Saturday - July 24, 2010

Screwing the pooch is a government job function

Welcome Back Peiper!

Welcome Back Peiper? (Why is it I suddenly have visions of Arnold Horshack?)

Anyway, peiper, this one’s for you:

Lone Castle Transvestite in Black Dress

(Cornwall, England) This story has multiple elements of alternative human behavior in a castle of King Henry VIII.

A transvestite had sex with a dog in the moat of an English Heritage castle. The cross-dressing man was caught with the animal in the dry moat of King Henry VIII’s Pendennis Castle overlooking Falmouth Bay in Cornwall.

The 33-year-old mounted the pet after it chased him out of sight of its woman owner.

The owner had been walking around the ancient castle with a friend when the pair spotted the lone transvestite on the morning of Saturday July 10th at around a quarter to twelve.

He was wearing a black dress and walking around the steep-walled, empty moat.

As the two ladies spotted the cross dresser he ran away. Later one of the dogs chased after the man; by the time the women had caught up, the man was having sex with the pet.

The police were called, the transvestite was detained, and then escorted home where he was cautioned about outraging public decency. A police spokesman said the lone transvestite was handed over to liaison agencies, whatever they are.

[Add.] It’s not known whether or not sex with a dog that chases you is against the law in England. However, general everyday sex with a dog appears to be quite legal and widely practiced among the political elite.

After all, when one observes absolute moronic law-making and governance, one must conclude that screwing the pooch is a government job function.

Emphasis added.

H/T Interested Participant

Posted by Christopher     on 07/24/2010 at 06:34 PM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Odd-Strange •  
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   Sunday - March 21, 2010

ENCIRCLED BATTLING BRITS FIGHT OFF SUICIDAL TALIBAN ATTACKS

A good read and I’ve nothing to add. Story speaks well for itself.

I’ve edited quite a bit due to the length. See the link for all of it.

‘It was like Zulu’

How British troops in Afghanistan fought to the point of exhaustion against the Taliban.

By Sean Rayment

It became known as “the battle of Crossing Point One”. In a series of suicidal attacks late last year, hard-core Taliban fighters tried to over-run an isolated British base on the northern tip of Nad e’Ali. Had the insurgents succeeded, the victory would have been a propaganda coup par excellence, and the British mission in central Helmand could have been seriously jeopardised.

For two gruelling weeks in the area of Luy Mandah, 30 soldiers fought a 360-degree battle with the Taliban in the most arduous conditions. The combat was often at close quarters where bayonets were fixed and hand grenades became the weapons of choice for the beleaguered British troops. By the battle’s end, every man in the platoon was credited with at least one Taliban kill.

The troops from 5 Platoon No 2 Company 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, commanded by Lieutenant Craig Shephard, 24, and Sergeant Dean Bailey, 36, decided to exploit the Taliban’s fondness for attacking wounded soldiers by constructing an ambush based on a fake IED strike. After the explosives were detonated, the Taliban – as expected – quickly appeared with a two-man Pakistani sniper team leading the way. As the British troops pulled back to the base, the Pakistanis were shot dead by hidden British snipers – both dispatched with head shots from 400 metres. When the Taliban pushed forward towards the base, they were cut down by raking machine-gun fire and Javelin missiles. After two hours of fighting, 10 Taliban lay dead.

The fighting lasted for most of the day. By sunset, the British troops estimated they had killed another 30 Taliban – bringing the number of enemy dead to 40 in less than 24 hours.

Back in enemy territory, a force of around 100 to 150 Taliban fighters – including Chechens, Arabs and English-speaking Islamists from south Asia – was preparing more attacks.

The battle continued for days with such regularity that the soldiers knew that it would begin in the morning after breakfast, followed by a lull at midday, and would then continue until sunset. “It was like Zulu,” said Sgt Bailey. “The Taliban just kept coming and coming. It was suicidal. The more they sent, the more we killed.”

“I started to rotate the guys after a week. They were shattered. But it was everything you wanted from leadership. The guys were tested to the limit – no one let me down.”

Lt Shephard, who joined the Army in 2007, said: “Every platoon commander wants to come to Afghanistan and have ‘their fight’. But you have to be careful what you wish for. We were lucky. We got away without any serious casualties.”

