The Unconventional Soldier Podcast
@TheUCS473
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*Letting the guest tell the story* Former British Army. Past conflicts & book reviews. Wherever you get your podcasts from or Link Tree below to listen 👇
England, United Kingdom
Joined February 2021
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IRA "patrol" skulking in a back alley waiting to shoot an unarmed off duty RUC officer or UDR soldier in the back of the head. Fixed it for you.
An IRA patrol West Belfast Ireland March 1986
From Ballymurphy and the Irish War by Ciarán De Baróid
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This. Full details in second tweet👇
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Researching the Falklands this week prior to this week's pod. First time I've seen this phot. Interesting mix of equipment and wearing NBC overboots to keep feet dry.
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The days before media training.
Colin Mitchell AKA Mad Mitch. In 67 as CO 1st Bn Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders reoccupied the Crater district of Aden which had been taken over by local police mutineers in what became known as "the last battle of the British empire"
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Why do people/commentators etc calling for "the Army" to be sent in to deal with public disorder assume they have the training, equipment, and readiness to do so at scale?
Also be careful what you wish for because soldiers are not the police. The job would get done but it
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Big boys rules.
PIRA were soldiers when shooting people in the back. Victims when they come up against real soldiers.
#WhoDaresWins
BBC News - Coagh: SAS use of force in IRA ambush justified, coroner rules
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Sean Flynn photographer. Son of actor Errol Flynn. Flynn traveled with U.S. SF units and irregulars operating in remote areas. While in Cambodia in April 70, Flynn & fellow photojournalist Dana Stone were captured by communist guerrillas. Neither was seen or heard from again.
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Windproof smock, jungly bottoms and no mortgage, helmet, body armour or cares. Kings of the world.
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1/ Such an RSM comment 😂.
Before they left, Mnes Howie
Watson & Dave O'Connor had seen RSM Pat Chapman nearby. Both Watson & O'Connor were the sort of
warriors whom Kipling undoubtedly had in mind, when he said that single men in barracks don't grow into plaster saints.
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Seemingly "rucking" or weighted walking is the new fitness craze. My aching hips, knees and back say give it a miss folks.
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Great idea.
"A “Sandhurst for soldiers” is to be created, the head of the Army has announced (it) will be the biggest shake-up of mil leadership in > 200 years. ...to give soldiers an academic understanding of the mil, akin to how their commissioned counterparts are trained.
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Attention all dog walkers. One worried owner offering a reward 👇
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The UK military is struggling because Gen Z isn't signing up to serve.
Or
The UK military is struggling because Gen Z isn't signing up to serve because the offer isn't good enough.
Think about MoD.
The UK military’s recruitment is struggling because Gen Z isn’t signing up to serve,
@BWallaceMP
has warned 🗣️
The former Defence Secretary told
@LBC
Britain needs to "do things differently" to increase numbers of younger people joining the forces
👇
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‘We need to be more effective at deep battle, more ferocious & lethal when close combat is joined.’ He also warned the reality of modern warfare meant that elite units, such as SAS, Para Regt & Marines, were likely to be wiped out 1st, as lessons from war in Ukraine had shown.
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Next pod out tomorrow. An in depth look at the LRRP school in Germany in the 80s. Weapon being carried is G3 with folding stock. Good rifle & much better for OP work than the SLR. Soldier kneeling is Steve Cummins later killed in N. Ireland which we discuss in pod
#007
.
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The 4 man "brick" was the basic patrol in Northern Ireland. A "multiple" was formed of 2, 3 or even 4 bricks depending on task, geography and deception. Just about to deploy on a mobile patrol in Londonderry in 86. Mobiles then were two vehicles generally. 1/3
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The re writing of history yet again by PIRA/Sinn Fein The "martyrs" attacked an SF base. One drove a bomb thru the perimeter fence, while rest of the unit fired on the building. Bomb exploded & destroyed almost half the base. They were killed by an SAS ambush. Big boys rules.
