"A BRITISH soldier was hailed a hero yesterday for shooting dead a Taliban fighter

He was shot in the shoulder at least two days previously judging by the video linked, but was still bleeding today (what??), picked up his gun and fired in time to hit ambushing guerilla forces? This story seems very Hollywood...

Something isn't quite right here.

Also, serving soldiers posting here that can't spell properly...are you for real?
 
phonemonkey said:
The content of the training may be the same but the format isn't. My training took place over many weekends, followed by a 2 week camp to consolidate what I'd learnt, and confirm I knew what I should to the right standard, all told it took about a year as it was fitted in around work etc.

I'd imagine we have a "full time" force largely because of the amount of places we need a large and constant force in. It makes sense, therefore, to have a full time force, complimented when needed, by a part time force.

Tell me Efour2, are you serving? I ask as you seem to be speaking with considerable authority on the matter

Edited to add: TA soliders get paid too, was a great earner when I was a student ;)
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Hello, no im not and hopefully will never have to in mylife time. I have friend who was a paratrooper for 4 years who served in Bosnia and NI the stuff he told me disturbed me as much as it did him.

ALso have a friend in the RMP as an officer, he has been on 2 tours in Iraq and lost a few friends in the process.

its a Dubious war in Afghanistan and it saddens me that our people are dying for the cause often in horrible clandestine attacks. Its not a real war, that i could understand.

Just a quick question when you join the TA are you on call and when it comes to being mobalised can you back out or would you be court martialed :O or something similar?

If there are any proper soldiers that read this forum id love to read what they think about it all.
 
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He was being temporarily treated at the scene when he noticed the two Talibans. Despite being in terrible pain he grabbed his gun and shot one of them. Anthony was transferred to a medical centre where he needed emergency surgery to his shoulder.
 
Nickg said:
great story but im shocked by the naivety of quotes like;



wha?

oh i see its much more PC to hit them with Hellfire missiles in 20million£ helicopters and just vapourise them on the sport instantly with no way to retreat out...we often spend millions in a single mission just to eliminate about 5 of their guys before retreating ourselves...the words OVER and KILL spring to mind... its not we are having a "fair" handfight out there Mano-e-Mano... we basically completely dominate them in every aspect and even when we outnumber them its not enough.. call in the 2000lb JDAMS!

thats how you fight a fair fight AK47 vs Apache's, F16, B2's etc...right?

IF for a second you think we fight fair, and would actively try to NOT attack their injured troops, then you are again showing little knowledge of what really goes on in these situations...
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I lol'ed.
 
fadetoblack said:
He was being temporarily treated at the scene when he noticed the two Talibans. Despite being in terrible pain he grabbed his gun and shot one of them. Anthony was transferred to a medical centre where he needed emergency surgery to his shoulder.
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Ok, I appreciate that clarification.

As for the tent, when you have a few thousand troops patrolling a country many times the size of the United Kingdom... I think you get the idea.
 
Efour2 said:
Just a quick question when you join the TA are you on call and when it comes to being mobalised can you back out or would you be court martialed :O or something similar?

If there are any proper soldiers that read this forum id love to read what they think about it all.
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Generally speaking, training is organised, and you attend as and when you can, provided you meet certain attendance requirements and training standards over the course of the year. This includes a manditory 2 week camp every year, and regular fitness testing.

As for mobilisation, TA soliders out in places like Afgan, are generally volunteers temp attached to a regular unit, but I know of TA units who have gone out en masse. Mobilisation if your unit is selected is not optional (by and large), and failure to go is an offence. It is what you signed up for after all!

TA soliders are "proper soliders", who work hard to maintain a state of readiness whilst juggling other commintments too, and they, like all those in the Armed Forces, deserve our respect.
 
wannabedamned said:
Thank you for you clueless input :)

Surely it's heroic to save your comrades. If he hadnt shot them, are you telling me they'd snuck in to make Peanut butter sandwiches for troops?
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Glorifying getting wounded in war, and killing in general, is not heroic or good in my honest opinion.