MORE OF THE STORY HERE

Posted by peiper     on 03/21/2010 at 12:31 PM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • UK • War-Stories •  
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   Friday - March 19, 2010

One hell of brave Battling Brit, kept on defying Taliban death traps

One hell of a brave soldier!  Just another fine example of Brit training and bravery in the field.  There’s so many articles about the useless scum in the streets that sometimes we lose site of guys like this cos they do not alway get the spotlight.  (gee, I hope he likes poetry cos according to one would be expert, those who don’t are lesser beings. )

George Cross heroes: The bomb experts who kept on defying Taliban death traps

By Ian Drury and Fay Schlesinger
Last updated at 4:30 PM on 19th March 2010

After booby-trap bombs killed two of his comrades and left four maimed and stranded in the middle of a minefield, Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes knew he had no time to consider his own safety.

The bomb disposal expert had to clear a path across the dusty open ground so the wounded could be evacuated and the dead men retrieved - and he had to do it fast.

Shunning protective clothing to save time, the 30-year-old picked his way across the field dotted with more of the booby-trap bombs.

And all the time he knew the field was being watched by the Taliban fanatics who had planted the bombs. Indeed, even as he inched nearer the injured men, bullets were flying overhead as other soldiers tried to keep the gunmen at bay.

But, keeping his cool beneath the Afghan sun, he managed to dismantle seven of the improvised explosive devices - three by simply using his hands. There was no time to place charges and retreat to a safe distance.

His actions were described as ‘extraordinary’ by senior Army officers and yesterday Staff Sgt Hughes was awarded the George Cross for carrying out ‘the single most outstanding act’ of bomb disposal in Afghanistan.

It was one of two GCs - the UK’s highest accolade for gallantry not in the face of the enemy - to be conferred. The other was awarded posthumously to his friend and fellow bomb disposal expert Staff Sgt Olaf Schmid, 30

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 03/19/2010 at 01:45 PM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Heroes • Military • UK • War-Stories •  
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   Monday - March 15, 2010

BATTLING BRITS IN AFGHANISTAN ….

Nothing for me to add here except to say these fellows are damn good and uphold a long and proud military tradition. They are better and braver then many who are representing them. 

Inside Afghanistan: the sniper’s tale

Heathcliff O’Malley (camera) and David Ferrarotto
Published: 12:30PM GMT 15 Mar 2010

As part of The Telegraph’s series of videos looking at life for the British Army in Afghanistan, we hear from a sniper whose daily challenge is to kill before he is killed.

Telegraph photojournalist Heathcliff O’Malley spent two weeks embedded with British troops in Helmand, Afghanistan.

In this exclusive series, he shows what life is really like on the ground for the 10,000 soldiers serving in the country.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 03/15/2010 at 01:22 PM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Guns and Gun Control • Military • RoPMA • UK • War-Stories •  
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   Sunday - March 07, 2010

RAF helicoptor pilot shot between the eyes by Taliban flies 20 to safety … England expects ….

I am buried today in work and frustration caused by AT&T.  Must change over all addresses and make copies of stuff and, yadda,yadda.

It almost seems as though the kids at ATT don’t seem to be aware that there are folks overseas who have (and pay) for their services. With 50 minute wait times and two weeks already spent trying and failing to get anywhere, I guess I’m about to close my ATT account after 10 years.  Hate to do that coz generally their tech support for some things can not be faulted.  But I guess all good things must come to an end. My worry now is that they’ll continue to charge us and it’ll be just as tough getting through again. You can’t believe the nightmare.  For example, their email tells us we had till the end of march.  But someone on the phone said oh no.  March 8 is the deadline but someone else said .. NO. March 15 is the deadline.  Bah. Grumble.  I give up! It just isn’t worth it trying to get anywhere with them anymore.  And oh yeah, to make thing worse yet, they have incorrect instructions on their migration site that they aren’t even aware of. And no way to inform them.  Tried it. And forget emails. What a bad joke that is.  I’ve tried writing every place I could find an email for and have received not one reply in two weeks of trying.

I feel pretty stupid complaining about that considering what this awesome RAF pilot has done.  OK he didn’t have many choices it’s true but hey. These guys are to be admired and honored.  What they are going through is NO WALK IN THE PARK!

