Category Archives: military

Why the new Army recruitment campaign is way off target.

army, recruitment, muslim, sikh, homosexualLike many of my fellow vets, I was taken aback by the recent announcement that the Army are about to launch a new recruitment campaign aimed at various minority groups and underlining the notion that it is OK for the average squaddie to show their feelings.

Now when I say taken aback, what I actually mean is enraged. In fact so angry was I that I actually turned down a couple of requests to discuss it on the radio for fear of dropping myself in the crap by saying something I shouldn’t.

Twenty-four hours later, with my blood pressure having returned to something approaching normal, I thought it time to have my say. Although it might surprise you to discover that my anger is not actually due to the sentiment behind this campaign because I can kind of see what they were thinking, even if the concept is massively flawed. No, my angst comes from the fact that these adverts seem to infer certain things. Not least that there is, or was, a culture of racism and homophobia amongst those who served and those who continue to do so. Equally, there is a suggestion, albeit a slight one, that people from minority backgrounds, or who are ‘emotional’  are somehow lesser soldiers than those recruited from the mainstream. And by mainstream, I mean the working class heterosexual males (increasingly the most demonised ethnic grouping in Britain today. But that’s another debate) from whom the vast majority of recruits are drawn. 

The very idea of this is bullshit. Indeed, it’s actually offensive.

It’s safe to say that during my 18 odd years in uniform, albeit a blue one, I served proudly alongside men of pretty much every religion and ethnic background and despite it being illegal at the time, more than a few homosexuals, both male and female. Furthermore, I saw more than my fair share of men and women utterly distraught at things they had witnessed or experienced. From Para’s who had fought at Goose Green and men who had survived the sinking of HMS sheffield to ground crew whose aircraft and aircrew had failed to return from what should have been routine missions. I’m certainly not ashamed to say that on occasions, even I shed a tear or two.

But I certainly never thought any less of any of these individuals because they were different from me in any way and I would put money on the fact that they never thought any less of me. The reason being that we were comrades, bound by a sense of duty to our country and defined by the colour of the uniform we wore and if one of us was having a tough time, the rest dug in and helped them out. If that meant sitting with them for a while, giving them a bit of space or even taking them out on the piss, then that’s what we did. Anything to help them get through whatever was causing them difficulty.

That’s how bonds are forged and those bonds are lifelong. Indeed, they are one of the best things about having been in the military as almost every veteran will tell you. That’s why we value that little enamel badge so highly and why most of us love a good parade! 

However, to return to the case in point, the real issue I have with these adverts is not with who they are aimed at, it’s that they avoid one fundamental truth. For the British Army doesn’t have a recruitment problem because of the changing nature of our society, it has a recruiting problem because it has a retention problem.

And it has a retention problem because these days the average soldier serves in an Army which is increasingly failing to look after those who serve, especially after discharge.

How many heartbreaking tales of PTSD related illness or even suicide do we have to read about before someone realises that mental health is a serious issue in the Armed Forces? How many tales of homeless veterans do we have to hear before someone acts and starts putting pressure on local councils to make veterans a priority for housing?

How many government sponsored witch hunts will we have to endure before someone at the MOD grows some balls and cries enough? Even the SAS have fallen under their radar now, seemingly to the delight of certain politicians.

And it gets worse. Over the years I have heard numerous tales of War Widows, surely the most honourable and most deserving of people this country has, being treated appallingly by the MOD and local authorities. 

Serving soldiers see all this, and that’s why they’re leaving in droves. But these issues are also why fewer and fewer people are looking at the military as a career. They don’t just read and hear the stories but they see their mates being cut loose and left to fend for themselves. Who would want to walk into that?

As I say, I understand the sentiment behind these adverts and to be honest, I hope they succeed because the military is a fantastic career. But the simple fact remains that the British Army doesn’t need a politically correct recruiting campaign, it needs to start showing some basic loyalty and common sense toward the men and women currently in uniform and some basic compassion to those no longer serving.

If it starts to do that, it will rapidly discover that the best recruiting tool the Army has is itself.

@dougiebrimson

football, soccer, comedy, cost of football, manchester united, liverpool, derby, watfordJust in case you didn’t already know, all of my books and DVD’s are available from both Amazon and iTunes.