This day 36 years ago 8 IRA martyrs were brutally murdered in Loughgall by British forces. These 8 men made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom of this land and today we are closer than ever to achieving that. ”Loughgall will become the tombstone for british policy in Ireland”
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Known my wife nearly 30 yrs. Watching
#whereeaglesdare
this afternoon and she casually drops for the first time "I've been to the village where that was filmed". You think you know them.
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The kit evolves the soldiers remain the same. STA patrols in the 1980s and 2020s.
RiP Steve Cummins killed Northern Ireland 1989.
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I shall sleep peacefully in my bed tonight, because under strength Battalions of inadequately equipped now bearded men in below standard accommodation stand ready to do violence on my behalf with crap kit.
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Because they have never been in the military. Been a civvi now for 15 years and still turn up 5 min before meetings or appointments.
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OP GRANBY. Breech rehearsals. Probably more armour in these pictures than the entire Army these days 😂.
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Interesting dit from a mate - One of biggest headaches for NATO was dealing with Warsaw Pact tanks. We had CVRT Striker with Swingfire wire guided anti tank missile. Range of the missile was 4000 m the longest range of any anti tank weapon at the time. 1/6
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"Finland doesn't have a defence force, Finland is a defence force"
Finland's holistic approach to defence as reported in The Times at the weekend.
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The Northern Ireland hedgerow. Destroyer of morale and uniform shredder par excellence.
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Behaviour aside. How does someone get that size in the Army? Embarrassing.
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Been out the Army a long, long time and know nothing about modern weapons. Or how good this rifle is but....doesn't it just look great?!
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Ben Wallace highlights the hypocrisy of the Army.
"Take a glance across the media and you will see “rent a quote” former admirals and colonels who left the Armed Forces 20 to 30 years ago. They fight yesterday’s wars and pretend they had nothing to do with the MoD I inherited."
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The Surveillance and Reconnaissance Sqn is the direct descendant of the Mountain & Arctic Warfare Cadre for specialist recce tasks. Made up of Royal Marines Mountain Leaders in the main, but also including Royal Marines Landing Craft operators and Army Commandos.
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BUSH TUCKER MAN
Les Hiddens. Vietnam veteran, survivalist & TV legend. In 87, he was awarded a Defence Fellowship to continue his research into survival in the bush and principally authored the Australian Army's military survival manual.
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Busiest heleport in Europe at one point.
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Finishing the edit for Monday's pod release with former Commando Gnr & SAS soldier Mick Hawkes. We discuss his army career inc the Falklands war, SAS selection, life in the Regt & when he was captured in Bosnia with his oppo in the picture. Loads more besides. Not to be missed.
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Arguably the most famous wall during the Troubles & now a tourist attraction. I am pictured bottom left not oblivious to the incongruity of patrolling a UK street with a high powered rifle. This was my first op tour bringing home the reality of soldiering when mates were killed.
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1/ Battle of Hondeghem took place today on retreat to Dunkirk in 1940 when K Bty RHA engaged lead elements of 6 Panzer Div halting them in vicious street fighting firing their guns at ranges of <100 yds. Bty suffered heavy losses, with 'F' Troop alone losing 45 men out of 63.
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We really are a clown country now.
"Thousands of young people are withdrawing applications to serve in the armed forces every year after waiting months to join. Fewer than one in ten of the 137,000 people who applied to join the army, navy & RAF last year ended up serving."1/3
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Watching the news tonight and for some reason this came to mind 👇
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Happy birthday to the RAF Regt 82 today. Formed by Royal Warrant signed on 1st February 1942 with the motto Per Ardua meaning Through Adversity.
I shall celebrate by taking the dog on a 5 miler of death. 🍻🐶
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Back when defence was a serious business. Exercise Lionheart ran from 03 Sep to 05 Oct 84. It comprised 3 phases: a deployment phase (Full Flow), the employment phase (FTX Spearpoint) and a redeployment phase (Full Flow). Lionheart was the largest British Cold War exercise.
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Sunak confuses Normandy for Dunkirk.
