Discarded No Longer Required

When I first joined the army in the mid-seventies it was normal to assume that my intended career path would be secure. Pensions were certainly good and something young service personnel worked towards to ensure that they had some security once that career came to an end normally after 22-years or more. This has since changed and to the benefit of the MoD fat cats and not the individual concerned. Was I naive to think that I would be looked after once I broke service by the penny pinching desk jockeys in power within the MoD? I really thought so after all in just seven weeks in the early eighties our great country sent a task force of 28,000 men and over 100 ships 8000 miles to engage an enemy that had already put up defenses on the Falkland Islands. This task force fought off combat aircraft that out-numbered its own by six to one. It put 10,000 men ashore on a hostile coast and fought several pitched battles against the enemy bringing them to surrender within three and half weeks. I certainly felt secure back then but little did I know that further down the line after the turn of the century that army numbers alone would be at their lowest since the Napoleonic Wars and steadily decreasing. This ultimately has a severe knock on effect on those servicemen and women, full time and reserves who are still serving including their families and some unfortunate heroes who have been seriously wounded. Veterans like me and many before me from various conflicts that the British Army have been continually involved in suffer because the MoD and Government just keep on chipping away at the defense budget without thinking about the consequences or who it may affect. It beggars belief to see veterans in their late sixties and seventies being pulverised by historical alleged criminal allegations that go back decades. When does this lunacy and disregard towards those who served stop? Let’s not forget that the young servicemen and women of today will be the veterans of the future and will expect to be looked after just as they looked after this proud country. It speaks volumes when the Armed Forces continuous attitude survey for 2016 shows a serious decline in service life. Say no more!