Even in 1982 she was still a politician at heart.
Some will know that the boys from Hereford who were observing the enemy positions were having problems transmitting their recce reports as they didn't have suitable kit.
Pere Artist was a dark blue communicator by trade, the most recent Captain of Endurance ashore and by a remarkable coincidence had been appointed the Deputy Director of Operations (Rest of the World) in the central staff of the MoD on leaving Endurance. As such he was directly involved from the outset. He was rung up one Saturday to be told of the South Georgia landings and next came home on the day of the San Carlos landings.
I was a very wet-behind-the-ears but badged member of the London-based part-time regiment. We had suitable comms kit (due to our role working for 1 BR Corps) which had just been introduced to the two TA regiments. My Selection intake had gone straight to the basic comms course and were the first to be trained on it.
Our comms skills and kit would have solved the problem (which was so severe that pinger SKs were picking up hand-written reports by night). The solution that Pere Artist had staffed went to the PM.
She dismissed it. There was no way she was mobilising a couple of dozen TA soldiers when there were >300,000 regulars across the three Services. She was acutely aware that if the news got out that there was a problem that could only be solved by TA soldiers it would cause political damage, of which she had enough already.
My father never told my mother that he'd recommended I went to war
