Ollie Kingsbury
@kingsbury_ollie
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🇬🇧soldier, working with 🇺🇸 in 🇵🇱, just trying to be a bit better. Ever hopeful Norwich City⚽️Bath🏉England⚽️🏉🏏fan. My own unofficial views
Joined October 2018
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Another year gone
Eleven now, since the clock stopped for Tom, at 0834
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10 years ago, on the 5th at 8.34am Afghanistan time, Tom was killed
@3PARA
Funny how groups of different memories float up each year: this year, it’s about this time on the 4th, putting the finishing touches to the plan, head down early for a pre-dawn start...
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That has been one tough sprint since the summer - and breathe…
What a great day to finish. So grateful to this beauty 😘
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A quiet and powerful corner of London, in St Paul’s Cathedral
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Tom
12 years ago
Loss and grief are strange. Not dark, but dappled. The memories move around: light and shade, sadness and smiles…
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Any war, any unit. Just before it starts. Those faces.
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Lots of posts (me included) criticising the very common posting of films showing urban ops reduced to pseudo-SF room clearance drills
Thought it might be worth a quick thread on why it’s unhelpful in war…
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I feel like my career has come full circle. Now providing batteries from home for the office clock
If you know… 🟢🔴
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Lucky to be able mark three special days in one go in Poznan
🇬🇧Armistice Day
🇵🇱National Day
🇺🇸Veterans Day
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And about how he would have been such a wonderful dad to his only daughter, born just over a week after he died
Like I said to him that morning, after his best mates had bandaged him up as carefully as if he was still alive,
“Bye, Tom”
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If you need pre-meeting prep, “just to take me through the slides”, then you shouldn’t be attending, much less chairing it
The time we waste prepping 1*/2*/3* for meetings🤦♀️
Send the expert instead, whatever the rank, & have the confidence to live with the decisions they make
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A universal car pass for all military bases…
Just focus on unpicking that Gordian knot
If we could unlock the data, policy, delegations & cultural issues required to make that work, we would find that EVERYTHING - procurement to ‘MDI’ to laptop roll-outs - would be better
@wavellroom
@tomcopsymes
Quite so. Inevitable march of bureaucracy in modern societies or something else? Military and Civil Service personnel, serving or retired, send your solutions to SONAC at UK MOD please.
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Your regular reminder that training your people in room clearances, stacking in the street outside a window, CQB and conga lines behind tanks (H/T
@Stu_Lyle
) …
… is not the priority in urban warfare
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Scottish fans singing Flower of Scotland is the highlight of the Euros so far
Hairs on the back of the neck
🏴💪⚽️
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9 years ago tonight was the last evening with Tom Beckett. CSM with me in C Coy 3 PARA. Killed by an IED at 8.34am Helmand time on a sunny 5 February. One of the best NCOs lost a leg in the same ditch a couple of hours later. Quite a day.
@3rd_Paras
@TheParachuteReg
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There’s an amazing amount of young women who seem really keen liking posts on security, defence & international relations on Twitter now
All with very few followers. Great that young people are deciding to get involved, at such a complex time in world affairs
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Ladies and gentlemen: one of the Parachute Regiment’s finest warrant officers
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Loved my Dakota jump into that corn field on the 70th (worst twists ever!)
Three top blokes here
@16AirAssltBCT
#normandy79
Troops from
@16AirAssltBCT
&
#theparas
flew early today from
@RAFBrizeNorton
to jump on to a DZ West of Sannerville. The flight, in a C-130, was to mark the 79th Anniversary of the 6th Airborne Division's Operation Tonga and Normandy Landings in 1944 (6th June).
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Had a chilling conversation with a Latvian officer once:
“If it happens, my job is to seek contact and to bleed;
so the world knows we are being attacked…
otherwise it will just look like they have been invited in”
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Helmand in 2009 - uplifting, sad, tragic, heroic, grim, unrelenting - as Tim’s chief of staff was the formative experience of my life
Not a day goes by I am not grateful for that experience. A lifetime of learning in one brutal summer
Retiring General Sir Tim Radford marked the end of a 39-year career by representing His Majesty The King at the Sandhurst Sovereign’s Parade.
The former Deputy Strategic Allied Commander Europe inspected the ranks and presented the Sword of Honour to the top cadet.
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Exactly why basic things like harbour area discipline are getting a big kick in all
@LWC_UK
training and education
Basic field skills don’t only matter in high intensity war, they’re not just for the infantry, and new tech doesn’t make them irrelevant
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Big day in 🇬🇧land doctrine, publishing the new ADP Land Ops
6 short unclassified booklets, based on unit comments about the format they like best
Command, Intelligence, Protection and Sustainment, with these two with the main capping ideas👇
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He got back the next day, just in time to eat a roast pigeon, killed by one of the blokes with a stone, thrown from about 25 metres away. I like his smile in the photo: it makes me think we looked after him now and again too.
