Yank Bashers Note This...

[FJJP]

There is a group of people who frequent this and other sites intent on 'Yank Bashing'. They seem to delight in denegrating the US Armed Forces.

I have always had a huge amount of time for our American cousins, working with them for 30-odd years.

This story sets the seal on that friendship and proves once again the value of the United States Forces and their ethos:

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123033462

Thank you, my Americans friends, for the honour you do our fallen...

[Farmer 1]

Thank you, my Americans friends, for the honour you do our fallen...
Could not disagree less. Thanks, Yanks.

[dodgysootie]

Thank you, my Americans friends, for the honour you do our fallen...

Well done you!!

[PPRuNe Pop]

A selfless act that ensures that a corner of Iraq that was forever England is perpetuated.


Thank you cousins. :ok: :ok: :ok:

[snowball1]

So no jocks,taffs,paddys etc there then!!

[Duncan D'Sorderlee]

Well done the Yanks!

:D

Duncs

[Jackonicko]

Credit where credit's due, of course - but real grounded decency has always been one of the things that America does better than anybody.

[Geehovah]

Those of us who have worked in the US would expect nothing less. Politics aside we have no closer friends.

I'm sure our own people in theatre would do the same

[Pontius Navigator]

I agree. Thank you.

I believe the RAF was still at Habbanyia and H3 etc.

The RAF was not forced out in 1941 - http://assyrianlevies.com/gpage.html7.html

The RAF actually left in 1959 - the following link is a further USAF link and just as moving as the first:

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123030898

I knew the intrinsic facts as my interviewers at OASC had both been at Habbanyia, a place I had never heard of, where the wg cdr ribbed the sqn ldr for having his baggage stolen.

[mini]

Haven't read the link but mini flew out of Habbaniyeh regularily in the late 90's

An 26, 2 hrs to Larnaca (later binned due to P2 failing a breath test) - beat the hell out of a 12 hr road trip to Amman.

Appeared all but abandoned at the time.

[SASless]

A few years ago at a very secure place in South Carolina, I ran across a small family cemetery with eight or so grave stones. Free Access to the area had been denied since the early '50's when the Cold War prompted the need for such places to create things that nightmares are about.

What caught my eye, was of the eight headstones, two were of Confederate soldiers killed during the American war between the States. One had died at Gettysburg and the other at Antietem.

Someone had taken the time to rake the area and plant some flowers.....and place two small Confedrate Flags on the soldier's graves.

Perhaps it is exactly the right thing for soldiers to do for those that have gone before....and show a bit of respect and honor to those who are lost while serving.

As usual, our current bunch of young men and women in uniform give us an excellent example of carrying on the traditions of service.

[Mike51]

http://assyrianlevies.com/gpage.html7.html
Thanks for that link Pontius Navigator, fascinating stuff. The OC of the Iraqi Levies providing the ground defence mentioned in the link was my Great Uncle, Lt Col John Brawn of the (then) Royal Norfolk Regiment.

Lat Christmas, my brother and I were looking through some of his old photographs, and I was struck by how many of the placenames, from his time there during the 1920s to early-40s, seem familiar from the news today. Fallujah and Basra come to mind.

And well done to the Americans for restoring the cemetary. As many here have said (and living and working in the US myself at present I'd only agree), I'd have expected nothing less from them.

[Pontius Navigator]

yw Mike,

My Grandfather was there from 15-22. Same places, Basra, Nasayriya etc.

I have a couple of beautifully written letters from an Iraqi trader bemoaning the withdrawal of the many troops to be replaced by fewer RAF. Lost of trade etc. After the Turk the British and Indian troops were welcomed.

[GPMG]

Does anyone know where SASLESS is? Havent seen him for a while.

[Jackonicko]

Wish I had the link, but I found an even more remarkable story of US personnel restoring a smashed memorial to Soviet personnel at one of the Afghan air bases.

Good people the yanks, though they've elected some clowns (like us) and have sometimes behaved with incredible stupidity, arrogance and incompetence (like us). Pointing out their failing is hardly 'Yank Bashing' though perhaps we don't salute their strengths often enough.

[Gainesy]

Gimpy,
He's behiiiind you.:)