I hadn’t intended to post today due to all the above mentioned stuff, but ran across this. This is my only post for today.

An RAF helicopter pilot who was shot between the eyes by a Taliban bullet still managed to fly all 20 passengers to safety.

The Chinook flown by Flight Lieutenant Ian Fortune, 28, was brought in to pick up casualties during a firefight between American and Afghanistan forces and heavily armed rebels near Garmsir in Helmand Province, said a report in The Sun.

The pilot was told it was too dangerous to land and circled the landing area. The Chinook came under fire after eventually landing - which continued as casualties were loaded on board - and Flt Lt Fortune was hit by a Taliban bullet as he took off.

The shot hit the rail on the front of his helmet which is normally used to attach night vision goggles.
It penetrated his helmet hitting him between the eyes and causing severe bleeding.

Further bullets hit the helicopter’s’s controls damaging the stabilisation system.  Despite this Flt Lt Fortune was able to fly for eight minutes before landing at Camp Bastion.

This was the first time a pilot has been shot while in the air during the Afghanistan war.
Mike Brewer, a television presenter who was on board filming a documentary at the time, said: “The courage and heroism of the pilot was beyond belief.”

RAF TO THE RESCUE

Posted by peiper     on 03/07/2010 at 08:51 AM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Heroes • UK • War On Terror • War-Stories •  
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   Saturday - January 16, 2010

A NEW “TOUCHY-FEELY” TRAINING GUIDE FOR BATTLING BRIT RECRUITS?  oh dear oh dear

‘If you are telling soldiers what to do at every stage, a typical command style, what happens when that individual giving the orders isn’t there? You can get paralysis. We don’t want soldiers to be robots.

Gee, I’m not even a Brit and I think I resent that.  I’m sure the new guys are pretty fearsome in their own way, I don’t think the Army here is gonna become a bunch of wusses, BUT ... Robots?
The Brit soldier has NEVER shown himself to be any less brave or any more robotic then anyone else. And as for robots, that’s crap.  Their wartime achievements and in fact even where all they managed to achieve was less then victory, are still awe inspiring. Robots hell. Where do these new age jerks get that from? I know too many ex-Brit servicemen who are pretty tough hombres, and there isn’t anything robotic about em.
Those kids fighting and dying or coming back maimed from Afghanistan are hardly robots.  I read the reports here of the heroism exhibited by these young people in combat over there.  At my younger best I could never be as good or as tough as the things I’m reading about them. 

I would not argue against the case however that there may well be some in authority who overstep the bounds of good training and behavior. We’ve all of met those sorts.  The bullies in any army are a disgrace to the uniform and their service. I’m not blind to that.

Anyway, I have long admired the guts and bravery of the Armed forces here.  Although I have to confess I’m a little nervous about what’s become of the Navy, especially after that fiasco with Iran a couple of years ago.

‘Would you mind standing to attention?’ Sergeant majors told to adopt touchy-feely approach

By Ian Drury
Saturday Mail

Eyes bulging with fury, cheeks purple and moustache bristling, the sergeant major draws himself to his full height and yells: ‘You ‘orrible little man!’

This is the memory for generations of cowering recruits who have incurred the displeasure of the dreaded tyrant.

To the dismay of traditional disciplinarians, however, such scenes are being consigned to history.

Commanders have decided that, in a changing society, a gentler approach is required.

Young soldiers, they say, should be coaxed, reasoned with, and allowed to think for themselves.

Rather than simply shouting and screaming orders, military instructors are encouraged to ‘be progressive’ and discuss tasks with recruits.

All this will doubtless be welcome to the modern-day soldiers spared the kind of tongue-lashing memorably dished out by Windsor Davies, pictured, who played the fearsome Sergeant Major Tudor Williams in the 1970s TV comedy It Ain’t Half Hot Mum.

No more shouting: Touchy-feely military instructors are now replacing fearsome types such as Sergeant Major Tudor Williams

But veterans raised concerns that the new touchy-feely approach could lead to a lack of discipline.

Ex-recruiting sergeant Fred Burden, vice-chairman of the National Malaya and Borneo Veterans’ Association UK, said: ‘The Army is getting too soft on recruits.

