Posted on 11/23/2007 3:28:31 AM PST by LibWhacker
Injured soldiers who lost their limbs fighting for their country have been driven from a swimming pool training session by jeering members of the public.
The men, injured during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, were taking part in a rehabilitation session at a leisure centre, when two women demanded they be removed from the pool. They claimed that the soldiers "hadn't paid" and might scare the children.
The incident has sparked widespread condemnation. Adml Lord Boyce, a former head of the Armed Forces, said last night the women should be "named and shamed". advertisement
"These people are beneath contempt and everything should be done to get their names and publish them in the press," he said. "It is contemptible that people who have given up their limbs for their country should be so abused when they are trying to get fit again."
It comes after calls for the public to do more to welcome home troops back from tours of duty and to recognise the bravery of those fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The unpleasant scenes broke out at Leatherhead Leisure Centre in Surrey when the wounded veterans, who are at Headley Court Military Hospital, had to use the 25-metre public pool because the hydro-pool at the defence rehabilitation centre is not big enough for swimming.
The servicemen were about to begin their weekly swimming therapy in closed-off lanes when they were verbally abused by the swimmers.
One woman in her 30s was said to be infuriated by the lane closures saying the soldiers did not deserve to be there when she had paid.
It was also reported that others complained that limbless servicemen were scaring children at the centre.
The atmosphere was said to be so tense that the soldiers' instructors removed them.
Charles Murrin, 79, a Navy veteran who saw the incident, said: "The woman said the men do not deserve to be in there and that she pays to come in the pool and they don't. I spoke to the instructor in the changing room afterwards and he was livid."
It is not the first time that Headley Court neighbours have been accused of poor behaviour.
There was uproar earlier this year after residents objected to planning permission to convert a home into a six-suite hostel for injured soldiers' families to stay in. The local council later approved the building work.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "We are disappointed that a small number of people objected to the closure of swimming lanes so that patients of Headley Court could use them."
The incident comes weeks after the Help For Heroes appeal was launched to raise £5 million to build a full-size pool and gym at the centre.
Labour will today aim to repair its battered reputation with the Armed Forces by offering all military veterans priority NHS treatment, The Daily Telegraph has learned.
The concession, ordered by the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, will be available to the estimated 4.8 million ex-servicemen and women, sources said last night.
If those abusers don’t repent and change their ways they will be spending eternity in hell!
It’s nice to, from time to time, get reinforcement that the United States doesn’t have a monopoly on humanoid debris.
“The incident has sparked widespread condemnation. Adml Lord Boyce, a former head of the Armed Forces, said last night the women should be “named and shamed”.”
GO ADMIRAL!!!
“These people are beneath contempt and everything should be done to get their names and publish them in the press,”
Hear! Hear!
I hope they do publicly identify them
I just cannot fathom the depths of indecency some people will go to in their quest to satisfy their selfishness.
After visiting Britain last year and talking to some of my younger Brit in-laws, I'm afraid many of them have little regard for the suffering and sacrific their elders did for them.
When my wife and I visited some of her elderly Brit relatives and in-laws I was struck by the amount of military paraphernalia her uncles and other male relatives had in their houses. One of her older male relatives even grilled me on my knowledge of WWII airplanes of which he had numerous pictures and models in his living room. I could answer some but not all. Another of her older Brit relatives also had military pictures in his living room. These elderly men put these pictures and models in their living room and not the dens. I guess at least patriotic feelings haven't died out among Britain's older generations.
[she pays to come in the pool]
So did they, you heartless bitch.
These degradations of behavior and as here, expressed against our Veterans, are painful and deplorable and are a consequence of the Left's 'stream of hate'; constantly expressed against anyone who does not adapt to their MO. The Left's profile and teaching mantra 'for their own good' is merging - as it must - into a hideous face.
These kids - we can be assured - know all about sex, condoms. . .and all variations of sexual deviancy. It is clear as well, that they know nothing about a history from which they reap their daily rewards; nor are they learning apparently, that there is a 'worthwhile scale' of humanity that they rightfully, will be measured against.
Surrey was the site of the Martian invaders' initial landing in H.G. Wells's original War of the Worlds and, iirc, Leatherhead was one the places they destroyed with their heat rays and poison gas.
/Just saying
The instructor should have told the women to leave immediately, and we'll refund you the balance via mail.
But in 'essence' the same applies to these women; who, by their own behavior are, 'teaching examples', that are surely typical and hateful in their self-annointing. As are all Leftist models of compassionate hate.
WOW ... what jacka**** they are
And gee could the reason why the children where upset was because of their obnoxious screaming mothers??
More liberal BS. I say we send all liberals, leftists, and dimocrats to live in Iran.
I wish I had been there. I’d have offered to pay the fee for any soldier there if any of the protesters would lop off whatever limb they had the fellow was missing. Just so everything was even.
Having spent some time in the UK, and around British women in the past twenty years...they really don’t measure up to the British women of the 1940s and 1950s that our fathers or uncles used to talk about...period. They are soap opera queens...stuck on their image and their style...and little to no taste. The only place where I thought I’d died and gone to heaven...was Scotland....where some sort of reality still exists in the small towns and villages throughout the land.
“However, what should have happened is their removal from the pool at the time. Those women were certainly breaking any number of laws.”
Absolutely. Good to see someone standing up to these freaks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.