‘And on your right you will see what is generally thought to be the Garden of Eden made famous by that popular book, The Bible…’ ‘Shots fired…’ ‘We’re being shot at from the Garden of Eden?! Unbelievable! Looks a fucking shithole anyway’
Fragments #4 – Up Country
Racing through the thick clouds of orange dust on a single track African road, unable to see further than ten metres in front is a harrowing experience. More so when a lumbering white armoured vehicle appears suddenly beside you , sending you careening off the road into the jungle. The British mission to Sierra Leone …
Fragments #3 – Death of a Tout
The writing had literally been on the wall for a week or so; ‘JP is a TOUT!’ I was working as part of a surveillance team keeping eyes on a target for several months. The guy we were watching was part of a dissident republican organisation and we had managed to build up a good …
Fragments #2 – First Drive
We flew into Basra on a chartered Italian aeroplane because the RAF had run out of aircraft. As we entered what must have been Iraqi airspace we were told to put on our body armour and helmets. In hindsight we would probably have been better sitting on them. It was surreal, flying into a country …
Fragments #1 Justin’s Return
I’ve decided to write a post a day from 1st November to Remembrance Day on the 11th. News came racing through camp. From tent to tent, across tables in the makeshift cookhouse, wherever people would run in to each other. Justin’s wagon had been hit pretty bad coming back from a patrol in Basra. One …
Israel and the Flotilla
A very quick piece on a very complex issue! This latest round of Israeli/Palestinian hostilities (including supporters and detractors of both sides)is exactly that, another bout in a deeply complex and long running series of scuffles, conflicts and tit-for-tat reprisals. Before we rush to condemn Israel, as it is often so easy to do, or …
I See Dead People
This morning I had a meeting at another office. It got cancelled and as I made my way back through some side streets I saw a man walking towards me. As he stepped into the light I realised that I knew him, his name was Stu and we had served together in the army. London …
PTSD – An Introspective
The idea for this post came from a comment left on one of my previous posts by @VoleQueen (if you are a Twitterer, I am @Oedipus_Lex). Her point was that although we mourn the loss of soldiers and civilians killed in acts of war and terror we tend to either ignore or be unaware of …
9/11 – Where I Was.
I was standing in an army barracks in Lancashire, soaking with sweat, dressed in combats, boots and a regimental sweatshirt; we’d just come back from a platoon run. I was about to get undressed and someone came running into my room saying that a plane had crashed into some building in New York.
A Lament For Wandsworth
Like the half-starved, exhausted remnants of Charles Edward’s army at Culloden, an Itinerant team, lacking the dashing verve of their batsmen, gathered at a ground familiar only to a few veterans. Among their hastily assembled ranks there numbered the hung-over, the unpractised and the perennially untalented. Yet a dogged determination prevailed: these men would stand …