Peter Brooke - The Times
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For God sake don't give your child Commando comics, toy guns or take them to see A Bridge Too Far at the cinema. It was a gateway to 22 years in the Army and is responsible for this Twatter feed and a podcast.
Stephen Fry, 66, says childhood sweets like candy cigarettes were a gateway to his cocaine addiction
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Ever wonder what happened to Nick Carter? He now works for the Tony Blair Institute. Active in almost 40 countries, more than 800 staff & revenues that approached £110 mil last year. It has big outposts in Abu Dhabi, Nairobi and Singapore, with another planned in Washington.1/2
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Waking up to the news that British Army numbers are at a new low. The hardware and soldiers deployed on Op GRANBY were another age.
Pictures show breech rehearsals we carried out.
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"The British public will be called up to fight if the UK goes to war because the military is too small, the head of the Army is to warn.."
Human rights issues, MH & fitness problems, outright refusals. May end up with far fewer than expected. What to do?
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Amongst all these men the subject of an up & coming pod. Catherine Leroy. Tiny in stature. Huge in courage. Took part in Op Junction City jumping in with the largest airborne op since Korea.
Unconventional & saw as much combat as any soldier. Deserves to be better known.
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Why is the next check point always another map fold away? Next blog will discuss training & selection of "stay behind" Special Observers & how the course was designed by DS from SAS, Para Regt & 14 Int. Chief instructor was Para Regt or SAS throughout the Cold War. Out soon.
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Capt Robert Nairac GC (31 Aug 48 – 15 May 77) was a British Army officer who was abducted from a pub in Dromintee, County Armagh & killed by the PIRA on his fourth tour of duty in Northern Ireland as a Military Intelligence Liaison Officer.
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1/ COLD WAR STAY BEHIND OPS
A few ppl have asked what a dug in OP looked like in the "stay behind" role during the Cold War. The photo is of me in the entrance of an op. The (very bad) sketch is an plan of an OP.
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Snobbery V Practicality?
“Officers should live amongst each other, and NCOs and soldiers should live together, to avoid the difficulties of your next-door neighbour being your boss or one of your subordinates.”
Lord Dannatt
Note - an NCO is also a boss of someone.
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OP GRANBY. 24 Feb marks the anniversary of the start of the ground phase of this operation in 91 which we covered in podcast
#10
. This photo was taken as we embarked a C130 to a forward assemby area.
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Don't forget tomorrow is the release of our Mountain & Arctic Warfare Cadre podcast. I believe our bootneck brethren would refer to it as "hoofing". For the Army its "gleaming". And for the RAF probably"unfathomable".
Available wherever you get your Podcasts from.
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1/ What has been the mil historical fact that has blown you away this year so far?
For me it's the scale of US Army ops in WW2 v USMC who dominate the narrative. US Army had 31 Divs & USMC 6 Divs. USMC made 15 amphib assaults & Army 35 over 5 wks in the Philippines alone.
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Bloke on left:
"Can't believe he's using fingers to point on a map".
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3/ ...him if there was any news of their case. Pat Chapman replied calmly, 'If you two fuckers are still alive tomorrow, you are both going to prison."
Ian Gardiner
"The Yompers with 45 Commando In The Falklands War"
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Meet the Army day in Tidworth in the 80s.
"Why haven't you got your NBC gloves on mister?"
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"When you're wounded & left on Afghanistan's plains, & the women come out to cut up what remains, Jest roll to your rifle & blow out your brains An' go to your Gawd like a soldier."
Liz flew MERT flights so no soldier faced this choice. Hear her experience on our latest pod.
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Female soldier on patrol Northern Ireland on the left of the first pic without helmet, weapon and only soft body armour. This was due to regulations for females at that time as non combatants. However women in the security forces took the same risks as their male colleagues.
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Out for a curry with a Brit mate last night. Conversation turned to sonar and he insisted on using the American pronunciation of buoy. Is this ever acceptable?
