Good Show 007 - Daniel Craig visits the troops at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan

Glad to see 007 was able to make a stop out to visit the troops over at Camp Bastion.  I was stationed there ( at next door Camp Leatherneck) and getting there is half the fun.  Working side by side with the UK Troops/Aussies/ Kiwis (New Zealanders) was always a great experience.

Bravo Zulu to Daniel Craig for bringing the new movie " Skyfall " out to the troops in Afghanistan.

Good Show 007.

James Bond Star Daniel Craig In Afghanistan

Hundreds of UK soldiers, airmen and sailors get a surprise treat as they are waiting to see the latest 007 film Skyfall

Troops at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan were taken by surprise when 007 star Daniel Craig dropped in on their base.

 The actor met 800 soldiers, airmen and sailors just before they watched the new Bond film, Skyfall.

 During his tour of the camp, Craig witnessed some of the training given to troops before they are sent to forward operating bases.

 He also got the chance to fire some of the machine guns they use and took the wheel of the Foxhound vehicle in which he was shown around.

 Warrant Officer Rob Ingham said: "We get quite a lot of visitors here, but having James Bond was special. He seemed to be pretty comfortable in the driving seat!"

 Craig later visited the world-class Bastion Role 3 Hospital, which is acknowledged to be a centre of excellence for trauma medicine.

Private Scott Craggs, 23, from Newcastle, a combat medical technician serving with 3 Medical Regiment, said: "It was really good morale for everyone - it's a decent thing for him to take time to come out and visit everyone here."

 The star's final stop was a practical demonstration of counter improvised explosive device searching techniques where he was given a chance to use detectors to search for buried training devices.

 Warrant Officer Paul Ward, a Squadron Sergeant Major, said: "It was good to see Daniel Craig here in Bastion. Our training is critical to keeping Afghans and our own soldiers safe."

 RAF Sergeant Dave Hammond, who was one of those lucky to get a ticket for the film, said: "It was like a return to the old James Bonds. There was a bit of humour and some spectacular effects.

 "It was great to be able to see the film here - and to have James Bond himself to introduce it was brilliant!"

 Private Shane Awbery, 23, from Doncaster, a communications specialist, said: "It was great for morale and the atmosphere in the tent when we were watching the film was buzzing.

 "The film was really good, too - and I liked it that he answered our questions."

The Solemn Tribute by the Village of Wooten Bassett to British Military who made the ultimate sacrifice - Soon to be no more.

My affinity for the British people and all that Britain represents is understandable as they are the one true ally we have in the world. I have served alongside Britain's military and they are a good lot. The President has demonstrated he doesn't see it that way but our disagreement is based on his warped view of what is right and my knowledge that he is dead wrong.

The special relationship we share with the British goes beyond politics and all things current. We are a nation borne from the original 13 colonies which were British and our greatest minds were educated in the British tradition. We share military and folklore, we are cut from the same cloth. I feel that the people of Britain will always be there for us as we will always do our part to assist our neighbors "across the pond".

Here is a story that details how the citizens of one small British town decided to do their part to recognize the sacrifice made by their military and how due to changes mainly driven by cost cutting, they will no longer be able to pay their solemn tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Ending Wootton Bassett repatriation procession is a cynical attempt to conceal the price of Britain's misguided wars
By Gerald Seymour- UK MAIL

6th August 2011

Nothing had quite prepared me — certainly not the occasional clips on TV news broadcasts — for the raw emotion and pain on the High Street in Wootton Bassett when a repatriation procession in honour of dead British soldiers goes through the town.

The experience of watching the hearse with the flag-draped coffin come up the hill and then crawl to a stop in front of the bereaved families and friends, and in front of the solemnly lowered standards of the organisations for veteran servicemen, is gut-wrenching.

The civilian population of Wootton Bassett has taken over, reclaimed these young men who are brought into the town on their way to an Oxford mortuary

It is also, for most of us, our only moment when we can touch, feel, experience something of the distant and faraway wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I have seen military men being mourned before. During the scorching summer of 1967, I witnessed the soldiers of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders — the battalion commanded by the charismatic Colonel Colin ‘Mad Mitch’ Mitchell — make their farewells to their colleagues killed in Aden and buried in the Silent Valley cemetery.

As a reporter for ITN’s News At Ten, I covered the final withdrawal of British forces from that God-forsaken colony, much of it under sustained attack from local gunmen. A formal ceremony, with pipes and an officer’s address and a padre’s prayers and impeccable parade ground drills, was on show.

It was a demonstration of the military’s respect for their own. Not a wet eye, and not a choke in a voice.

