Spot on!

[whotheheckami]

I would like to say that I'm pleased and relieved at the result of this trial. To me the individual's issues about the legality of the war in Iraq are utterly irrelevant to the case. He refused to carry out lawful orders from his superior officers - end of debate. He is more than welcome to have personal feelings about the conflict and I admire him for taking such a strong moral stance. However, he was a volunteer memeber of a fighting force and is being justifiably punished for disobeying orders.

Forgive my cynicism, but I only hope his moral purity continues to the point where he donates any profits from subsequent book deals to charity.

Comments

[zoeimogen.livejournal.com]

I'm not shocked because he sounds like a typical military medic and they all seem to be fairly wierd.

Try the fighter pilots. They really are like some of the sterotypes and most of them think they're God. (To be fair, it's a requirement for the job. If you're sane and normal, you'd not want to do it.)

I can only imagine what his "period of "de-militarisation"" at Colchester will be like for him.

Pretty hellish. 2 weeks of it is bad enough during Phase 1 training, 8 months of it is quite a harsh punishment. (It's nowhere near as easy as a civilian jail, that's for sure) I'm guessing for those being discharged they ease off towards the end or something and give them skills that will be useful for getting a job in 2 Civ Div.

But more importantly, how did a Jimmy find my journal?

I have no idea what a "Jimmy" is, unless you're scottish, but I found it from gerald_duck's friends page. :-)

[zoeimogen.livejournal.com]

Ah, I just read your profile. You'll know exactly what I mean about some of the fighter pilots...

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

I would never have made it as a fighter pilot. My eyes were brown and so I would not have been accepted into the blue-eyed master-race ;@)

[zoeimogen.livejournal.com]

*laughs*

I wanted to fly mud shifters when I was about 16-17, but the RAF recruiter was a twat and put me off even applying. They only wanted to recruit for fast jet pilots back then, and from what he said the bomber and transport pilots were just fighter pilot rejects. (Not sure how true that was/is)

Then I wanted to join the Navy as a submariner, (Nice and safe... not) then I tried to join the Army as a Territorial Army Infantry Officer, (The role with the highest casualty rate when the shooting starts) then I *finally* joined the TA in the Royal Signals, at which point everything fell apart as I figured out the reason I kept wanting to do stupidly dangerous military stuff. :-)

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

For some reason the RAF refer to members of the RCS as Jimmys - its supposed to be a nickname for the Mercury badge

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

Colchester is (or was) a pretty hellish regime and far worse than any civilian prison. The officer concerned will have been stripped of his commission before arriing there and will have the rank of aircraftsman. I was shown around the centre many years ago because the job I was doing entailed sending quite few miscreants there. It was not nice!

[zoeimogen.livejournal.com]

I've worked with people who have spent 28 days inside and I've seen documentaries on it - to be honest, the documentaries don't do it justice in terms of how soul-destroying it must be. I think it's impssible for a civilian to appreciate what military discipline can really be like.

Just being stripped of his rank will be pretty bad - I'm guessing it's like the Army and he'll ahve gone in at that rank being Professionally Qualified so won't be used to even being a lower officer rank. (Can't remember RAF ranks, but I remember that Flt.Lt. is like an Army Captain, you get a fair bit of respect if no real actual command responsibility when you've gone in as a PQO)

[whotheheckami.livejournal.com]

You are right with your equivalent ranks and what he would have been responsible for. You're also spot on when yhou say that the MCTC is hell on earth