are passionate about their craft".
Born in East Ham, east London, in 1917 to a plumber father, Vera Margaret Welch started her singing career at local working men's clubs aged just seven. Although traces of her once broad cockney accent still come through, years spent in Ditchling, East Sussex (where she and her daughter Virginia Lewis-Jones from her 58-year marriage to the late Harry Lewis, a clarinettist, now live) have softened it somewhat.
Despite offers of lucrative music contracts in America, Dame Vera chose not to emigrate for one simple reason: "England, through good times or bad, was the only place I wanted to be."
Money and the good life, she insists, have never been a driving force for her, which may be just as well: a copyright loophole means performers stop receiving royalties 50 years after a song was first released, so Dame Vera won't receive a penny from her recent success – they all go to the record label instead.
"Of course it's crazy and they should change that rule, but I've got my lawyer looking into things to see if something fairer can't be arranged," she says vaguely. When I tell her that the Performing Arts Society have calculated she would be earning £18 a minute she just laughs. "Really? Look, as long as people enjoy the records, you know…."
This article appeared on the front page of the 19th September Daily Telegraph. Hopefully this will encourage stars to give more to the troops and get involved with our charity event.
Posted by: Michelle
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