In the Lower Falls of Belfast, in the early days of the Army’s war with the Provisional IRA, after a sniper had killed an infantryman the soldiers would react with a bloody-minded defiance.

With a camera crew, I was there to watch an intensely moving few minutes staged by the Green Jackets in that blood-soaked time at the end of 1971 when Army casualties soared.

Under leaden skies, the main street outside the barracks was blocked off. The traffic of this principal artery into the city of Belfast log-jammed and a coffin was brought and laid on hurdles on the central white line.

There are so many people who have never heard a shot fired in anger but feel obliged to stand in solidarity with the mourners

Prayers were said, a hymn was sung. Only when the hearse had left for nearby Aldergrove airport was the traffic in that vehemently Republican area allowed to flow again.

Many years ago I handed in my Press cards and became a full-time writer: setting myself the goal of trying to be a witness of my country’s sentiments and moods, to feel its pulse and reflect it.

With an idea for a new book about our soldiers who die in Afghanistan jostling in my mind, I was drawn to that small Wiltshire town on a repatriation day.

Compared with those ceremonies I’d seen in Aden and Belfast, Wootton Bassett is so different. The civilian population has taken over, reclaimed these young men who are brought into the town on their way to an Oxford mortuary.

It’s not the soldiers in uniform who stand on the pavements, erect and unblinking as they salute in pressed fatigues and polished boots, who are in the forefront.

Instead, dominant among the silent watchers are the men and women of humble housing estates, of the British Legion clubs, the shop staff and the bank workers who line the High Street four or five deep — or the grey-haired and grizzled bikers in their leather jackets.

There are so many people who have never heard a shot fired in anger but feel obliged to stand in solidarity with the mourners, and so many who know next to nothing of Basra and Al Amarah and the communities of Helmand province, but would feel a sense of shame if they missed a fallen soldier coming through.

The military are there, but are sidelined. Dignitaries are absent, and not missed.

My most poignant memory of Wootton Bassett is the sound of the heart-breaking weeping of a mother beside the hearse, breaking the quiet all around her . . . and so many people that day blinked away tears.

However, not for much longer will the crowds, quiet in respect, be on the High Street.

By next month, the nearby base into which the bodies are flown — RAF Lyneham — will be winding down for closure, and all further fatalities will be taken to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

The hearses, then, will avoid Wootton Bassett and will divert instead from Brize and around the outskirts of the town of Carterton, and have a shorter run to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford where post-mortems are performed for local coroners.

Don’t hold your breath and expect ministers and MoD civil servants to facilitate the recreation of the Wootton Bassett mood at Carterton.

Families I’ve spoken to, and the NCOs who escort them, have told me of the comfort the bereaved take from the solidarity of the crowds on the pavements. The support is tangible but not welcome at the top echelon.

Senior officers will be happy to get rid of the Wootton Bassett business.

They believe the stop in the town, not more than one minute, to be ‘mawkish’, ‘sentimental’, no doubt similar to the ‘emotional incontinence’ with which a columnist described the reaction to Diana’s death, and — above all — they fear it is leeching away the nation’s tolerance of these overseas adventures.

Also they don’t like the nation being reminded of what many lining the route call ‘these bloody bombs’, or these ‘bastard things’ that take so many of the lives, and maim so many more.

The roadside explosives that wrought havoc in Iraq, and those buried and hidden beside tracks and in compound walls through Helmand in Afghanistan, are a new weapon in warfare, terrifying to troops and creating nightmarish tensions.

They have stripped away the superiority of the training of Nato troops and their equipment. The bombs have tilted the balance between the resources of western forces and a peasant militia, perhaps to the level where such wars are unwinnable.

Three out of every four repatriations have been the result of deaths from so-called Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

In addition, there are hospital wards and rehabilitation units crammed with the cruelly injured amputees, struck down by IEDs. Alongside them are the hidden time-bomb victims of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The Help For Heroes campaign is a truly wonderful expression of the public’s generosity — but as valuable and with little of the glamour is a charity called Combat Stress, dedicated to helping the young men who have patrolled in Basra or Helmand and are left devastated by the tensions created by the hidden bombs, nerves stretched to breaking point.

Many of the PTSD symptoms of acute depression, alcohol-dependency and violence will surface when the soldier is back home. The IEDs have left a devastating legacy in our society, and it will be with us for many years.

I’ve been at Wootton Bassett when the bodies of Ammunition Technical Officers — the bomb disposal people — have come through the High Street. Some have been killed when, exhausted from the number of jobs heaped on them, they have made one fatal mistake while defusing a device.