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Great day with
@4PARAREG
Amazing story of mobilising 25 very high readiness reserve soldiers for Sudan evacuation ops
0720: “Best speed to Colchester” on the group-chat
0315 next day: taken into full-time service & ready to deploy
Utrinque paratus
@TheParachuteReg
@ArmyDcfa
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When I was trying to fold a fitted sheet this morning, I thought the day couldn’t get any more pointless or frustrating…
Then I started reading threads on jeans in the mess
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That’s all very well, but nothing compared to stagging on for an extra 2 months in South Armagh so the rest of the Regiment could go to war…
@2PARA_HQ
20 year anniverary of
#OPTELIC
.
1 and 3 PARA veterans still serving who took part in the invasion of Iraq 2003.
Ready for anything 🇬🇧🟩
@TheParachuteReg
#theparas
#Iraq20YearsOn
#paratroopers
@supportourparas
@PRA_Airborne
@16AirAssltBCT
#paras
@BritishArmy
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Having the imagination and drive to make something happen *across the whole of RN, Army, RAF* that will make lives better and help with the vital retention effort?
Exactly what should speed promotion, I would have thought
@exRAF_Al
I am going to guess that L Cpl day sees founding the Defence Breastfeeding Network as the best way to ensure she doesn't get any difficult postings and to speed up her promotion through the ranjs.
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Visceral reminders of
- how our urban training areas should feel
- why CQB and stacking in groups outside undamaged buildings is much less important for urban ops than engineering, fires/counter fires, med, logistics, C2, ISR. Imagine setting up a defensive strongpoint here
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On what is always a day full of awe-inspiring people, this gang are right up there. 6000+ grateful passengers!
Loudest noise I ever heard was the firing at a MERT CH47 at a nasty HLS. I was hiding in a ditch; they were coming *back for a second pick-up* ❤️💪
An absolute privilege to march past the Cenotaph with the
#MERT
club remembering some of the best and worst of times while serving with
@27_Sqn
. Thank you
@doctorwibble
for your poignant words afterwards- aircrew, medics, docs, FP and engineers made an incredible Team.
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This week in May 2009 was the start of a very hard summer
I flinch with these names
May 7th, 2009
Dublin born Sergeant Sean Connor Binnie, aged 22, raised in Aberdeen, and of The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland, was killed in a firefight with insurgents near Musa Qaleh, Helmand Province
Lest we Forget this brave young man 🇮🇪🏴🇬🇧
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No school like the old school
We traded in our Jackals for
@LandRover_UK
- same firepower, greater air portability.
With the
@RoyalAirForce
, we can project them into theatre using C-130 Hercules, or move them within theatre using CH-47 Chinook.
Like
@TheParachuteReg
they're
#Formidable
#Ready
#Versatile
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And we all flapped around like baby birds when he died in the ditch next to us. CSMs being killed wasn’t in the script, and suddenly we saw how he looked after us out on the ground: the admin, the gripping, the counting, the checking...
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Changing the font on briefing slides?
Western military sources: “We think Putin and Gerasimov are involved in tactical decision making at a level we would normally expect to be taken by a colonel or a brigadier”
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The picture is from November ‘10. When we’d gone into Ghazni Street for a temporary raid; had some success in getting a bit of control, and been told to stay. Tom tabbed all the way back out to organise the bergans to be flown forward to us...
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Strong article 👇
Having just had to complete the UK Highway Code test to drive a hire car on a work trip to South Korea…
NEW: "Much of our working day appears to be mired in process and fighting off bureaucracy...commanders feel held back from investing time in learning and practising how to fight better by the very organisation which wants them to fight better"
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@MilitaryBanter
“Planned like a military operation”
=
“Cuffed over WhatsApp in the front of the wagon on the way to the ranges”
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Compelling and graphic example of why jogging across a street to stack outside a door won’t work in war
Any units thinking of practising a pseudo-SF clearance break-in to the Alpha should watch this…
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Reminder that chapter 17 of the Haddon-Cave report into the loss of a RAF Nimrod in 2006 remains an essential guide to address *all* organisational challenges; not just for safety issues
Little need for much more navel gazing; just deliver…
#Teamwork
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Twitter is often pointless arguments
But without it, I would never have ‘met’ & learnt from:
🇺🇸PhDs & generals, 🇦🇺 test pilots, writers & army officers, 🇬🇧 diplomats, RN & RAF folk, authors, senior civil servants & NCOs, 🇳🇱&🇮🇹 researchers
And so many more
Amazing
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Talking to Tom about how he’d sorted out handing over as sergeant major while he went on R&R - this would have been his last op before flying out. To be at home when his first child was born on the 12th...
