LUOTC ski trip transport this morning. Officer Cdts all lectured about the need for security and barred from using any MTP warm kit or day sacs etc” Taken on the ship at Dover on its way over to Europe.
You couldn't make it up, priceless
I am an anonymous General Dynamics Employee (ex army) I've seen your recent post about the AJAX. The project being 8 years overdue is not even half of it:
- Vehicles regularly come off the production line with circa 150 faults on them.
- We can't even build the vehicles to meet the test standard which we came up with ourselves. If the Army finds too many failures they will either change the test so that the vehicle passes every time or the management will scurry off to the civil servants from DE&S that work on site to ask them to sign a "concession" for the vehicle to leave the factory and arrive at it's new unit with said faults on the vehicle (even though it's brand new).
- We have working for us a number of ex army guys, one a them an ex REME ****** who's sole job seems to be to argue with the soldiers when they find faults with the vehicles and try to find a way of telling them they're wrong and essentially get us (General Dynamics) out of fixing the vehicle
- General Dynamics upper management set impossible targets which we fail to meet ourselves, even after reducing the target a few times before the deadline. What the impact of this on the soldiers on site is that in December for example (our most recent missed target) was they forced the soldiers to wait around on site for approx 16 hours a day just so that they could sign off any faults as and when we repair them, failing this our managers would get the spineless morons from the civil service would just sign a concession (meaning the tank can leave our factory and go to the army with faults still on it)
- I hear that a large portion of the relatively small team of soldiers have signed off, the unit is about the size of a platoon and it seems that most of the guys I speak to have had enough.
- General Dynamics management will force the whole team of soldiers to come in all weekend at a moments notice just because we have 1 guy working overtime.
- As an ex soldier myself seeing how General Dynamics management abuse the fact that soldiers essentially don't have any employment rights is painful to watch, if the Soldiers refuse to work ridiculous hours of overtime or multiple weekends straight our senior managers who have the email addresses of high up officers in Army HQ will directly contact them and force the soldiers into work.
- Sometimes when a vehicle has passed inspection and the Army now owns it, our low level managers at General Dynamics will encourage us to rob parts off it to repair one that has failed an inspection.
- I felt the need to write this to you as an ex army guy myself I think that the actions of the company I work for (General Dynamics) towards the soldiers are completely wrong and they are also robbing the tax payer.
When I was 22 years old, I commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Navy and swore an oath to the Constitution. I upheld that oath through flight school, multiple deployments on the USS Midway, 39 combat missions in Operation Desert Storm, test pilot school, four space shuttle flights at NASA, and every day since I retired – which I did after my wife Gabby was shot in the head while serving her constituents.
In combat, I had a missile blow up next to my jet and flew through anti-aircraft fire to drop bombs on enemy targets. At NASA, I launched on a rocket, commanded the space shuttle, and was part of the recovery mission that brought home the bodies of my astronaut classmates who died on Columbia. I did all of this in service to this country that I love and has given me so much.
Secretary Hegseth’s tweet is the first I heard of this. I also saw the President’s posts saying I should be arrested, hanged, and put to death.
If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work. I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution.
Two 13‑year‑olds in Devon have taken nature conservation into their own hands, breeding 250 harvest mice in their garages and releasing them into a local nature reserve.
Driven by concern over habitat loss and farming practices, Eva Wishart and Emily Smith raised the funds, built protective enclosures, and now hope their effort helps restore this tiny but vital species back to the wild. Let’s celebrate and support the next generation of wildlife heroes.
I am so thrilled to have some of my photographs printed in the summer edition of @TheDeveloperUK which are accompanying the fine report by @angus_young61 on the visualisation of the East Bank Urban Village, in Hull. 💙 #Hull 📰
Trump: You know, the cost of eggs have come down like 93, 94% since we took office. They are pretty much normally price now… Groceries have come down. It’s all coming down
🚨NEW: Donald Trump blames President Zelenskyy for starting Russia’s war in Ukraine in a morning social media tirade.
RETWEET if you stand with President @ZelenskyyUa against Donald Trump!
British meanings of “I'm fine”
1. I am actually fine, don’t worry
2. I’ll be fine in a minute, but please go away because you’re not helping
3. I've never been so cross
4. I think I’ve just broken my leg
5. My whole life has collapsed
Right. Let’s go in swinging with both fists, here.
Let me tell you about LCpl S. I won’t blow his full name on the internet because I don’t know what he’s up to and it might be something cool.
This guy was the son of an Afghan refugee from the 1980s war. Of course, he was Muslim. Strapping unit of a bloke. Gave up a degree in astrophysics to join The Parachute Regiment as a private.
I once overheard him in a harbour area in the bush in Kenya, giving the other lads a talk about stars and where they come from. When we deployed to Bosnia, I gave him the task of a lecture to the company on Bosnia’s history. Smashed it out of the park.
He went to Afghanistan with 2 PARA and came back with a seriously high level medal.
His mates love him and called him “the kindest man in the Parachute Regiment”. He won the annual Fishmonger’s Prize for giving successful life-saving CPR to a random unconscious man he came across lying in the street on a night out.
He is one of the finest soldiers I had the honour of working alongside. He has my undying respect. And he’s a Muslim.
So @LozzaFox and every dickhead who made @BritishArmy turn off the replies on this benign post: get fucked.
Utrinque Paratus. Former Emerald 30A, out.