Waiting for news from Afghanistan

On New Years Day we went out for a meal in Llandudno, North Wales with our pregnant niece, the lovely Holly, her partner Mike and family. The meal started out a little tense since Mike’s brother is in 45 Commando, Royal Marines in Afghanistan and his Mum had just rang Mike to say that the TV had reported that there had been a further combat fatality that day but they were not releasing any names.

Mike handled the news very well. 45 Commando had suffered a number of casualties that tour and he obviously had gone through this awful waiting period before.

Mike had to leave the table during the meal to take a mobile telephone call. However, he came back to the table to tell us that bizarrely a very close friend of his had just won £50,000 on a lottery scratch card! His friend had texted a photo of the winning card. So good news!

A little while later Mike had another text to ring his Mum and he left the table suddenly. A short time later he came back with a big smile; his brother had rang his Mum from Afghanistan, and was safe and sound. Big cheers from everyone at the table.

We were a happy family who enjoyed their meal but I think we were all aware of those families who did not have good news this Christmas or beforehand. Our thoughts are with them all.

Our thanks to all British forces personnel who are putting themselves in harms way. Hero’s everyone of them, Per Mare Per Terram (or Air).

Remembering HMS Ardent – 25 years after victory in the Falklands

Off message: Yesterday I was listening to the “Today” programme when they interviewed Admiral Sir Alan West, former First Sea lord, over the 25th anniversary of the ending of the Falklands War. Sir Alan had been the commander of HMS Ardent which had been sunk by Argentine jets on 21 May 1982 killing 22 men out of 199 crew. The ship was supporting Royal Marines landing in San Carlos Water. He spoke movingly about how he felt at the time about surviving the attack when so many of his crew had died.

HMS Ardent was hit by 17 bombs in less than 22 minutes. Sir Alan was the last person to leave the ship before it sank.

In 1982 I was a student at Leeds University and had recently joined the Territorial Army. I volunteered for a residential course over Easter with 29 Commando Regiment (Royal Artillery). It was without doubt the hardest and most demanding thing I have ever done. We all arrived by train in the evening (about 25 students, male and female) and told to go for a meal at the mess and to start the course the next morning. Half way through the meal we were told to finish up and change into overalls and boots for a run. There then followed an hour’s run up and down Plymouth followed by us all jumping into the sea, fully clothed, from a local pier, then running back. The rest of the course was pretty much of the same. Lots of running with kit and rifles, timed assault courses, swimming with webbing through outdoor water tunnels, death slides, abseiling and finishing with an overnight exercise on Dartmoor.

For an afternoon off we had a visit to Plymouth Naval base to visit a local warship. We spend a pleasant afternoon on board. The crew were very friendly, enthusiastic and obviously proud of their ship. They showed us all around the ship, practiced emergency drills and what to do if equipment failed. Our chief guide was a very relaxed Aussie (?) who loved the navy. I remember thinking how small the ship was and how close its community must get on active service. The visit was a welcome respite with no one shouting at us or making us do horrible things. The ship was of course HMS Ardent. The next month it was sunk and over 10% of its crew was dead. I don’t know how many were injured. The average age on board was 23 years old. I was then 19.

The course ended with an exercise in Dartmoor in freezing cold conditions. We bivouac overnight before a dawn mock infantry attack. During the evening one of our senior 29 Commando instructors was holding forth about the terrible state of the youth of this country and how the whole country is "going to the dogs". I am sure that in every army (or navy or air force) and in every age there has ever been, senior non-commissioned officers have been saying this same sort of thing. He finished his diatribe by saying “what this country needs is a bloody good war!” A few weeks later he was shipped out with his battery to the Falklands'.

Welcome home! The true story can now be told

“We had a blindfold and plastic cuffs, hands behind our backs, heads against the wall. Basically there were weapons cocking. Someone, I'm not sure who, someone said, I quote, 'lads, lads I think we're going to get executed'. After that comment, someone was sick and as far as I was concerned he had just had his throat cut.” Royal Marine Joe Tindell

Good to see the Royal Navy and Marines home at last, safe and well (in the circumstances). I think that they did a very good job under horrendous conditions. Faced with the prospect of summary execution or 7 years in an Iranian jail (pretty much the same thing) the "tongue in cheek" apologies by the Brits for the “apparent” intrusion into Iranian waters, fooled no-one except their less than bright kidnappers. Irony is apparently lost on Islamic fascists. Who it is clear simply had no idea how this television footage was being interpreted world wide. Nor the support they had created for a pre-emptive attack on their nuclear facilities (which I don't share - at the moment).

The Iranians behaved in the usual appalling brutal manner, pretty much as most right thinking people expected. It is such a same that such a country with such a rich culture and proud history is presently been run by an ignorant and uneducated leadership. The BBC are now reporting that their ambassador Rasoul Movahedian is saying “Iran seeks goodwill over captives”. This raises the question what qualities are needed to become an Iranian Ambassador? Is the lobotomy compulsory (or even necessary due to the obvious inbreeding by the Iranian diplomatic corp?)

While the “Far Left” and “Right” (increasingly two sides of the same coin on such issues) in this country haven’t exactly showed much judgement on how to respond. On the one hand we get the usual suspects such as John McNoHoper MP sticking up for Iran and we get twassocks such as the Daily Mail who attacked the hostages as “puppets” who should have fought to the last bullet.

There are elements in the Far Left who will automatically side with anyone who appears to be “anti-American”. See the tosh spoken also about Mugabe, while the Daily Mail is also so keen to attack Labour that they will stoop to any depths.

The person who seems to have come out of this the best is Tony Blair. “Tone” and I have had our differences over the years. However, he and Beckett seem to have handled this very well. By being firm but measured the Iranians were boxed into a corner and realised that Britain would not apologise to Iran and they had to back down.

I think that we ought to make sure that boarding parties are properly protected in the future and that Iran is aware of what will be the militery response if they try a similar trick in the future. If any Iranian warship comes any near any British craft then the Iranians face an early bath.