Others have been targeted by Taliban snipers who know that a bomb disposal man will always try to make safe a bomb, and will linger there and expose himself, not simply blow the wretched thing up.

Why? Why do these men take such fearful risks to defuse the devices? Why do so many hazard their lives in dismantling IEDs?

Only by standing in the crowds at Wootton Bassett can you begin to appreciate the extent of their commitment, their sacrifice. They treat these lethal pieces of electronic engineering as if they were potential evidence in a criminal prosecution. They act, almost, like the scenes-of-crime teams in a British city.

They are defusing the bombs so that the working parts can be flown back to laboratories in Britain and the U.S. where state-of-the-art science can examine them. Which bombs are made by which engineers at which work bench is basic to the investigation: every engineer leaves a trace of his work in manufacture and assembly.

They’ll look for the origin of the parts — where the circuits, fuses, wires, computer chips came from and where they were shipped to. And they’ll hunt for the engineer’s DNA: was the air-conditioning not functioning in his workshop, did a bead of sweat drip on to the circuit board’s plastic surround? Did he prick his finger and leave a microscopic speck of blood inside the bomb package?

The Americans alone have spent $20 billion on the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organisation, a U.S. Defence Department body established to help overcome these infernal weapons.

It’s an incredible sum, but it points up the devastating power and influence on the battlefield of the roadside bomb. In this cat-and-mouse game there would be few American or British scientists, or soldiers, confident of supremacy.

Top of the target list are the bomb-makers. If identified by the laboratories and located by intelligence they will suffer ‘interdiction’, the sanitised phrase for extra-judicial assassination.

The difficulty — not inconsiderable — is that the bombs are mostly made in Iran and smuggled into Iraq or Afghanistan.

A British bomb disposal expert, who has defused scores of sophisticated devices, gave me a word picture of his typical enemy.

‘An Iranian engineer in his mid-30s, he would have a family — wife and children — has an electronics degree from a Tehran university, and perhaps another from one in Europe.

'His religion would be a major motivation along with a fervent patriotism. He believes his intellect is a gift from God, is an egotist and a perfectionist, something of a genius.’

A genius intent on carnage and whose bloody handiwork can be seen week by week in the tragic procession of bodies through Wootton Bassett.

An hour or so before a repatriation, the bay at Swindon bus station for the 55 or 55A services to the Wiltshire market town begins to fill. There are men from the last National Service intakes and widows whose late husbands were long in the military. A few have dressed smartly for the occasion, most are in their everyday clothes, but men wear miniature medals and often have a faded beret with a polished cap badge.

They are utterly decent people and I came to feel privileged to know them a little. Friendships will have been formed since Wootton Bassett began, but the greetings are subdued and there’s no laughter.

When dropped off by the bus, they wander down the High Street to find a place to stand — near the book shop or the bakery or the bank or close to the Cross Keys pub. There is a man from the West Midlands who has missed only one — when his road was deep under snow. There is a veteran who flies in from Northern Ireland each time.

They have become a Band of Brothers. But I sense that most find it hard to link this sleepy little town with the precision work done in a workshop in Iran, with the foot- soldiers bringing the crates of ready-to-use bombs towards Basra or Al Qurnah or along desolate mountain trails skirting military outposts in Herat province.

Only when the bell in the tower of St Bartholomew and All Saints in the town tolls is the link forged.

It is so difficult for us who have never seen the combat, first hand, in Iraq and Afghanistan, but have only stood and watched and been a witness in Wootton Bassett, to comprehend the new warfare of the roadside bombs, and assimilate the cost we have asked our servicemen to pay.

When the hearse and its escort pulls away, the town is left with a great numbed sadness, and a sense of a fogged confusion . . . and soon repatriations will shift to RAF Brize Norton, and the High Street here will see no more of these gatherings.

It is wishful thinking to hope that Government will intervene and offer mourning families more of an occasion on the new route from Brize Norton.

They’ll draw the least possible attention to the price paid for involvement in the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Myself, I don’t want politicians or the Ministry anywhere near the cortege once it leaves an RAF base. Wootton Bassett grew from a small and unlikely beginning and developed a unique character.

After the move to Brize Norton, perhaps something new will be forged with its own mood and singular identity — the people dubbed as ‘ordinary’ will surely make it happen. But it will never be able to match the proud dignity of this town where spontaneity, not ceremony, has always ruled.

A man broke the silence at one repatriation. While family and friends loaded the hearse roof with red roses, he shouted, ‘Well done, lad, well done’.

Another man took the cue and called out, ‘Good boy, good boy’. Tears flowed free.

