Ready for anything: one of the soldiers training at Colchester. An officer said: "Whatever we get told to do we will do it"
Posted on 01/23/2003 4:24:07 PM PST by MadIvan
Ready for anything: one of the soldiers training at Colchester. An officer said: "Whatever we get told to do we will do it" |
BRITAIN and the rest of the world might be divided over the wisdom of war with Iraq, but in a field on the edge of Colchester, there is only single-minded resolve.
In a bone-chilling Essex gale, members of 16 Air Assault Brigade, including the 3rd Parachute Regiment, carried out last-minute equipment checks yesterday in a field near Colchester before their next overseas posting — the Gulf.
For the 660 men of 3 Para, these preparations come hard on the heels of a four-month stint as stand-in firefighters that ended only on Wednesday. But the troops, who are expected to swoop into Iraq from Chinook and Puma helicopters and lead an attack on Baghdad if it comes to war, do not doubt their own readiness nor the morality of their potential mission.
Professional soldiering does not allow much room for philosophical angst, at least not in front of the press. Having completed a tour in Northern Ireland before their fire duties, these men are well used to coping with the media spotlight in difficult circumstances.
“Hopefully the Government will have the majority of the people behind them when they make the decision,” Major Martin Willis, commander of B Company of 3 Para, said yesterday. “The men read widely and so are aware of the situation in Iraq and what the concerns of people are. But it is their job and their training to be used by the Prime Minister and whatever we get told to do we will do it.”
Paul Morrey, at 19 one of the youngest preparing for the Gulf, agrees. He takes a break from signals training to admit he has not long been engaged and both his fiancée and his mum have been “whingeing” about the prospect of him heading to war.
“I have a look in the paper now and then and watch a bit of the news,” Private Morrey said. “But it is just your job at the end of the day. If we get told to told to go, we go.”
On Wednesday 3 Para finally relinquished their fire duties but its commanders say they have been able to keep up to date with combat training between strike days. They are just back from 12 days’ live firing practice in Brecon.
Their standard issue rifle, the SA-80, has come in for a lot of media criticism but recent modifications have pleased the Paras, who reported only one episode of jamming during the Welsh exercise.
Major Steve Napier, 32, said: “The political implications of whether it is right or wrong is decided at ministerial level and they (his men) will deploy where they are told and carry out their mission.”
The doubts which do disturb the thoughts of young soldiers preparing for war are more centred on whether they will have to face chemical or biological attack. But lest the country’s frontline fighting men mislay the “moral compass” that Tony Blair has referred to, spiritual guidance is at hand. 3 Para take their own chaplain with them, the Rev Cole Maynard, 41.
The chaplain goes everywhere with the troops. He will parachute with them into battle but will not carry a weapon. How, then, to justify war in Iraq? “There are a lot of question marks but sometimes you have to ask difficult questions. I know there is a debate taking place but often the general public look for the easy way out and sometimes you have to take the longer picture and that means you have to safeguard the stability of world peace.”
With you at the first, with you to the last.
Regards, Ivan
They say it has been fixed, but I agree with you. Worse comes to worse, I'd rather we got some American guns.
Regards, Ivan
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