UK NEWS

AFGHANISTAN: THE ARMY WOMAN SENT TO HER DOOM

Cpl Sarah Bryant, 26. She and three others were blown up by a roadside bomb

Wednesday March 10,2010

By John Ingham

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(18)

GORDON Brown faced fresh demands to be recalled to the Iraq Inquiry yesterday after a coroner blamed “inadequate training” and kit for the first death of a woman soldier in Afghanistan alongside three comrades.

Coroner David Masters said he planned to raise the equipment shortages with the Ministry of Defence.

Just days earlier Mr Brown told the inquiry that as Chancellor he had never refused a military request for cash for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Corporal Sarah Bryant, 26, and special forces reservists Cpl Sean Robert Reeve, 28, Lance Cpl Richard Larkin, 39, and Private Paul Stout, 31, died in June 2008 when their lightly protected Snatch Land Rover was blown up by a roadside bomb.

The vehicles were so vulnerable that they were dubbed “mobile coffins”. Thirty-eight soldiers have been killed in them in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Soldiers told the six-day inquest in Trowbridge, Wilts, that they had not received vital Ebex metal detectors until four months into their tour and that they had little training on them. The inquest heard the tragedy might have been prevented if the area had been correctly searched by the electronic mine detectors.

The patrol had two devices but only one was available in the lead vehicle and only one soldier had been formally trained to use it.

A senior SAS commander, Colonel A, was among soldiers to raise concerns about the vehicles.

Recording a verdict of unlawful killing, Mr Masters said said there had been a “theatre-wide shortage” of the Ebex detectors, adding: “In my judgment there was an inadequacy in training for this unit and its members.”

He said: “The evidence has clearly shown that Snatch Land Rovers were not the preferred vehicle of choice for the operation in which the Police Mentoring team were engaged.

“There was significant disquiet about those vehicles being the only resource available to this unit for a variety of reasons.”

He said that Col A had “complained to higher channels with no avail”.

And he said Colonel A requested a heavier vehicle to replace the Snatch but “a shortage meant that they were unavailable to him”.

Pte Stout’s parents Ginette and Alan said the soldiers’ deaths should have been avoided.

In a statement, they said: “These brave, bright, young people may still be alive today if they had the right equipment and the proper full training.”

Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox said the deficiencies were “unforgivable”.

He said: “It is extremely concerning that not only was there a lack of equipment, there was also a lack of training.

“This flies in the face of what the Prime Minister said at the Chilcot Inquiry on Friday, and is why he needs to be recalled to clarify his evidence.”

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STOP REPEATING YOURSELF GOLDENARROW - GO AND TAKE A RENNIE

10.03.10, 10:41pm

NOW WHAT WA THAT YOU WERE SAYING ABOUT RANTS.

• Posted by: G0LDENARR0W • Report Comment

You have posted the same inane drivel about a dozen times today - and you know what? No one is interested.

It was drivel the first time you posted it, ad repeating it doesnt make it any less drivel.

Now stop repeating yourself goldenarrow - go and take a rennie

• Posted by: Yet_Another_Dwarf_ • Report Comment

HEAR THIS GOLDEN ARROW

10.03.10, 10:30pm

We don't vote the MOD Civil Servants in, we do vote in the Government and if they don't make sure the MOD spend the money correctly they must answer to the electorate.Your loved PM is going down for his misgivings in not controlling his staff.

• Posted by: dunnit • Report Comment

THESE ARE NOT RANTS THESE ARE FACTS

10.03.10, 7:53pm

Come across as a right prat, filling this Column with your innate rantings, you have the socialist
knack of denying the obvious and coming out with the obnoxious.You are a **** and should be shovelled up.

• Posted by: dunnit • Report Comment

Sir Bill Jeffrey the top honcho at the Mod was accused of prioritizing the renovating of leisure facilities over the "unacceptable housing" conditions for troops and their families.19,000 service homes were in disrepair, half of all single accommodation was "below par" and that some servicemen would have to wait 20 years for improvements. Jeffrey was accused of cutting £13.5 million of essential work out of regional prime contracts, but employed the same contractors to do £45 million on other projects, including resurfacing tennis courts and building all-weather pitches.[3]

OTHER ESSENTIAL WORK DONE ON GOOD OLD JEFFERS WATCH:
£3 million on oak doors on MOD building
30 big plasma TVs for the MOD building
£250,000 on eight paintings for MOD building.
3,000 Herman Miller office chairs – “the most comfortable office chairs in the world”
£50 million in bonuses for MOD chiefs in the past year

NOW WHAT WA THAT YOU WERE SAYING ABOUT RANTS.

If anyone need to be re-interrogate by CHILCOT it has got to be the head honcho of the MoD - JEFFREY.

A good start would be if he is requested to submit the MoD PROCUREMENT RECEIPTS then we will all know what he spent the 8 billion smackeroos on - won't we!

AT THE SAME TIME IT SHOULD ALSO BECOME OBVIOUS AS TO WHY SOME OF THAT 8 BILLION WAS NOT SPENT ON FRONT LINE EUIPMENT SUCH AS BOOTS AND ARMOUR.

• Posted by: G0LDENARR0W • Report Comment

GOLDEN ARROW YOU

10.03.10, 5:40pm

• Posted by: dunnit • Report Comment

GOLDEN PRA_TT - EVEN YOU CAN UNDERSTAND THIS - GO ON, TRY. I KNOW YOU'RE SENILE, BUT GIVE IT A TRY.

10.03.10, 4:29pm

Why is it that a certain senile poster is incapable of understanding a very simply point.

Brown is the head of the government.
Brown is in charge of his ministers.
In turn his ministers are in chareghe of their departments.

Therefore, when a department screws up - BROWN is ultimately responsible.

In fact THIS government brought in laws that make the chairman of a company personally responsible for the actions of his staff - so the same apoplies to the government (or is McDoom above the law?).

• Posted by: Yet_Another_Dwarf_ • Report Comment

YOU GOT IT WRONG

10.03.10, 4:28pm

You clearly know nothing and are motivated only by your desire to defend and excuse your fellow Scot no matter how stupid you look doing so. Face facts, Brown is a failure, a disgusting piece of filth who is prepared to let young men die and then lie about it to cling onto power.

• Posted by: Yet_Another_Dwarf_ • Report Comment

HEATHER AND KILTS ARE NOT MY THING AND UNLIKE YOU I FOUND OUT PRETTY EARLY IN LIFE THAT YOUR NATIONALITY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR NATURE - SO I AM SURE THAT WILL BE OF COMFORT TO A LOT OF WELSH PEOPLE WHO ARE NOTHING LIKE YOU - I KNOW THAT TO BE THE CASE AS I HAVE WORKED WITH MORE THAN A FEW.

• Posted by: G0LDENARR0W • Report Comment