Further information at dougiebrimson.com

army, navy, RAF, soldiers, homosexual, homophobia, muslim, hindu, sikh, jewish, men, women

Enough is enough. The time has surely come to let our dogs off their leash.

ManchesterEnough with the hashtags, the vigils, the understanding, the calls for calm, for unity, for tolerance and enough of waiting. Yes, waiting.

Waiting for the next piece of human garbage to blow himself up, drive into pedestrians, hack the head off an off-duty servicemen or carry out whatever depraved act they want to do in the name of their warped idealism.

And it’s coming. We all know it’s coming.

Is this the life we want now? A life where fear is a constant emotion whenever we step onto a tube train or into a public place? When the sight of an armed policeman or even a soldier on our streets brings a sense of relief?

I don’t. I suspect you don’t either.

I don’t want to wait until mass mourning becomes a national pastime, I want action. And action of the type that isn’t even being talked about openly purely for fear of upsetting the very people who caused this problem in the first place. The liberal left and the do-gooders driven by their politically correct and anti-British madness. The minority. Remember that, they are the minority.

Well sod that and sod them. They had their chance and their failure was catastrophic.

To them, the only answers are long-term. Education, deradicalisation, community involvement, unity, tolerance, carry on regardless. But doing that merely normalises terrorism by giving it time to become routine. Well we don’t have time because the problem is imminent as evidenced by the sight of soldiers on our streets. OUR streets! And imminent problems demand immediate action.

The first move must be to take the fight to the 3000 individuals who currently sit on our terror watch list because that is where the danger lies. So, as the bodies of our children still lie cold in the morgues of Manchester, the time has surely come to get them off our streets and into internment camps. And those who are considered as significant threats, take them out. Period.

Who would mourn? Seriously. Who would even know let alone care?

Now I know that there will be those reading this who will throw the Islamophobic or race card at me because that’s their bog standard response to anything they don’t agree with and there will be others who will talk about giving up the fundamental rule of law which is innocent until proven guilty (although oddly, they don’t complain when that is applied to football fans, but that’s another debate).

But they are wrong.

This isn’t about race or religion,it is about a war and be we Christian, Muslim, Jew, Sikh, Buddhist or clingon, we are all of us in very real danger at the hands of an enemy who live not in some far flung land, not in aircraft flying overhead dropping bombs on us or even in submarines lobbing inter-continental missiles in our direction, but right in our midst.

What we need to do is face up to that fact and understand that the war we are involved in is being fought against an uncivilised, barbaric enemy which doesn’t abide by the Geneva Convention, has no rules of combat, no morals and no honour. Instead, it wants only to bring death and destruction to our shores, our countrymen and to our way of life. The death of 22 young people in Manchester on Monday night proves that.

Well enough is enough. We have the best security services and special forces in the world and the time has come to let them off the leash and let them take the fight directly to the enemy who skulk in our gutters.

Because the unpalatable truth is that ultimately, as we saw with the IRA, stepping outside of the rule of law and cutting the head off the snake is the only way we’re ever going to get close to winning this particular war.

@dougiebrimson

sex, lads romance, love, vibrator, george clooney, fart

football, soccer, comedy, cost of football, manchester united, liverpool, derby, watfordJust in case you didn’t already know, all of my books and DVD’s are available from both Amazon and iTunes.

Further information at dougiebrimson.com

beer, lads, women, men, relationships, sex, love, romance, author, screenwriting, ebooks, self publishing, indie film, football, twitter, trolls, trolling, facebook, social media

 

 


Why I support ‘Free Marine A’.

marine, army, Afghanistan, Iraq, This morning, suited and booted, I will be joining the ranks of the masses commuting into London.

This in itself, is hardly a big deal. After all, there are millions of people who do the same thing every single day but for me, it’s a very rare occasion. Normally, I avoid the rush hour like the proverbial plague.

Today however, isn’t a normal day. It’s actually a very special day. For at 11.30, a large group of military veterans led by a sizeable contingent of former Royal Marines, will gather in Parliament Square in a silent show of support for Sergeant Al Blackman who is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of a Taliban insurgent. And I will be one of them.

Don’t get me wrong, Sgt Blackman served in a very different military from the one I did. His career as a member of one of the worlds elite military fighting units involved front line combat in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan amongst other places. Mine, as a ground engineer in the Royal Air Force, generally involved avoiding work where possible and trying to squeeze as much money as possible from the RAF Motorsports Association.

