Honest question

[West Coast]

I know this sounds like a crackpot inquiry, but its for real.

Has there been an inordinate number of deaths in the British Army of late that have been chalked up to suicide? My Mom has a distant relation whose son was in the Brit Army. He committed suicide, or at least it was chalked up to it. Parents believe he was murdered and that it is not isolated.

Again, I know this sounds weird and I tend not to put much faith in a distressed families allegations. I however promised my Mom I would do some searching to see if there are any articles in the paper or any rumblings heard.

[Training Risky]

The place was called Deepcut barracks, your best link is this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3743477.stm

There was definitely something fishy going on, and a previous instructor at the camp was convicted of bullying and violent behaviour. (But I can't remember his name.)

[Navaleye]

Gentlemen, you will be suggesting next that the official Inquiry into these incidents was in some way flawed.

[airborne_artist]

Some people have even gone so far as to suggest that the Commanding Officers of Deepcut are in some way responsible, and that it is remarkable that they appear to have Teflon'd their way out of any trouble.

I happened to be at Sennybridge in the summer of 1981. Also there was a battle camp for recruits (luckily I can't remember which regt.). At 0200 their Sergeant thought it would be a good idea to rouse them all and beast them up and down the hill at the rear of the huts. These lads had been out on the (live) and very wet ranges all day, and were due out again the next day. Beasting them was doing nothing for their skills or for safety.

Luckily for me there was with us an SAS WO2 - who went out and got the lads back to bed, and then had a robust conversation with their Sergeant.

An abusive culture seemed to be accepted in some locations - and you can draw your own conclusions what may result from that.

[X-QUORK]

Nice one Airborne, you've just reminded me of a similar occurrence during my basic training days in November '86. It was during the "battle camp" phase at Pen Hale (near Newquay) when our section commanders decided to get us out of our pits with a fire alarm at 3am. We formed up into a squad outside the non-flaming Nissan huts wearing only our shreddies (underpants for the US folks) - and if you were lucky a pair of trainers. The NCOs had clearly just arrived back from a lock-in at the local pub and thought it would be a laugh to give us a bit of PT. We were doubled over to the assault course and beasted up the ropes and over 10' walls for 20 minutes before they got bored and allowed us to return back to our welcoming beds.

The next day approx half of the platoon reported to the MO with foot and ankle injuries (not me of course, I was nails) and 2 or 3 were so serious that they had to have a few weeks sick leave, meaning they had to then start basic training all over again with the next in-take.

The NCOs got to have an interview with the camp CO (without coffee), and that was that. It was all pretty normal back then and we just took it as part of the game that had to be played in order to join the British Army - that said though, the NCOs picked on all of us equally, and it would've be very hard on a young bloke if they'd been singled out for special attention.

No need for bullying, but there's nothing wrong with treating recruits firmly in order that they toughen up - it also helps them bond as a team...strength in adversity.

[mbga9pgf]

Be careful chaps, this one is a little sensitive and I suspect there are journos about... there is plenty of official documentation around to confirm what actually happened as opposed to what is Prumored to.