‘The British Army has been the finest in the world for years, so what is the point of changing now? If you don’t shout orders at recruits there’s a risk they won’t concentrate.’

The overhaul came after a series of investigations revealed unacceptable levels of bullying in the Armed Forces.

The measures are being put in place at the Army Recruiting and Training Division’s Staff Leadership School (ASLS) in Pirbright, Surrey. Around 4,500 officers have been trained about the need to be able to motivate, encourage and enthuse trainees’.

Lieutenant Colonel Matt Fensom, Commanding Officer at the ASLS, said there were ‘limitations’ to traditional training techniques.

He said: ‘If you are telling soldiers what to do at every stage, a typical command style, what happens when that individual giving the orders isn’t there? You can get paralysis. We don’t want soldiers to be robots.

‘We need them to think for themselves. This is about getting the best out of recruits.’

The Army has also commissioned research into psychological techniques to identify personality traits that could hold back soldiers, such as lack of confidence, fear of failure or stress.

Staff Sergeant Paul Campling, 37, from the Royal Tank Regiment, said the style of training marked a significant change for the Army.

But he added that recruits could still be bawled out if they got an instruction wrong.

‘There is still a time and a place for a one-way debrief or barked orders but people are happier now because the communication is better.’

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 01/16/2010 at 08:53 AM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Nanny State • UK •  
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   Monday - November 23, 2009

Amazing aerial images taken by daring Allied pilots on secret missions during WW 2

These are only two of MANY aerial photos and text available HERE

See that link for some truly amazing photos.

Some interesting things to post and will, but no energy for a lot again today.  Bah. Cold rebound, feel better but just washed out.
Got a call from someone with an accent you could cut with a knife, call center in Scotland, confirming that someone will call and an ins. adjuster will call to let us know when they can visit our house re. the still leaky roof but they don’t know when that call will be. Today? Tomoro? Wed? In my lifetime?
Meanwhile, hard driving rain yesterday, last night, and again today.

From Colditz to D-Day:

Amazing aerial images taken by daring Allied pilots on secret missions during World War II

By David Wilkes
Last updated at 9:53 AM on 23rd November 2009

The detail is astonishing. At first it looks like just another castle surrounded by tiny houses and neat fields. But zooming in on the courtyard one can see figures milling around.

They are in fact Allied officers being held in the notorious German PoW camp of Colditz and the photograph is one from an archive of aerial photographs taken by airmen - sometimes flying as low as 50ft - during secret reconnaissance missions in World War II.
Until now the pictures have been kept behind closed doors. But they are revealed to the public for the first time today via the internet amid a painstaking cataloguing process.

In another image, precise as a hole punch through a sheet of paper, craters surround a Nazi doodlebug factory in an extraordinary photograph showing the devastation wreaked by an Allied bombing raid.

The date is September 2, 1944 and the place Peenemunde, a village on the Baltic, where the terrifying weapons Adolf Hitler hoped would win the war for Germany were designed and tested.
Others in the collection convey the human suffering experienced amid the fighting, including rare shots of a Nazi slave labour camp and of the landings on D-Day.

Alan Williams, manager of the National Collection of Aerial Photography which houses the photos, said: ‘The archive literally shows the world at war.’
Long before the days of Google Earth, the highly skilled airmen who took them flew alone, by day and night, in unarmed Spitfires relying on their wits as they risked their lives to capture the images on their plane-mounted cameras

Sometimes their planes were painted pink, as the unusual colour proved very good at hiding the aircraft against a background of low cloud. For high altitude missions, the planes were painted a dark shade of blue.

But often they still found themselves targeted by anti-aircraft missiles. Hundreds of them never returned home.
Those that did brought with them photos vital to the war effort.

Expert photographic interpreters studied the pictures using optical instruments such as stereoscopes to view them in 3D to build up detailed information for intelligence reports and models used in military planning for operations such as the D-Day landings.

The ‘detective’ teams, who were headquartered in a stately home in Buckinghamshire at RAF Medmenham - MI4’s Allied Central Interpretation Unit - included Oxbridge academics, geographers and archaeologists.