Whatever the future route, however much Government might wish to keep hidden the sorry toll of its foreign adventures, there are — thank God — so many good people who will make sure the families know that the sacrifice of a loved one in that awful dust and dirt of a faraway place will not be forgotten.


Gerald Seymour’s latest novel A Deniable Death is published by Hodder at £12.99.

The Luckiest Hobo - British War Hero K-9 is back on duty after suffering life-threatening injuries in a Taliban attack

Our K-9 Heroes do not worry about themselves, but rather our safety. We are lucky to have good pups like HOBO out there to protect the troops.

As HOBO is with our good friends the BRITS, we send along a hearty " GOOD SHOW " to HOBO and his mates. His actions are " brilliant, just brilliant " as our allies from the UK would say.


Back on duty: The plucky bomb-hunting dog of war the Taliban couldn't kill
By Christopher Leake
30th July 2011 - UK MAIL

An army dog which suffered life-threatening injuries in a Taliban attack less than two weeks ago will be celebrating his third birthday back on the frontline tomorrow.

Hobo, a bomb-hunting black labrador with A Company, 2nd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles, was badly wounded when a patrol came under heavy fire in Helmand Province ten days ago.

As enemy grenades were hurled at the patrol’s position, Hobo was hit three times by shrapnel in his neck, abdomen and body. Comrades saved his life by giving first aid to stem the bleeding until he was taken by helicopter to the safety of Camp Bastion along with wounded soldiers.

The labrador is now being considered for the Dickin Medal, the highest animal award for bravery.

Nicknamed ‘The Luckiest Hobo’, he began serving in Afghanistan two months ago and is thought to have saved the lives of many soldiers by sniffing out the roadside improvised explosive devices (IEDs) that have taken such a toll on the Army.

Captain George Shipman, 28, of 29 Commando Royal Artillery was with the patrol. He said: ‘Hobo was hit and bleeding heavily. He remained really calm and just stood there while we treated him.

"Hobo’s become one of us, bounding around the patrol base all the time. We’re very fond of him."

After receiving further treatment at Camp Bastion, Hobo had all but recovered within two days and now is due to return to service.

Private Patrick Medhurst-Feeny, 22, a veterinary technician who helped treat Hobo, said: ‘We met him off the helicopter and put him straight on to fluids because of the huge blood loss. He’s recovered fantastically well.’

Having been ‘battle inoculated’ by training against explosions, Hobo is unlikely to suffer trauma from the attack. He is due to return to the UK in November to begin a new role as an Army demonstration dog

Lucky Brit - Bullet misses soldier by millimetres !!

Someone in Britain hit a lottery this week for 161 Million British Pounds Sterling....That person is very very lucky.....THIS British Soldier ranks right up there.....He has a most valuable prize to brag about - Still having his LIFE.

That's a close shave! Bullet misses soldier by millimetres after tearing through his chin strap - By UK Daily Mail Reporter
14th July 2011

A bombardier has had a narrow escape from the Taliban after a sniper's bullet flew so close to his head that it cut clean through the strap of his helmet.

James Hallam from 148 Battery, 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery, has been in Afghanistan since April.

The soldier, who has been in the army for 11 years, was on his first patrol with a new unit in an area known for its militant hide-outs, east of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province.

The attack came when his troop, made up of Royal Marines and engineers, was dropped by helicopter to carry out searches of buildings believed to be factories making homemade explosives for IEDs.

The team came under fire as soon as they landed.

Bombardier Hallam told the British Forces News: 'It was pretty punchy, I could hear the bullets whizzing past me and all I was focusing on was firing back.

'I knew that one had come pretty close to me because I heard the noise, felt the heat and the force of it knocked me over.

"But it wasn’t until later that I realised just how close it’d come."

The soldier was only aware of his close shave once they had taken cover after the gun battle when an officer asked what was wrong with his helmet.

The bullet had hit the clip on the underside rim, severing the strap.
Miraculously, despite being only millimetres from his face, the bullet left no mark.

This is the third time that Bdr Hallam has been deployed to Afghanistan - but admitted this was his most dangerous encounter with enemy troops.

The headgear is being examined by army experts as is the case with any equipment damaged in the line of duty. Bdr Hallam is hoping to get his helmet back.

He said: 'That helmet saved my life - there is absolutely no doubt about it.

'I don’t think I’ll be able to wear it again because of the damage but I’d like the strap at least to carry around with me as a bit of a lucky charm

The British Military ensure that their K-9 Warriors are well kept in Afghanistan

In the photo above, British Army soldier Lcpl Marianne Hay from the Royal Army Veterinary Corp, crouches next to her explosives dog Leanna on Aug. 3, 2008 in Maywand District in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.