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1/ Battle of Hondeghem took place today on retreat to Dunkirk in 1940 when K Bty RHA engaged lead elements of 6 Panzer Div halting them in vicious street fighting firing their guns at ranges of <100 yds. Bty suffered heavy losses, with 'F' Troop alone losing 45 men out of 63.
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Yesterday channel has this series on constant loop atm. Driving my wife mad and delaying the morning dog walk. Superlative.
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We have a few pods on Northern Ireland. A female soldier in one of the shots here. They played an important role during the troubles in all the security forces including covert. Taking the same risks as male colleagues but unarmed & often wearing uniforms unsuited to conditions.
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Today in 1989 my friends Steve Cummins & Miles Amos were killed when we were on ops in Northern Ireland. We recorded this podcast to remember them and recount what it was like for a soldier in the Province in the 1980s. RiP lads.
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If I was a young soldier sat in a rundown barracks or MQ near Salisbury or Catterick how long before I found myself filling in an application. Grass not always greener but definitely 🌞
BBC News - Australian army to allow recruits from foreign nations
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Always like to walk past these 3 gentlemen when I am in London. All pivotal to the British war effort but who would you rate the most and why?
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Lt Col Mark Teeton was attacked this week though largely overshadowed by other events. Service partner/wife/husband is one of the toughest gigs going.
They get to share the deployments, have to navigate the archaic traditions, the regular moves, personal career sacrifices, the
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Picture the scene 20 plus years ago.
Young soldiers: Eating in the cookhouse is crap. We are paying for meals we don't eat. We must have PAYD.
Me (Old fart soldier): You really need to think about this.
Reap what you sow.
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Hearing rumours that Royal Marines are considering shedding 29 Commando Regt and taking on 120 Mortars instead.
Anyone in the know?
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Came across this unusual phot of an RUC officer with a SUIT sight mounted on his Ruger. Optics are universal and cheap these days not the case back in the 80s.
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This comment was posted by an old friend on our LinkedIn page for the pod. He captures exactly what NI veterans think IMO.👇
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Beards in Army issue truly baffles me. Those in charge are terrified. Everyone else thinks it will be ally/transformative/help recruiting etc. Fact is it will do nothing for the Army except make everyone who wants one think they are an operator/viking instead mange wannabe 😂
Beards continue to be a hairy issue in the military 🧔
The
@BritishArmy
has launched a survey to find out what service personnel think about allowing soldiers to grow facial hair 🪒
Read more 👇
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Beards in the Army.
Everyone chasing the "operator" look. Most getting the "Zuckerberg" look.
That is one ally beard mind.
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"The British Army has more high-ranking officers than heavy artillery, according to official MoD figures."
Bloated jobs for the boys/girls or justified?
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Hoping for a peaceful day to remember absent friends.
Steve Cummins & Miles Amos killed Northern Ireland March 1989.
Sean Upton killed Afghanistan July 2009.
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Poland wants its soundbite back. Why do we persist with this type of delusional nonsense?
"The
@BritishArmy
will be the most modern and most lethal army in Europe by the end of this decade".
In an exclusive interview with Forces News, General Sir Patrick Sanders said within the next 6 to 7 years the Army will look "radically different".
👉
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Armed Forces day today. Bit like Veterans ID cards...meh.
Really struggle to see the point.
Defence has barely featured in the election campaign, most of the public aren't interested and the military continues to be hugely neglected. But hey...Armed Forces day.
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So worth my time to view or not? If anyone has seen it let me know your thoughts.
Pls no "harder in my day" rants. Times and methods of instruction change and so they should. As long as the end product is fit for purpose.
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Who does the Royal Marines recruitment adverts and imagery? Because the Army really needs you.
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I was holding my 2 yr old daughter on a walk moments ago & for the first time out of nowhere she said,
“God is Artillery. God is real.”
I started to quietly tear up. She couldn’t see my face & I didn’t make a sound, but she said,
“Don’t cry. It’s okay, 10 rds fire for effect”
I was holding my two year old daughter on a walk moments ago and for the first time out of nowhere she said,
“God is good. God is real.”
