Other Post Write a book

[Matzos]

with the number of of ex-seviceman and serving members of the armed forces on this this site. We could write a book on all the things we have have done for Queen and County (sorry President and states ) are the public ready for this type of information?

 

[Zofo]

A friend and I are considering doing just that but whilst it may be of interest to the military historian, buff or ex-service type, I think that civvie street as a whole would ignore it. We are not SAS, have done nothing out of the ordinary (as far as we can see, others may think differently) and too be honest...well, I don't know! There are a series of books by ex servicemen who didn't do anything out of the ordinary, don't have a winged dagger on the cover and sell well - Cloudpuncher springs to mind.

 

[Bombardier]

I had always thought of writing a book?. I binned the idea though didnt think anybody would be interested in my story because as zofo said , I dont have winged Daggers and such.

The thing that might have been interesting would have been my daily journal of my Gulf war experiences, but guess what?, I didnt write any :? .
Dosy Git that I am

 

[Matzos]

And if a book was written, I could see the lawyers queuing up to take us to court over the things we could tell about military life. An ex-colleague of mine backed down from writing one due that fact.
Anyway, no one would believe us

jud;

 

[rotorwash]

I didn't keep any detailed notes either, much to my regret. All of my photos, such as they were, went by the board many years ago when our basement flooded. I am just now finding detailed unit histories that jog my memory. Some of the stories are emotionally very difficult to write, they take time and true effort and I haven't really begun with those.

At first I started just slamming them into the forums here, but now I write them on a word processor then cut and paste. I am writing one that I might be able to illustrate with a few pictures.

On the other side, I am copying my posts from the forums to assemble a folio for my kids and grandkids, but then I find my students are interested also.

Who knows.

RW

 

[Zofo]

And if a book was written, I could see the lawyers queuing up to take us to court over the things we could tell about military life. An ex-colleague of mine backed down from writing one due that fact.
Anyway, no one would believe us

Dreaded OPSEC rising its head. I remember back in '88 when Op. Reforger was on and the whole of North Germany was flooded by the US 7th Div from Texas (that's what I was told). It was mayhem and every man and his dog were out on exercise - including us, which didn't really make much of a change as we'd only just finished work ups for 7 Armoured Bde. Anyway, our OPSEC was v.v strict and absolutely no one could know what we did. At the mere sniff of another unit we'd spring into bluff mode and say we were doing something totally different to our role (other units wanted to kick the cr*p out of us for dic*ing them about). So having avoided all this sort of nonsense and having been good boys we returned to "peacetime location" and some days later a copy of The Independent (UK daily paper) was doing the rounds with a blow by blow account of our sister troop's activities on Reforger. It completely blew whatever security there was and of course had the blessings of those much higher than our Col.
If however I were to put down any of the anecdotes I'm proud of, I'd be tapping the boards sooner than maybe! The other option is to publish in Russia, like Richard Tomlinson, the MI6 spook did. I have a first edition of the book which my wife kindly brought back with her not so long ago.