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Angry, tired, had a couple of beers. Must not tweet, must not tweet…
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One of the capabilities where 🇬🇧 leads the 🇺🇸 - in this case, dedicated recce at brigade level. On exercise this year with
@82ndABNDiv
on
#DefenderEurope
Jump into the week with Pathfinders, the Brigade’s advance force.
High altitude freefall descents allow troops to land stealthily behind enemy lines after jumping several miles from the drop zone, and then the mission begins...
#MondayMotivation
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We’re spending some time in the Army this coming week reflecting on how we look after each other
I will be thinking of Tom - like I do most weeks - and about how he looked after us all. Always the last to get his head down; unable to relax unless the company was settled…
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Fantastic day - my first since I commissioned! All the more moving knowing the amazing times they have ahead
(& v proud that the Sword of Honour winner + winners of male & female fitness prizes are joining
@TheParachuteReg
- as well as the 3rd top student in a row at
@IBSBrecon
)
Great Sovereign’s Parade today, well done to all Officer Cadets and Staff.
663 OCdts at various stages of training, soaking up the winter sun. All three intakes did very well and should be proud of themselves.
Now time for the Academy to have some well earned leave.🎅
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In a 🇬🇧force where we never have as much kit or technical capability as we want, these qualities are so important, from across
@UKJFHQ
@RAF
@16AirAssltBde
@1UKDivision
and others
We dilute these strengths at our peril, if we build in too much focus on AI and ‘bots’
1. The
#BritishMilitary
here at
#KabulAirport
have shown breathtaking levels of toughness, professionalism and - rare in war times I must say - compassion. I've been moved to tears by their actions, diving into dangerous crowds to pull visa-holders into the base....
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Jumble of thoughts about 🇦🇫
These deductions will not be right yet: too narrowly narcissistic. We will need time for a wider reflection to settle
Yet there is urgency now
Obviously & immediately, to support as many people who put their trust in us as we possibly can
1/19
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If 🇬🇧Modnet users haven’t seen the Unmuddled page, it’s well worth a look. Really helpful guide to getting more from the IT systems
@digi_tech_guy
1/2
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Strong work by
@16AirAssltBde
no doubt - but the crews of the
@RoyalAirForce
Air Mobility Force are doing at least as much
Exc story on how 2 PARA of
@16AirAssltBde
safely evacuated 1st flight of 200 "vulnerable civilians" from Kabul y'day
-In under 2 hrs of arriving in country Sat, soldiers deployed&began rescuing civilians
-Those on ground speak of "relief" felt by people
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“No, it’s ‘pentaphibian’. ‘Pent’. 5 in Greek? Because of the earth, wind, fire, water and cybers? Like amphibian but cleverer”
“But doesn’t ‘amphi’ mean ‘both’? So you mean ‘pentabian’?”
“Oh never mind. The kids love it”
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Kids’ DIY ‘monopoly’ board, with most of our quarters, schools and holiday locations. Amazing teamwork!
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What is the point in even having children if they can’t sort out your computer’s wifi settings?
Digital natives my backside
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My favourite Manston airfield fact is that, being the first possible landing site for returning bombers from the mainland in WW2, it needed an extra wide runway so several planes could crash-land while still leaving room for others
Pretty hardcore element of airfield design
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🇵🇱 history is amazing - slightly embarrassed about how little of it I knew
U.S. Army senior military leaders along with V Corps’ deputy commanding general of maneuver British Maj. Gen. Ollie Kingsbury observed the Polish military airmen performing military drills and ceremonies in celebration of Poland’s Constitution Day in Poznan, Poland.
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A gem in the footnotes here
@ElenaWicker
“Sometimes… jargon isn’t a way for very smart people to speak to each other in high-level code, but a method by which mediocrities can signal to one another that they belong to the same tribe, without having to do any actual work”
The Ruffian has LANDED. This week's is about academic historians who are destroying their own discipline.
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I think that “I’ve had too much Pimms; I can’t do my PPP properly” might be the most officer thing I’ve ever said
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@HeleddKendrick
@Ameyplc
This is completely unacceptable, if you haven’t been offered anything else. DM me if you’d like me to have a quiet word
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Our normal response won’t be enough:
“…images of a mess antre-room… earnest white male officers with coffee & moleskin notebooks (senior officers in armchairs), loudly pontificating on how to fix the diversity problem and coming up with an action plan and slides…”
A damning report by Parliament is out about the experience of females in the British Armed Forces.
There has arguably been a failure of values, standards and leadership at all levels.
Change is badly overdue and desperately needed.
Pinstripedline blog:
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So proud to be part of a team that can do all this in about 3 weeks!
