White ovies

I can't speak to any official account, but the friends I still have left in the Marine Corps looked inward for blame.

So what experience do I have, just this once and how would you know? Clearly it's changed since I served. I most definitely haven't accused anyone of fraud just asked a straightforward question about the reason for this deduction -which hasn't been answered. If you know the answer why not post it rather than ladelling out abuse...or not, I won't lose sleep either way?

The words of the resigning Marine commander and the straightforward way he took responsibility reflected much credit on the Corps.

Quite so....:hmm:

Not that I expect any such courtesy from anyone so clearly ignorant.

Or maybe we could stop the pointless discussion about being short changed by a few paltry quid on a travel claim from many years ago, and get back to the otherwise interesting thread about a major operational loss at Camp Bastion? The two are in no way related.

Quite happy to do so, once an apology for false accusation has been forthcoming....

Perhaps one of the biggest lessons the RAF could learn about ground defence (despite the fact we all were paranoid about Spetznaz during the Cold War) and all we can whine about is travel claims.

I thought we had moved-on a little further from the Samsonite Air Force. :ugh:

CGB

Out of interest is that Northern Ireland or Eire?

Ireland, as in Eire. I guess you're wondering about nationality?

Well even before the fun started I knew what BEagle was on about and I've never been in the forces as such.

The police service had a similar line of thinking. They would deduct your normal mileage in the principle that you would have used it to go to work anyway. So I go to station x, distance 10 miles each way. My normal run is 5 miles each way. Home to x would therefore allow me to claim 10 mile for a return run but if I had gone to work booked on and then gone to station x I could claim 20 miles and overtime if it was outside my rostered hours.

I presume is that similar to what BEagle had.

I was in the police as well as the RAF, clicker, so that would make total sense. Otherwise, well, why seven miles?? But I asked in a pm exchange if that was the reason but was told it wasn't... and that I was too stupid to understand! -you get the picture! Unfortunately, having chosen to raise the issue here (rather impolitely since there's no link that I can see with the Bastion attack)beagle won't say, preferring to go off on one with personal abuse about a non-existent allegation. For the record, while I feel he may have lost the plot here, I don't consider him a fraudster.

To return to the thread, I hope this attack has sent shock waves behind the scenes if not in public. If I was an enemy and wished to strike against this country I wouldn't buy jet fighters, just a couple of old 4x4's, small arms and wire cutters and some determined young men who our enemies seem to be able to recruit.

What pray tell does non-payment of a mileage claim have to do with the Camp Bastion Attack?

Why don't you guys take that argument to any one of the thousand past such threads on that topic and not clutter up this discussion about the Attack on Camp Bastion.

Even allowing for Thread Creep....this is way off topic by anyone's definition.

Just been reading the US account which gives a little more information about the attack, a little about what they did and how.

One point made was that some people had thought the Tongan guards may have been a little slack on their duties but the report also says that the normal procedure was that the tower was manned by 4 men, two upstairs carrying out their duties and two down on ground level, regarded there are off watch, sleeping, cooking etc until their spell upstairs. People may have seen the downstairs lads and mentally formed the wrong idea.

Another point mentioned was that two towers overlooked the area of the fence incursion but one would have been shielded by slopes and dips. only 2% of light available also made it hard to see.

Finally I noted that the towers were not build to see towards the airfield, only to their fronts and sides. I wonder if that caused any problems in the defence of the Harrier apron.

"I will no longer tolerate a half-million Air Force personnel without a combat role. All airmen are to be armed and trained, ready to fight and die in defense of the airfields; every airfield should be the stronghold of fighting air-groundmen, and not the abode of uniformed civilians in the prime of life protected by a detachment of soldiers."

Winston S Churchill 29 June 1941

I can't find what Churchill thought about having 7 miles knocked off a travel claim.

However, Churchill's response to Business Cases was a big rubber stamp with 'ACTION THIS DAY' on it.