Whether this event happened as described or not, it has a lot of mileage for propaganda purposes.

As for the Afghan guerillas, they were and indeed still are farmers, or whatever else, before they became guerilla forces. I doubt everyone who's fighting NATO and the ANA in Afghanistan picked up their AK again for the hell of it - don't you think many years of war takes its toll on these people?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Efour2
Just a quick question when you join the TA are you on call and when it comes to being mobalised can you back out or would you be court martialed :O or something similar?

If there are any proper soldiers that read this forum id love to read what they think about it all.


Er yes 9 years with RTR and 1 year with TA
 
Efour2 said:
Yeah cos thats really a great analogy isnt it..
Teaching ABCs to kids and gunning down people in a warzone..
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Tis a fairly appropriate analogy - anyway given that you don't appear to know much at all about the topic I'm not sure why you're even trying to argue.

FWIW - TA units generally deploy at sub unit strength or less - or as individuals attached to regualr units - TA regments/brigades exist though this is more for training/admin purposes - you wouldn't intend to deploy a TA brigade or a regiment in the same way that you wouldn't run a school full of part time teachers or a hospital full of part time medical staff - it doesn't mean a part time nurse can't do the same job as a full time nurse.

so no the TA isn't a replacement for the regular army they are however in a lot of demand as individuals or small units - basically with current operational commitments a regualr unit on deployment will require say a TA platoon or individuals in order to deploy at full strength they get attached to the regualr unit go through the same buildup training and do the same job in theatre - a mate of mine just came back recently and he had simply been integrated into a regular patrol.

You will also get TA units mobilising as a formed unit themselves - usually at company/squadron strength for a particular task - often this would be for say force protection tasks which is more of a support role (though tbh... there are plenty of regualr units who've deployed in similar roles) also there are some specialised units that have deployed as formed units for specialiased tasks - brigade recce force/survelance company for example - something that would normally be done by only the recce platoon of a regualr infantry unit and is pretty much about as fornt line as you can get.
 
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its my opinions thats why im trying to bring a different angle... in fact whos arguing its a discussion forum everyone can have their opinion

Who on average is the better soldier the TA guy or the regular?

When you go to a hospital do you want to see the junior doctor or the Specialist?

I guess at the end of the day as long as the guys next to you have a clue i dont suppose it really matters.
 
Yes but when you're voicing an opinion on a subject it helps if you know a little bit about the subject first othewise you'll come out with stuff like:

Efour2 said:
What is disturbing is that the TA are being used on the frontline proper. :eek:
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Which despite showing your ignorance of the fact that a very large portion of the TA have been serving on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for several years now you feel obliged to chuck in the optinion that it is "disturbing".

You'll also find that quite a lot of the TA are people who are looking to join the regualr army (students etc..) people who have left the regualr army but want to carry on in some capacity and people who are needed for thier specialist civilian skills - doctors, dentists, IT security guys (yup - you can join a specialist IT unit as a captain if pen testing is your thing).

Talking about an 'averge' TA soldier is a facicious as your original post - if we were talking specifics then of course an infantryman who has served 3 years full time is probably going to have 'better' drills than someone who has served 3 years part time (though it is really not that uncommon for the oppsoite to be true too) and after a few weeks in theatre you really won't see any differences at all - though to broadly compare an average TA person vs 'average' regular is pointless really.

Plenty of counter examples too - who'd you prefer to treat you the career army doctor who's been stationed in germany and spent some time at selly oak hospital or the A&E consultant who gives up his weekends to do some military training. Who'd be better off as your CQMS - the newly promoted regular or the ex regular with 15 years experience who decided to join his local TA unit. Who'd be better off in an information assurance role - the regualr royal signals guy who's got some vendor certificates and army courses under his belt or the guy who's been in IT security for two decades and decided to join the TA.
 
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