However, we have one thing in common: we wore a British military uniform and whilst the colour of our beret’s was, and is, vastly different, it gives us a common bond. Which is why, like all the veterans in attendance tomorrow as well as the many thousands who cannot make it, I will be doing my utmost to show my disgust at the fact that a brave man languishes in prison simply because he was hung out to dry by the very people who were, and are, supposed to protect him.

So if you’re in London todayand you see anyone wearing anything which marks them out as ex-military, you know where they’re either going or have been.

I know they would appreciate your support.

If you would like to know more about the background to the case of Marine A, please read this article by the author Frederick Forsyth.  

@dougiebrimson


football, comedy, humour, rivals, derby, soccer, premier league, championship, manchester united, chelsea, liverpoolMy numerous books including the football comedy Wings of a Sparrow and the #1 thrillers,The Crew and Top Dog are available from both Amazon and iTunes.  

Please click on the relevant link for more information.

These vindictive and cowardly attacks on our Armed Forces must be stopped.

veteran1It may or may not have escaped your attention that our Armed Forces are currently under attack. Not from ISIS (or whatever they’re calling themselves these days) but from a new enemy.

Ambulance chasers, traitors, filth, cowards, call them what you will (and trust me, whatever term you want to use, I agree with you) this enemy within is profiting, if not driving, a witch hunt against over 250 serviceman and veterans on the basis of often spurious historical allegations made against them  during operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland.

That this is being allowed to continue is wrong on so many levels but the fact that the bulk of it is being funded by the tax payer, that’s you and me, beggars belief. What other country on this planet would send it’s men and women off to war and then undermine them in such a heartless and gutless manner once they return home? Isn’t it bad enough that so many are leaving the forces without proper medical care, work or even homes?

However, whilst all of this heaps further shame on an already shamed Ministry of Defence and the resident of 10 Downing Street, there is a silver lining. For in the face of this injustice, the veteran community are being unified like never before.

Army, Navy or RAF, you come after one, you come after us all and the vast majority of us have quite simply had enough of being targeted whilst the terrorists and guilty politicians walk free. And make no mistake, that same sentiment is increasingly being felt by those still in uniform.

We have already seen peaceful protests in London in support of Marine A and in Birmingham in support of L/Cpl J and more are planned for the coming months but in addition, the following advice is urgently being circulated to all those who have or who may or may not be contacted by any organisation carrying out an investigation of this kind:

1) Ignore any letters. They have NO relevance in law.

2) Do not under any circumstances attend any place or office if requested. If they want you, let them arrest you and a whole new ball game opens up.

3) If arrested say nothing request a lawyer. Number, rank, name is sufficient. 

4) Whoever arrests you has 24 hours to charge or release you.

5). A tactic may be to bail you ‘pending further enquiries’ if this happens make an immediate complaint against arresting officer. This is a ‘historic enquiry’ so what further enquiries are necessary?

6). Make a Freedom of Information demand to the MOD for the identity of the complainant and, more importantly, if the complainant is or was a paid intelligence source. This will really mess them up because if there is even a sniff of something untoward, they will have to drop it for fear of negative publicity.

Please help by circulating this information (or this blog) to any serviceman or veteran you might know because one way or another, we have to put a stop to it. 

After all, if a nation puts its military on the back foot it won’t be too long before it doesn’t have a military left. And in these uncertain times, we as a nation are going to need them more than ever.

If you would like to see more information about the kind of thing going on, please visit one of the following:

Army chief backs Iraq troops

I’d rebuilt my life… 

Just leave me be…

Why this photo haunts my writing life. 

Harrier, author, writing, football, filmOn Dec 31st 1975, a week short of my 17th birthday, I left the confines of my happy, if chaotic, family home and headed off for an adventure. Or to put it another way, I headed off to begin my basic training in the Royal Air Force.

I have written about my time in the military many times and no doubt, will do so again as I become more and more involved in all things veteran. However, the more I think back to those days, the more I have one very specific regret; I never kept a diary. As a consequence, I’ve forgotten far more than I can remember.

