ONLY 100 DAYS TO GO UNTIL ARMED FORCES DAY 2013
Today (Friday) marks exactly 100 days until Armed Forces Day 2013, taking place on Saturday 29 June! We are fast approaching this major milestone, the day to come together to Show your Support and say thank you to our Armed Forces.
I believe I have already mentioned sailors? The Royal Marines are a branch of the Royal Navy, not a separate service.
And in turn Star I am merely pointing out that there are poor airman and sailors serving in the same atrocious conditions in Afghanistan.
To me Armed Forces day represents
The Army
The Navy
The Airforce
The Merchant Navy
The territorial Army
Doctors and Nurses of the military wing of the Birmingham hospital whose name I forget
The Royal Marines
The Killed in Action
The Wounded in Action
The people of Britain who support our forces
The people of Afghanistan and Iraq who support our troops
Those who serve and those that who have served
Those that have died and those that will die
and many more
As for parcels, I have been one lucky enough to recieve a parcel, many years ago, I can tell you, to a soldier (read as all forces personnel) on the frontline, it is not just a parcel, it is knowing that some people are thinking of you at times when you can think your forgotton, it is a piece of home, it is a gift to be remembered all your life.
On a related theme, can I introduce people to . They are a relatively small charity who help military personnel that find themselves injured and being hospitalised. When they first arrive either in a field hospital or that one in Birmingham they use a lot, they may have nothing but their shot-up clothing.
The help is in the simple form of a Grab Bag of personal items. These include T-shirt and shorts, washing and shaving kit, towel, face flannel, tooth paste, tooth brush, shower mules, socks, underwear, pen and paper. Female requirements are also provided.
I understand it also includes a small teddy bear which is sometimes found tucked away under the soldier's pillow.
These are deeply appreciated by the lads and lasses as personal hygiene and self-respect are so central to everyone's sense of self but more so in the military.
Troop aid are a small charity and therefore do a small amount to support our troops. Please don't get me wrong, I am not knocking what they do, or why they do it..
However the only troops that arrive in the UK 'with nothing but their shot-up clothing' are those that were at the furthest reaches of our pioneering surgery. Perhaps 20 in the last ten years.
Troops arriving back to the UK from Cyprus or the Falkland Islands are more than likely to be in civilian clothes, and those coming home from Afghanistan wear uniform too. Many units that go to Afghanistan ensure that their troops have a 'going home' uniform and that is the one they wear, sometimes only parts of it, when the guys return.
As I said, troop aid does a good niche job to assist the guys and girls out there; But their role is very small and generally only meets the needs on non frontline troops that have sustained an injury through sports, booze or physical activity rather than warfighting. Where their true value comes to its own is when an airman, sailor or soldier arrives back in the UK and they bridge the gap between the man's unit looking after him and his family.
I support fully and one of the few charities that you see putting your support to good use. Embarrassingly doing what our country should without question but cant afford these days.
I never got a box in my time as the good ones are nabbed by the admin types at the rear but did love the pics in some letters to a soldier though.. those always picked me up until one of the lads stole it ahem ahem
Great to read there is lots of support for our troops still though. While we still have any armed forces left that is.
J