The Brits are our best Allies, here in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Seems like they take pretty good care of their K-9 warriors also. They need to, as they are based out of Camp Bastion, deep in the heart of Helmand province. Presently, the temps there will approach 120-125 degrees in the shade on any given Summer day. That is dangerous conditions for our K-9 warriors. Glad to see they ensure that the 4-legged soldiers get good accomadations.

Good Show. All our best to our British Allies and their K-9 Warriors. Brilliant.


Life for a British military dog in Afghanistan

By Best Defense Chief Canine Correspondent
Rebecca Frankel - Foreignpolicy.com

As President Obama made his announcement this week about the troop drawdown this week, allied forces in Afghanistan are on the topic table again. European allies responded positively to the president's announcement. U.K. prime minister David Cameron, who announced his own plan for British troop withdrawals in May, was quick to applaud Obama, adding:

We will keep UK force levels in Afghanistan under constant review. I have already said there will be no UK troops in combat roles in Afghanistan by 2015 and, where conditions on the ground allow, it is right that we bring troops home sooner."

Britain has approximately 10,000 troops on the ground in Afghanistan -- the second highest number after the United States. Working alongside Cornish soldiers on the frontlines out of Camp Bastion -- Britain's largest military base in the country -- are a troop of 70 military dogs. So what's life like for a British military dog in Afghanistan? Actually, not too shabby.

The accomodations for these war dogs are extensive. Each dog has his or her own kennel quarters -- a small square building with both an indoor and outdoor component. The indoor quarters are air conditioned and each kennel has its own self-sustaining power source.

While on patrol, each handler is outfitted with a special canine first aid kit. For the detection and patrol dogs in Afghanistan, heat is always the handlers' and veterinary medics' biggest concern. There's also only one pool on base -- and it's just for the dogs.

But the canines aren't the only ones happy with these arrangements:

Private Daniel Gregory, from Bodmin, helps look after the dogs at Camp Bastion [says]: " It's the love of the dogs, working outside everyday. It's a good job, a really good job."

GOODWOOD celebrates 50 years of Britain’s most iconic sportcar, the Jaguar E-Type

One things I can avow is that I am all about all things automotive, especially classic and vintage cars....I LOVE to watch movies from the past simply to see the cars that are in the background in movies like Bullitt or Blue Hawaii...the cars you see the normal people driving in the background are all the ones we want now...

I have always liked the Jag e-type as it is an iconic car from the 60s....the design and style of this beauty inspired the design of man other car that followed.

I became aware of the Goodwood Festival of Speed and their annual Goodwood Revival after seeing some info about it on Cable....it is a totally British gathering with people coming for a weekend of Vintage Racing, Cars, Warbirds and all things British....I would like to attend one year and get to spend a weekend taking in the sights and sounds of this unique festival of speed....Brilliant !!!


GOODWOOD LAUNCHES ITS 2011 MOTOR SPORT SEASON
http://www.goodwood.co.uk/

Festival of Speed and Revival founder Lord March was joined by a host of famous faces at Goodwood House on Thursday 17 March to announce exciting plans for the 2011 Goodwood motor sport season.

Lord March ran though the highlights of what to look forward to at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed (1-3 July), Moving Motor Show (30 June) and Revival (16-18 September), supported by a host of motor sport stars, including Formula One drivers Mika Hakkinen, Jochen Mass, Desiré Wilson and Bruno Senna, motorcycle competitors Guy Martin, James Haydon and Paul Smart, rally stars Andreas Mikkleson, Jimmy McRae and Russell Brooks, and circuit racer legends Paul Radisich, Richard Attwood and Anthony Reid. In addition, golfer Sir Nick Faldo, TV chef James Martin, comedian Ross Noble and model Yasmin le Bon with her daughter Amber on hand.

The theme for the 2011 Festival of Speed is ‘Racing Revolutions – Quantum leaps that shaped motor sport,’ and the essence of this theme was much in evidence at the Goodwood launch, from the 1909 ‘Blitzen Benz’ with an influential aerodynamic design to help it become the fastest car in the world with record of 228.1 km/h in 1911, to the 1981 McLaren-Honda MP4/1 that pioneering the use of carbon fibre materials in F1 racing. The Festival theme will run right through many of this year’s Festival attractions, with racing innovations evident throughout, including developments to engine, aerodynamics, chassis construction, and much more.

The Festival remains the World’s only motor sport event outside of the Formula One championship to attract the current F1 teams and drivers, and Lord March declared that he is confident that Goodwood will feature a record nine of the current 2011 teams this year, including the reigning F1 World Championship team Red Bull, along with a number of the season’s top drivers.