Take the photo at the top of this blog. Yes, that fresh faced lad on the left is me, standing alongside a gentleman (and I use that term loosely) named Pete Cutler. It was taken in approximately 1980/81 and the fact that we were on deployment with the Harrier Force and flying out of a forest somewhere in Germany are about the only details I can remember with any degree of accuracy.

On the face of it, that would be enough. It is after all, a relatively simple picture. However, that single photograph serves as a portal into a unique world that very few people ever got to experience. I’m not talking about being at the sharp end of the West’s response to the threat posed by the Soviet Union or the fact that we were working with what was possibly the greatest military aircraft of all time. I’m taking about what went on when the flying stopped and we were free to relax. And when I say relax, I mean get up to mischief.  

Indeed, it’s safe to say that were I ever to write my autobiography, life out in the field with 4 Squadron RAF (and Mister Cutler for that matter) provided that young fresh faced lad on the left with enough anecdotes to fill more than a chapter or two.

Blagging a flight in the rear seat of a T2 Harrier, living in an abandoned Nazi Hospital, swearing at Fergie (the Princess, not the manager), waking up in a lake (literally), encounters with the SAS, getting shot at and even late night visits to live sex shows are amongst numerous tales I have rattling around my head from those days but sadly, thanks to the obligatory intake of vast amounts of duty-free alcohol coupled with the passing of far too many years, the details of most are at best sketchy and at worst, vague. Yet had I kept even a simple diary, all of this history and more would be at my fingertips ready to be transcribed.

The fact that I didn’t is one of my greatest regrets and not just as a writer or even as a veteran, but as someone who has lived and enjoyed their life. Then again, if I were able to put it all on paper, it’s fairly safe to say that it would be quite a read!

So please, whoever you are and whatever you do, keep a diary, even a basic one. And urge your kids to do the same. You never know when it might come in handy.

@dougiebrimson

football, comedy, humour, rivals, derby, soccer, premier league, championship, manchester united, chelsea, liverpoolMy numerous books including the football comedy Wings of a Sparrow and the #1 thrillers,The Crew and Top Dog are available from both Amazon and iTunes.  

Please click on the relevant link for more information.

 

It’s not shoot to Kill, it’s shoot to stop.

armed police,paris,ISIS,terrorism,londonThere has been a lot of talk today about the idea of a shoot to kill policy, much of which is clearly coming from people who have probably never even held a weapon let along fired one in anger.

Central to their opinion is the idea that if an armed policeman finds themselves in a situation where they have to discharge a round, they should employ a shoot to wound policy. This would allow the assailant to be questioned and/or face justice at a later date.

Now whilst I am certainly no expert, I have let off more than a few rounds in my time and so with that in mind, I can state with some degree of authority that the idea of a shoot to wound policy is bollocks.

This is real life, not a playstation game or a Hollywood movie. You don’t shoot to wound, you don’t even shoot to kill, you shoot to stop. As such, those trained to use a firearm in the execution of their duty, be they soldier or copper, are taught to aim at the central mass because if you take a round in the chest, you are almost certainly going to be in serious trouble. At best you’ll have been  stopped, at worst, you’ll be dead. And in all honesty, in either case you’ll only have yourself to blame because you’ll have been doing something you really shouldn’t have been.

Shoot to wound isn’t even practical anyway. These are marksmen, not medics. And leaving aside the difficulties of trying to hit an almost certainly moving target whilst under the intense pressure of a firearms situation, what about the implications for the officer if they fired a shot and missed? What offence would they be guilty of if the assailant went on to blow themselves up, kill a member of the public or a fellow officer? Or what if their shot hit an innocent passerby? And how about if they took the shot to wound but killed their target instead? The lawyers would have a bloody field day.

We owe the security forces in this country a huge debt and over the coming months we will need them more than ever. If the police are in a position where they are forced to take fire at a target it will be as the very last resort and at that point, we need them to be 100% focussed on what they have to do.

The idea of placing an additional pressure on them is not only ludicrous, it is downright dangerous.

@dougiebrimson

football, comedy, humour, rivals, derby, soccer, premier league, championship, manchester united, chelsea, liverpoolMy numerous books including the football comedy Wings of a Sparrow and the #1 thrillers,The Crew and Top Dog are available from both Amazon and iTunes.  

Please click on the relevant link for more information.

police,terrorism,armed,ISIS,ISIL,Islam,war,military