Month: July 2016

After badgering the MoD, I am delighted that one of my officers was included in the first recipients of the new General Service Medal (GSM 08) awarded by the Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon in June.

Capt Amanda Wilcox-Jones from Winchester deployed to Libya in March 2012 to run the first English language course for the Libyan Armed Forces at Jansur (see page 253 of Belfast to Benghazi).

http://www.mereobooks.com/books/genre/biography-memoirs/belfast-to-benghazi  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Belfast-Benghazi-Untold-Challenges-War/dp/1861515669?ie=UTF8&keywords=belfast%20to%20benghazi&qid=1464202598&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

 

Speaking at the War and Peace Revival Festival in Kent this week.  I am sharing the Vintage Pavilion with some wonderful authors, including 96 year old Normandy veteran Albert Figg and 97 year old “Die Hard” Jeff Haward, who fought throughout the entirity of WWII.

Thanks to Phil Challands at FRL Media Group for this photograph.

Discussing the poor preparation for the Iraq War with Carl Dinnen outside the House of Lords    http://www.itv.com/news/story/2016-07-07/live-updates-fallout-from-chilcot-inquiry/#

More revelations are in Chapter 5 of Belfast to Benghazi.

 

Working with ITN today analysing and commenting on the Chilcot Report.

The Government could and should have replaced Snatch with Mastiff at least one year before it did.

Silence at 7.28 a.m. to remember the casualties of the Somme.  Especially those of the 38th Welsh Division at Mametz Wood where my 26 year old grandfather served as a doctor on the front line.

My poppy lines the route with the following dedication:

Through the Slime

Across the Wire

They Struggle and Fall

And Give their All

Terrors in Mind