Other forms of modern motor sport will also be represented at Goodwood with many of the current WRC and IRC rally teams in action on the Forest Rally Stage, with the new WRC Mini Countryman making its British debut at the launch. Skoda marks 110 years of motor sport involvement this year and is the new partner for the popular Forest Rally Stage, with Works driver Andreas Mikkelsen very much in evidence. Expect to see wild American rally star Ken Block in action in the 2011 Ford Fiesta WRC at the Festival too. Many of the works World Superbike teams are also expected at the Festival, plus a number of leading riders, including British stars James Toseland, Leon Haslam and Jonathan Rea.

Jaguar Cars will celebrate two important anniversaries at the Festival, with a striking automotive ‘sculpture’ in front of Goodwood House to celebrate 50 years of Britain’s most iconic sportcar, the E-Type, as well as the 60th anniversary since Jaguar first won at the gruelling Le Mans 24 Hours race. A significant 1961 E-type was present at the Goodwood launch with model Yasmin le Bon and daughter Amber taking a keen interest in the car, along with the most powerful production Jaguar ever made, the new XKR-S which made its UK debut.

The Centenary of the famous Indy 500 is being marked by Goodwood with the biggest celebration of this great race outside of America. To date over 30 cars have been confirmed, all of which played a significant role at the Brickyard, including nine outright winning chassis, to be driven by drivers with a dozen wins between them. Many of the cars will be appearing at the Festival for the first time. The cars will all be displayed together, creating a mini Gasoline Alley within the F1 Paddock, with much of the unique pageantry of the Indy 500 being recreated at the Festival. A line-up of Indy 500 cars were present at Goodwood, including the 1914 Sunbeam ‘Indianapolis’, 1951 Steven-Offy ‘Jim Robbins Special’ and 1966 Lola-Ford T90 ‘Bowes Seal’.

Lord March announced that young persons’ attractions at the Festival will be reinvigorated with the Goodwood Action Sports (GAS) live action sports arena, featuring five different types of extreme two-wheeled sport, all performing on an integrated series of jumps and ramps. GAS will be supported by SEAT, with its own Club SEAT interactive area and young driver experience. The emphasis of GAS will be on world class athletes in various extreme two-wheeled disciplines. As well as watching the experts, there will be an opportunity for Festival visitors to try each sport for themselves in the activities field. The Junior FoS for younger Goodwood visitors will remain as a popular attraction as well.

The Goodwood Moving Motor Show will also be held again as a significant addition to the annual Festival of Speed, and will take place on Thursday 30 June 2011, supported by Auto Trader. New cars buyers will be able to enjoy an exclusive motor show preview day, where they will not only be able to see the very latest new car models on display, but in some cases also climb aboard and experience the vehicles first-hand, strictly at the invitation of the participating vehicle manufacturers. At least 23 car manufacturers have already confirmed their attendance at the 2011 Moving Motor Show.

Highlights at the 2011 Goodwood Revival (16-18 September) will set to include a Jaguar E-type-only race to mark 50 years of this important sportscar, plus a tribute to Juan Fangio, 100 years after his birth, and a daily track parade of British-built Ford vehicles to honour the century of Ford in Britain. The 75th anniversary of the Supermarine Spitfire will also be celebrated, with the greatest gathering of these evocative aircraft at Goodwood since the its active duty day as a Battle of Britain RAF Air Base in World War II.

Wootton Bassett given the 'Royal' prefix in honour of ceremonies for UK War Heroes - "We are not doing this for any plaudits, honours or awards."

Many of our military traditions stem from what we adopted from the British military as we became a nation over 235 years ago.....

101 years since the village of Tunbridge Wells got the nod from Edward VII, Wootton Bassett has been given the 'Royal' prefix in honour of its moving ceremonies remembering Britain's war dead.

The Queen granted the honour personally, marking the announcement that troops killed abroad will no longer be taken back to RAF Lyneham, just outside of the Wiltshire town.

Since 2007, over 150 repatriations from Afghanistan have arrived in Lyneham, with each one commemorated by the Wootton townsfolk.

Steve Bucknell, the town's mayor, said back then: "We are not doing this for any plaudits, honours or awards. We don't want anything to take the attention away from the guys who have paid the ultimate price."

I salute the good people of Royal Wootton Bassett and wish we would do something similar here as I feel that we should also honor our brave men & women when they are returned home after paying the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

To our Allies in Britain I say, Good Show.


Wootton Bassett granted 'Royal' title to honour parades

Wootton Bassett is to be the first town in more than 100 years granted the title ''Royal'' in recognition of its parades for fallen soldiers, David Cameron has announced.

