A Wake Up Call?

[Zofo]

Although I was too young to serve in the Falklands - I joined 2 years afterwards, was this conflict a wake up call to Britain? Where we too complacent in terms of foreign policy and should this invasion have happened?
There are many different parts of this conflict that I'd like to discuss but taking it from the top as it were, Britain in 1982, a nation living on past laurels or was it Margaret Thatcher who put the "Great" back into Britain?

[tosh66]

It may have been a wake up call, but this was only obvious to everyone but the politicians. We made the same mistakes nineteen years later, the army, navy and airforce were and still are woefully underfunded.
We are not known as "The Borrowers" for nothing.

[HighlandSniper58]

This one came as a shock to most of us - I had only been outside a few months - a lot of my school mates were down there in all three services.

I still feel that the man on the street doesn't know just how close a call it really was.

[Zofo]

I agree with the close run thing there HS. Too close as Sandy Woodward's book makes only too plain. Far a really accurate look at the politics of the confrontation the best read out there is by Simon Jenkins and Max Hastings - a great deal of detail and very interesting.

Tosh mate, underfunding is the bane of the services. John Nott was due to scrap almost everything that floated in 1982 - Admiral Sir Henry Leach, the 1st Sealord was able to demonstrate with what he had that the job could be done - it was, just. If those cuts had taken place then the Malvinas they would remain. Just as we were deploying for the Gulf in '91, we had Options for Changes. I came out shortly after that but the same nonsense continues.

The only good thing about "Options" was that a lot of timeservers got their SNLR (Services No Longer Required) letters. At least, those I came across in my regiment were along these lines.

[Bombardier]

I managed to get phase 3 redundancy, loads a money! :lol: . still I miss the military life a lot :?

[Zofo]

We were not in the "Options" programme as such due to the nature of the job but after we got back from the Gulf we were given a generous 3 weeks leave! When we got back we were taken to the int. cell and divided up into teams to deploy firstly to Turkey for the aid prog. to the Kurds and then to Bosnia. All well and good but my time had run out as had my patience. For example in the Gulf we had a very hectic time (not too many but enough) and it was a case of all hands on deck. We pulled in some of our guys who were manning trenches and replaced them with cookhouse staff and drivers. The MT sgt. burst his way into a T.S. security area and wanted his bottlewashers out of the trenches because they had to unload some stores! This, in the middle of a war was unbeliveable, especially as we had top grade int. falling into our laps. Our troop staffie got rid of him but incredibly, the **** came back and tried it on again until our Sqn. Commander threw him out, charged him (later dropped :( ) and threatened to boot him all the way back to Germany if he didn't get out of the way. This sort of NATO potato was always around, waiting to be a little Hitler - the guy is still in, now an SSM, prob higher!
More than anything else, I thought that if I can't do my job because of troop infighting then blow it. As it was, I signed off, having done my time plus extra.

[Matzos]

Hi all

I had been in the RAF for 6 years when the 'war' started, trained to work in the recce photo area.
As I was serving in Germany at the time I saw a number of RAF units go south, one being the Harriers with their recce pods.
I was only later that I got to hear that the pilots flying the recce missions were dropping the pods Iike bombs. It then came out in the the government white paper (sad as it is, I still have it) stating that the military required MORE recce units. What did they do, they cut the recce role. I saw two units disband in Germany in the 1980's and now there are only approx 300 trained photographers in the RAF and there were once over 600.
Now the trade is in line for future cuts in 2008, well I think it maybe time to hang up my uniform (after 28 years) and start looking for another job.

Well thats off my chest.

I have a number of friends who served there and are VERY proud that they did.

[Bombardier]

Thats typical of the MOD, Burying their heads in the sand so to speak.
Welcome again buddy. What do you think you will do in civvy street ?
:cool:

[Matzos]

Thats the problem, the type of photography I was trained in is not a large area in civvy street.

There are a number of companys in the UK that deal with air photography and also the national archives sometimes look for ex-military photo personnel.
And after doing 28-29 years there is no way that I am doing to start doing another desk job and start getting stressed out again.

I will have to look at my options and toss a coin some time next year.

[Zofo]

When you say you saw RAF units going South, was that after the conflict. Forgive my ignorance but I thought the RAF role was limited to transport, maritime recon with the Nimrods and the "Black Buck" Vulcan attacks. Was there more to it than that?
Thanks!

[Polar]

Zofo in Falklands War your country was use Harrier GR3 from 1st Sqn RAF and one CH-47 Chinook from 18 Sqn RAF ( others was lost with Atlantuic Convoyer) .

This is battle diary 1st Sqn Harriers of RAF from falklands
http://www.raf.mod.uk/falklands/1sqn_index.html and this one pic from this web
http://www.raf.mod.uk/falklands/images/cas038.jpg

[Polar]

And after doing 28-29 years there is no way that I am doing to start doing another desk job and start getting stressed out again.



In Poland soldier after 25 years serving have full retiring. Soldier could go to early retiring after 15 years serving. A few years ago we have in Poland probably the youngest pensioner in the world. He have only 33 years old.

[Matzos]

reference the 'RAF going south'.

The RAF use the GR3 Harrier (one of the best aircraft in the world, we sold it and now we are buying it back), these mainly came from RAF Wittering. However, they were also supported by the Harriers from RAF Germany( 3sqn & 4sqn - photo recce). The RAF Regiment (God Bless Them) also undertook operations in the Falklands and a number of RAF photo - recce systems were also used, with the photographers being based aboard Royal Navy ships. All RAF Harriers at the time, carried a PFO (Port Facing Oblique) camera, this was mounted in the noise of the aircraft. I known of only of a handful of RAF Photographers that took part in the full campaign and not just a supporting role.

I could have left the RAF after 22 years, but I got promoted to Flight Sergeant, (thats WO2 in the Army) and I sign-on to age 55