Posted by peiper     on 11/23/2009 at 06:34 AM   
Filed Under: • Art-Photography • Battling Brits • OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT • Science-Technology • UK • War-Stories •  
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   Sunday - November 22, 2009

THE LUCKIEST SOLDIER ALIVE ….. MUST READ AND SEE …

Boy, do I feel like a wuss complaining about my insignificant little nothing cold .....

The Lt. mistakingly says Nov. 26 in the video.  But the actual date is Oct. 26.

British Army officer, Lieutenant Paddy Rice, has been described as “the luckiest soldier in Afghanistan” after surviving being shot by a Taliban sniper.


By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent, Nad e’Ali, Afghanistan
Published: 6:30AM GMT 22 Nov 2009

Lieutenant Paddy Rice of the 1st battalion Grenadier Guards was wounded in the back and neck while on duty in central Helmand.

The bullet struck the officer just beneath his left shoulder blade, then travelled inside his back and up to his neck, where it left his body, passed his right ear before blasting a hole through his helmet.

After being injured, Lt Rice, who was serving with the battalion’s Inkerman Company, was flown by a Medical Emergency Response Team Chinook helicopter from his base to Camp Bastion, where his wounds were cleaned and left open for three days before being stitched under general anaesthetic.

The 25-year-old Guard’s Officer was offered the chance of recuperating from his wound in the UK but refused and is now back serving with his platoon on the front line in the Nad e’Ali area of central Helmand.

The drama unfolded on the afternoon of October 26th, while Lt Rice was on the roof of British base known as Compound 23 in the Chah-e’Anjir area of central Helmand.

The soldier was dressed in his body armour and helmet and was in a kneeling position when he was spotted by a Taliban fighter who opened fire through a “murder hole” – in a mud wall.

He said: “I climbed on to the roof of the Compound 23, where my soldiers and I were based, and was trying to move a radio into a sangar (defensive bunker). It was an exposed position so I was wearing my body armour and helmet. I then felt a thump in the back of my back, as though I had been kicked, and I knew immediately I had been shot.”

The bullet passed through his body, slicing open Lt Rice’s back and leaving an eight inch long gash running diagonally from his shoulder blade to an area just beneath his skull.

He continued: “I put my hand up to the back of my head and I could see blood and I think I said something to my platoon sergeant, Gert Botha, such as “I’ve been shot”.

“I was helped down from the roof and I radioed company headquarters, gave contact report (a message informing others that there has been an enemy attack), and said “there is one casualty and it’s me – I’ve been shot”. I wasn’t panicking I had considered how I might react if I was shot or injured but because everything seemed to be functioning normally I think I realised I would be OK.

“I know that I was very lucky to escape with what is actually a flesh wound, albeit a nasty one. If I had been looking up the bullet would have hit the back of my head and that would have been a different story.”

Compound 23 is one of several locations which surround Patrol Base Shahzad, the main British base in Chah-e’Anjir. The base and the satellite locations provide a security bubble around the district centre, which allows Afghans to trade in the bazaar and children to go to school without fear of intimidation by the Taliban.

But while the Afghans can carry on with their lives without interference, the British compounds are being attacked virtually every day by insurgents.

On arriving at the base where Lt Rice had been shot, medics were surprised at the calmness shown by the officer, who was sitting down smoking a cigarette when they arrived at his base.

An hour after being shot, Lt Rice was able to contact his father and give him the news. He continued: “It was quite a surreal telephone call. But it was far better that I told him that I had been shot in the neck and was OK rather than someone else.”

Lt Rice was flown back to Camp Bastion, the main British base in Helmand, where he was given further medical treatment and three days after being injured, he received 29 stitches.

The officer also called his girlfriend in Clapham, south west London, who was shopping in a supermarket when he broke the news.

Lt Rice added: “She was a bit upset and startled to hear me saying that I had been shot while she was buying her supper but after I reassured her that I was fine she relaxed a bit. She knows that this is the job I want to do, she has known that since we met – she is very understanding.”

Captain James Swanston, the second-in-command of Inkerman Company, Grenadier Guards, who was in charge of the operations room at the time of the attack said that if the bullet had been a millimetre either side of where it struck Lt Rice would have either been killed or seriously injured.