12:15PM GMT 16 Mar 2011 - UK Telegraph

The Prime Minister confirmed that troop repatriations would no longer happen via the Wiltshire town from September due to the closure of a nearby RAF base.

But he said the Queen had agreed to the tribute as ''an enduring symbol of the nation's admiration and our gratitude to the people of that town''.

''Their deeply moving and dignified demonstrations of respect and mourning have shown the deep bond between the public and our Armed Forces,'' Mr Cameron told the Commons.

The Prime Minister made the announcement after making his regular tribute at the start of question time to the most recent military casualty in Afghanistan.

"The town will become Royal Wootton Bassett later this year in a move I believe will be welcomed right across our country."

In a written ministerial statement, Defence Secretary Liam Fox confirmed that repatriation ceremonies for those killed in operational theatres will move from RAF Lyneham to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.

"I would like to thank RAF Lyneham for their excellent work in supporting the important task of repatriation ceremonies," Dr Fox said.

"I am certain that RAF Brize Norton will maintain the standard of solemnity, dignity and respect to our service personnel killed on operations as shown by the personnel at RAF Lyneham.

"I would also like to record publicly my thanks to the people of Wootton Bassett who have chosen to pay their respects in a unique and special way.

Good Show - Two British snipers were responsible for killing 75 Taliban fighters in just 40 days...Brilliant!

The Brits are doing their part out there in Helmand Province, Afghanistan

The Lads are racking up some serious numbers taking out the Taliban, making each shot count.

Good Show - Brilliant!


Dead Men Risen: The snipers' story

Operating from a remote patrol base in Helmand, two British snipers were responsible for killing 75 Taliban fighters in just 40 days. In one remarkable feat of marksmanship, two insurgents were dispatched with a single bullet.

By Toby Harnden 13 Mar 2011 UK Telegraph

The arrival at the newly-established Patrol Base Shamal Storrai (Pashto for “North Star”) in late August 2009 of Serjeant Tom Potter and Rifleman Mark Osmond marked the start of an astonishing episode in the history of British Army sniping.

Within 40 days, the two marksmen from 4 Rifles, part of the Welsh Guards Battle group, had achieved 75 confirmed kills with 31 attributed to Potter and 44 to Osmond. Each kill was chalked up as a little stick man on the beam above the firing position in their camouflaged sangar beside the base gate – a stick man with no head denoting a target eliminated with a shot to the skull.

Osmond, 25, was an engaging, fast-talking enthusiast, eager to display his encyclopedic knowledge of every specification and capability of his equipment. He had stubbornly remained a rifleman because he feared that being promoted might lead to his being taken away from sniping, a job he loved and lived for. Potter, 30, was more laid back, projecting a calm professionalism and quiet confidence in the value of what he did.

Potter had notched up seven confirmed kills in Bara in 2007 and 2008 while Osmond’s total was 23. Both were members of the Green Jackets team that won the 2006 British Army Sniper Championships.

On one occasion they killed eight Taliban in two hours, ‘I wasn’t comfortable with it at first,’ said Osmond, ‘you start wondering is it really necessary?’ But the reaction of the locals soon persuaded him. ‘We had people coming up to us afterwards, not scared to talk to us. They felt they were being protected’.

The snipers used suppressors, reducing the sound of the muzzle blast. Although a ballistic crack could be heard, it was almost impossible to work out where the shot was coming from. With the bullet travelling at three times the speed of sound, a victim was unlikely to hear anything before he died.

Walkie-talkie messages revealed that the Taliban thought they were being hit from helicopters. The longest-range shot taken was when Potter killed an insurgent at 1,430 metres away. But the most celebrated shot of their tour was by Osmond at a range of just 196 metres.

On September 12th, a known Taliban commander appeared on the back of a motorcycle with a passenger riding pillion. There was a British patrol in the village of Gorup-e Shesh Kalay and under the rules of engagement, the walkie-talkie the Taliban pair were carrying was designated a hostile act. As they drove off, Osmond fired warning shots with his pistol and then picked up his L96, the same weapon – serial number 0166 – he had used in Iraq and on the butt of which he had written, ‘I love u 0166’.

Taking deliberate aim, he fired a single shot. The bike tumbled and both men fell onto the road and lay there motionless. When the British patrol returned, they checked the men and confirmed they were both dead, with large holes through their heads.

The 7.62 mm bullet Osmond had fired had passed through the heads of both men. He had achieved the rare feat of ‘one shot, two kills’ known in the sniping business as ‘a Quigley’. The term comes from the 1990 film Quigley Down Under in which the hero, played by Tom Selleck, uses an old Sharps rifle to devastating effect.