Utrinque paratus indeed
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'We drew up the plan over a brew' - the Army way!
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CQB and room clearance drills have a place, mainly once established in a building, not to gain entry
But to use those tactics as the centrepiece of urban ops is dangerous folly
Learning from the 1950s might not be a bad startpoint
Stu’s thread on these films here…
#urbanwarfare
1950s style! I absolutely love these old training videos. LIVE FIRE and real buildings.
"The enemy is likely to offer their strongest resistance in built up areas...[terrain] which allows him to cause damage out of all proportions to his numbers."
@SpencerGuard
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He’d actually died instantly, but his family were worried he’d been out in the dark, hurting, for hours
I was able to unscramble it for them, after the tour
Small crumbs of comfort…
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Lots of great stuff on here from the 🇬🇧military crowd: serving/not, anon/open, expert/interested
But we’ve all got a bit too close to things: point-scoring & acting like we’re mates/enemies with people we’ve never spoken to
Just posting about ⚽️🌹🐶🌦for a bit might be good
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From the Bartholomew Report, written in 1940 to examine the BEF’s performance in France and Belgium
Not a bad handrail for now…
Often the most radical solution is stripping away the clutter and finding the enduring truth
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Challenge and criticism I’m all for. That makes us better
This brings us all down 👇
Anyone lamenting the lack of senior engagement on here need look no further than this. Why put yourself through this cesspit?
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Very sad doggo 😢
Sprinting and single wire fences do not mix 😬😩
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I wonder if anybody, in retirement, ever wishes they’d put more time into risk slides…
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Here’s a great two-part film from the 1950s (hat-tip
@Stu_Lyle
)
Not all relevant to now, but some timeless points from the way the soldiers enter, and move between, buildings
Look at 7 minutes into the first film and throughout the second…
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AC-130 Spectre gunship over Warminster tonight. Ally
Must be somewhere by
@NotesFASMil
’s house
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Is there any sensible reason at all why, with only my Army salary (no other income or deductions at all), I get an extra tax bill after doing my self-assessment return?
Why can’t PAYE sort it out?
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Feels like we’re on the verge of a couple of breakthroughs
Treatment/inclusion of women and minorities
Use of information, in particular social media
*Very* uncomfortable for many
Optimistic we’ll all get thru this stressful, cathartic & ugly stage to something special 🤞
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This was disappointing. An opportunity to set UK & MoD up for some real learning, starting with acceptance of personal error
Instead, recycling of ‘no-one could have predicted…’ & ‘if it wasn’t for the Taleban being bad people…’
(James Rebanks & Raheem Sterling were great!)
"On that morning, I had no inkling that I would be leaving"
Former President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, says he made a sudden decision to flee his country in August. He's been speaking to our guest editor, General Sir Nick Carter.
Listen:
#R4Today
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Wow
OTD in 1918: Interminable shelling gives way to the sounds of birds as guns go silent, signaling the end of World War I
Always incredible from the
@I_W_M
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@wavellroom
This article is “problematic”
Cultural differences are ‘constraints’, Arabs are ‘pre-modern’, the summary is a list of racist tropes, strong hint of ‘white man’s burden’
And we are immune from nepotism, corruption and laziness, and driven by efficient use of information?
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Our weekly Lidl run, with 5 boys home for the summer
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For me, this is most important part in the foreword by CGS
Let’s stop dithering about the role of the Army, and regain the self-confidence to say it like it is
If anyone wants to know what the Army does, it’s this👇
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🇬🇧🇺🇸Great exercise, great friends, great deployment
(But it should be “know you’re ally”)
Hopefully you've been following our "Know Your Defender" posts highlighting
#Soldiers
participating in
#DefenderEurope
22 exercises.
Well, meet "Your Ally."
UK Soldiers assigned to
@16AirAssltBCT
are an integral part of the
@NATO
#Alliance
, and we're stoked to
#train
with them
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…And his friends and his family, and the daughter he never saw, are on the sunny track with the sadness and the sighs, further away each day from that grim ditch in the trees//
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That feeling when you get an evening off so you go to the library for a book on deterrence theory for your research paper…
and you come out with Red Storm Rising cos you’ve been visiting submarines and P8s all week
@HCSCShrivenham
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Very important thread👇
When you next say ‘warfighting’, check whether you really mean ‘battle-fighting’
Wars are won by the lifters & movers of the Muleskinners & Providers, & by resilient citizenry, at least as much as by the professional fighters of the Devils & Thunders
It rarely works. Instead, if you live in a liberal/democratic society read military history, invest in logistics, and keep an open mind about conscription. Conscript soldiers have done the vast majority of LSCO since 1792. Also build more artillery shells. 25/25
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