He said: “When you hear that someone has been shot you expect the worst. But when the medics arrived, Paddy was sitting down smoking a cigarette. He showed great calmness.”

IN HIS OWN WORDS

Posted by peiper     on 11/22/2009 at 04:45 AM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Military • UK • War-Stories •  
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   Monday - November 02, 2009

KILLED ON THE VERY LAST DAY OF HIS TOUR IN AFGHANISTAN ….

Bad enough these brave young kids are dying and being maimed. That’s always a damn sad thing.
But somehow, to die on your last day of the tour .... I don’t know.  Something seems extra sad about that. Especially when you consider the lives this one Battling Brit saved.
I truly am nothing but upset and very depressed reading this.  Wish I hadn’t.  But then, hell.  Every time I see the reports I feel bad. Which means almost every day because there isn’t any way to avoid it.  And I shouldn’t avoid it anyway.  Neither should my fellow Americans.  These are the kids dying along side our guys.  Just as brave, just as young, just as sad.

Bomb expert who saved ‘countless lives’ killed in Afghanistan
One of the Army’s most prolific bomb disposal experts who saved “countless lives” has been killed on the last day of his operational tour, the Ministry of Defence has disclosed.

By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent
Published: 2:00PM GMT 02 Nov 2009

Despite “staring death in the face on a daily basis” Staff Sgt Olaf “Oz” Schmid continued to defuse bombs in Sangin, the most lethal town for IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) in Helmand province.

The soldier, described as a man of “extreme courage”, was killed instantly as he attempted to make safe a bomb left in the town.

He is the third IED Disposal soldier to be killed in the last year as the Taliban increase their bombing campaign against the British force.

Among the great skill and courage in the ordnance disposal teams S/Sgt Schmid, 30, was marked as the “best of the best” defusing 64 of the estimated 1,200 IEDs found by British troops this year.

As well as taking part in Operation Panther’s Claw, a major assault on a Taliban stronghold, he found 31 IEDs during a single operation to clear a road near Sangin in August.

Following his death on Saturday his wife Christina said her husband had been “cruelly murdered on his last day of a relentless 5 month tour”.

“The pain of losing him is overwhelming. I take comfort knowing he saved countless lives with his hard work.”

Lt Col Robert Thomson, commanding officer of the 2Bn The Rifles, who recently returned from Afghanistan, described S/Sgt Schmid “simply the bravest and most courageous man I have ever met”.

“Under relentless IED and small arms attacks he stood taller than the tallest.

“He saved lives in 2 RIFLES time after time and for that he will retain a very special place in every heart of every Rifleman in our extraordinary battle group.”

In one 24 hour operation clearing possibly the most dangerous route in Afghanistan known as Pharmacy Road, he found 31 IEDs.

Lieutenant Colonel Gareth Bex, the commanding officer of the counter-IED task force, said many soldiers in Helmand owed their lives to S/Sgt Shmid’s “gallant actions”.

“The tag ‘legend’ is frequently bestowed nowadays but in his case it is rightly justified - SSgt Schmid was a legend. His courage was not displayed in a fleeting moment of time; he stared death in the face on a daily basis. His sacrifice will never be forgotten.”

He added that the soldier “takes his rightful place” alongside other bomb disposal experts who had been killed - Warrant Officer O’Donnell, who was awarded the George Medal and bar and Capt Dan Shepherd, who died during Operation Panther’s Claw.

The soldier, born in Truro Cornwall, also took part in Operation Panther’s Claw this summer which saw a bloody death told as British troops cleared Taliban strongholds ahead of the flawed presidential elections. S/Sgt Schmid, who worked in a High Threat Operator role sometimes alongside special forces, secured 11 finds of bomb making equipment many of them during the operation.

“SSgt Oz Schmid was a man of extreme courage who revelled in this the most challenging and dangerous of environments,” said his colleague Major Tim Gould.

His actions are likely to make him a strong candidate for a gallantry award, defence experts have said.

The total British lives lost in Afghanistan now stands at 224 with 87 lost this year alone.

SOURCE

Posted by peiper     on 11/02/2009 at 11:47 AM   
Filed Under: • Battling Brits • Heroes • UK • War-Stories •  
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