Potter and Osmond’s working day would begin around 7 am and end a dozen or so hours later at last light. Up to about 900 metres, they would aim at an insurgent’s head, beyond that at the chest.

Often, Potter would take one side of a compound and Osmond the other. Any insurgent moving from one side to the other was liable to be shot by the second sniper if the first had not already got him. Each used the scopes on the rifles to spot for the other man, identifying targets with nicknames to do with their appearance.

A fighter wearing light blue was dubbed ‘the Virgin Mary’ and one clad in what looked like sackcloth was referred to as ‘Hesco man’, after the colour of the base’s Hesco barriers. Both the Virgin Mary and Hesco man were killed.

Others were given a nickname because of their activities, like Hashish man, a Taliban who doubled up as a drug dealer. Occasionally, insurgents got posthumous monikers. If one target presented himself, both snipers aimed at him simultaneously in a coordinated shoot.

“Everybody you hit they drop in a different way,’ says Potter. ‘We did a co-ord shoot on to the one bloke and he just looked like he just fell through a trap door. So we called him Trapdoor Man.”

Major Mark Gidlow-Jackson, their company commander, describes Potter and Osmond as the “epitome of the thinking riflemen” that his regiment sought to produce. “They know the consequences of what they’re doing and they are very measured men. They are both highly dedicated to the art of sniping. They’re both quiet, softly spoken, utterly charming, two of the nicest men in the company, if the most dangerous.”

Serjeant Potter and Rifleman Osmond are identified by pseudonyms for security reasons

Dead Men Risen, published by Quercus Publishing at £18.99 RRP, is available from Telegraph Books at £14.99 + £1.25 p&p. Call 0844 871 1515 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk

Sniper makes his mark in British Military History

Been on a break....nice to get back to home & see Family & Friends...and have a few beers...

Meanwhile, back in the AFGHN, our British friends have been demonstrating what proper " Gun Control" means.....as they would say, " Good Show - Jolly Good Show !"


Super Sniper Kills Taliban 1.5 Miles Away

10:57am UK, Monday May 03, 2010
Adam Arnold, Sky News Online

A British army sniper helped save his commander and set a new sharpshooting record after killing two Taliban machine gunners in Afghanistan from a mile-and-a-half away.

Cpl of Horse Harrison sealed his place in military history.

Corporal of Horse Craig Harrison fired his consecutive shots from such a long distance that they took almost three seconds to reach their targets.

This was despite the 8.59mm bullets leaving the barrel of his rifle at almost three times the speed of sound.

The distance to his two targets was 8,120ft, or 1.54 miles - according to a GPS system - and about 3,000ft beyond the weapon's effective range.

The 35-year-old beat the previous sniper kill record of 7,972ft, set by a Canadian soldier who shot dead an al Qaeda gunman in March 2002.

Speaking about the incident, Cpl of Horse Harrison said: "The first round hit a machine gunner in the stomach and killed him outright. He went straight down and didn't move.
"The second insurgent grabbed the weapon and turned as my second shot hit him in the side. He went down, too. They were both dead."

The serviceman then fired a third and final round to ensure the machine gun was out of action.

He said: "Conditions were perfect, no wind, mild weather, clear visibility. I rested the bipod of my weapon on a compound wall and aimed for the gunner firing the machine gun."
He killed the two insurgents as he protected his troop commander, whose vehicle became trapped in a field in Helmand Province and started coming under fire.

Cpl of Horse Harrison, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, was using the British-built L115A3 Long Range Rifle, the army's most powerful sniper weapon.

It is only designed to be effective at up to 4,921ft - just less than a mile - and capable of only 'harassing fire' beyond that range.

To compensate for the spin and drift of the bullets as they flew the length of 25 football pitches, Cpl of Horse Harrison reportedly had to aim 6ft high and 20ins to the left.

In a remarkable tour of duty, he cheated death a few weeks later when a Taliban bullet pierced his helmet but was deflected away from his skull.

During the Taliban ambush, his patrol vehicle was hit 36 times. He said: "One round hit my helmet behind the right ear and came out of the top.

"Two more rounds went through the strap across my chest. We were all very, very lucky not to get hurt."

He later broke both arms when his army vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb.
Cpl of Horse Harrison was sent back to the UK for treatment, but insisted on returning to the front line after making a full recovery.

He said: "I was lucky that my physical fitness levels were very high before my arms were fractured and after six weeks in plaster I was still in pretty good shape. It hasn't affected my ability as a sniper."