I started to quietly tear up. She couldn’t see my face and I didn’t make a sound, but she said,
“Don’t cry. It’s okay.”
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"There are believed to be under 1,000 veterans of BRIXMIS who operated in Germany between 1946 and 1990. They say they deserve to be awarded the General Service Medal to acknowledge their efforts."
We discuss Brixmis in pod
#005
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Good news that former soldier Dan Jarvis has been appointed Security Minister.
However to my knowledge no Veteran Minister appointment as yet. Johnny Mercer was a marmite figure but it's important that veterans have a voice. Not special treatment just fair treatment as per the
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Been reading about Hue battle again. Vicious street fighting. Some of the most evocative photos were taken by Brit Don McCullin.
'If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough'
- Robert Capa
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1st recorded deployment of Women's UDR 'Greenfinches', on ops was on 28 Oct 73. 4 Greenfinches fm C Coy at Girdwood took part in the 10 UDR mobile patrol. Regular ops began 5 Nov 73.
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All change. Infantry out & Gunners in.
“We have too much infantry — a legacy of the counter-insurgency wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We need more artillery. The jury is out on whether you need main battle tanks,” a Whitehall source said.
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In that case it's time to repeal the so called letters of comfort for 95 IRA recipients who were of interest in connection with 295 killings from the Troubles between 1969 and 1998.
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The Royal Marines PR really is first class 👇. Army take note.
Got to hand it to the team
@RoyalNavy
, the production quality is brilliant. So, after a bit of a delay, here’s a video about this
#hoofing
unit (not forgetting the brothers
@47CdoRM
) Enjoy!
@RoyalMarines
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Full credit to Wallace the former soldier. 3615 NLAW supplied in face of opposition.
#UkraineWar
#russiawar
#NLAW
#Ukraine
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In early planning stages but an episode with a former UDR Greenfinch is on the cards. Will be a great addition to our NI episodes & it's a privilege to highlight the contribution made by these brave female soldiers during The Troubles.
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Excellent Roman Army Exhibition
@britishmuseum
What attracted men to the Roman Army? A chance to better themselves, Roman citizenship & a decent pension as the exhibit makes clear. Possibly the chance of travel & a scrap in far off land. What changes? 1/8
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Always think it sad when people sell xmas gifts on the same day they receive them.
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Challenger 3. Initially thought that was how many we had...
Introducing the most lethal tank in our history - the fully British built Challenger 3🪖 🇬🇧
Read more ⬇️
…
#Challenger3
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The Royal Marines will be devastated if this happens in the UK!
Military bases can no longer hold drag shows, Pentagon says
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The arrival of the Wider Service Medal.
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"...but Mrs Justice Steyn ruled that national security and protecting the public by keeping the SAS’s tradecraft secret overrode his claim to freedom of speech."
Never ending public appetite for SAS/SEAL type books. Absolute gold mine.
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The Brigade of Guards will go into melt down over this 👇😂
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If he was chocolate he would lick himself. Surely AI generated? Crying out for a caption...
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What an incredible story from The Times.
"Twenty-two years passed before the US military re-examined Pardo’s case and, in 1989, belatedly awarded him the Silver Star for his heroics that day. “I was very surprised. I thought it was ancient history,” he said."
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Gravestone of Johnny Cooper who was OC of Jimmy Ladner, local to me, the subject of my recent blog. Link to wordpress in bio.
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GERRY ADAMS TIME FOR TRUTH
He has denied IRA membership for half a century. In April he will have to file a formal legal defence against the allegation by 3 victims of PIRA bomb attacks.
You can help with their legal costs below - pls share👇1/3
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A mate took this photo at the end of Op GRANBY. Always felt sorry for the kids in conflict zones. Caught up in violence beyond their understanding.
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Between 1963 and 1975 some 3,500 Kiwis served in the Vietnam War. They were highly skilled, well trained & experienced jungle soldiers nicknamed "grey ghosts" by the NVA and VC enemy. You can listen to our episode with a NZ army Vietnam veteran here
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