Olympic Thank You

[davydine]

I am not in the forces and I only aspire to be a pilot, but I hope you will forgive me a post in this forum to say thank you.

I was lucky enough to be able to go to the dress rehersal of the Olympics opening ceremony last night and I just wanted to say thank you to all of the servicemen and servicewomen who were working the security at the entrance.

Not only did you get people through quickly an efficiently, but it was all done with a friendly smile and a warm welcome. As a nation, we should be proud to have you there, able to step in at a moments notice and do such a good job.

I could go on but I won't, so just... THANK YOU

[airborne_artist]

Perversely I wonder if having so many service guys and gals may actually help promote UK plc to our foreign visitors. As davydine so generously says, they do the meet and greet very well, and while I'm not going to denigrate the civilian teams, many of whom are I'm sure just as professional, a smile from a snappy sailor/soldier/airperson could work wonders.

[AGS Man]

All Governments in the past have turned to MR / Ms Go anywhere, do anything in a crisis Serviceperson. I for one have manned Green Goddesses and done flood relief among other things (in the long distant past!) and it's great to see that Joe Public is still getting behind and praising the Forces.
The use of the Forces for security during the Olympics comes as no surprise to me and although I'm appalled that this has happened at such short notice disrupting important training and hard earned leave I will still feel safer in the knowledge that we have true proffesionals dealing with security. As for the politeness and service with a smile one gold medal our Forces certainly qualify for is Hearts and Minds!

[TEEEJ]

Apparently part of the opening ceremony? RAF Merlin noted in smart livery. Serial is believed to be ZK001.

Image link

http://i1145.photobucket.com/albums/o503/merlinflyer/DSCF1081.jpg

[Al R]

I don't want to be a killjoy, but I was quite impressed when I read that Forces personnel would be getting free TFL travel for the duration of the Games. And then I read the detail;

The Mayor of London said: "London is ready to welcome the world and host a hugely successful Olympic and Paralympic Games. That success will be in no small measure down to the contribution of our boys and girls in the military. With free travel on TfL services, we offer a thank you from London."Yeah yeah.. thanks Boris. Ok, the bones.

London's Transport Commissioner, Peter Hendy, said: "Free travel on all TfL services is the least we can do for our hardworking military personnel. Whenever they are in uniform, our staff will welcome them and ensure they can travel for free throughout the London 2012 Games."In uniform?? If they're in uniform, they'll be working! Unless of course, someone wants to get booted and spurred just to save a few quid. In which case, they run the risk of being pinged; 'well, seeing as you're here, stand in for me for a bit would you mate, whilst I check out the ladies volleyball?'.

I'm sure the troops will be making the best of a bad situation, although the civvy who thought it was a good idea last week, to billet some lads from 16 Air Assault with a similarly sized Commando contingent probably wasn't particularly up to speed on service culture.

(AA - agreed, a switched on squaddie carries confidence and self assurance easily)

[Finnpog]

I'm sure the troops will be making the best of a bad situation, although the civvy who thought it was a good idea last week, to billet some lads from 16 Air Assault with a similarly sized Commando contingent probably wasn't particularly up to speed on service culture.

I suppose that they key question to ask is...Who won?

[ian16th]

Originally Posted by Al_R
I'm sure the troops will be making the best of a bad situation, although the civvy who thought it was a good idea last week, to billet some lads from 16 Air Assault with a similarly sized Commando contingent probably wasn't particularly up to speed on service culture.

Remind me of when the UN sent the Irish Army, dunno which regiment, out to Cyprus, when the Greek v Turk troubles started.

We already had the Royal Uslter Rifles, so the 1st thing that happened was they arranged a Hurling match! :eek: