Monday, February 09, 2009

"in all my time in the army I have never been issued with so much equipment and of such good quality"

There has been criticism of the Ministry of Defence and the Government for providing inadequate equipment and support to British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some of it I have no doubt was justified much of it was not.

It is therefore interesting to see this report below from Ipswich Labour Councillor and blogger Alasdair Ross as he prepares for his deployment with 2 Rifles to Afghanistan later this year.

Alasdair left the regular Army as a Sergeant Major in 2002 after 24 years service with the Royal Green Jackets. He has been granted leave of absence from the Council for his tour. Check out here.

"Not blogged for a while as I have been involved in pre Afghanistan deployment training- training for a hot summer in Afghanistan with a freezing two weeks in Wiltshire!

But today in Northern Ireland we were issued our desert clothing and equipment. The reason I mention this is that there has been much criticism in certain papers about the lack of equipment our troops are issued with.

Well in all my time in the army I have never been issued with so much equipment and of such good quality.

Of course our troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan deserve the best equipment but the papers (and the Tories) should say well done when the MOD and the Government get it right".

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

See what he says when he gets back...

Anonymous said...

in unison we should be issued with ice picks

Anonymous said...

I had dinner with a senior serving Army Officer on Saturday night and this was not the view he expounded? I guess he doesn't know what he's talking about?

John Gray said...

Sorry this is late. Actually anon 20.55 I would rather prefer the account from someone whose gives his name and whose credibility is known rather than some unnamed “dinner guest”.