On both sides of the Atlantic, the men and women who serve in the volunteer armed forces have been attacked on their own soil. There has been an attack on a recruitment office in the US. It is a sign of the times. In Peterborough, East Anglia, RAF personnel serving in such nearby bases as RAF Wittering have been abused, although it does not appear – yet – that any of the abuse has involved physical violence. As a result, force commanders are thinking of rescinding the idea of letting service personnel wear their uniforms while off-duty. Given that a chap traditionally liked to wear his uniform as a matter of pride, not to mention its wonderful women-attracting qualities (sorry if this offends PC readers), this is a poor state of affairs. I read this unpleasant story with a certain amount of personal interest as my father used to serve at Wittering with 23 Squadron, a fighter squadron that in the 1950s operated aircraft such as Venoms and more latterly, Phantoms and Harriers.
The identity of the abusers is not described. For all we know, they could be anti-war types, Islamists, or just local youths trying to impress their mates by “having a go” at folk in uniform. When I lived in Ipswich 15 years ago, there were always stories of how Army squaddies at Colchester, a nearby army town, were getting into scrapes with the locals. It was, however, much rarer for the US servicemen at RAF Bentwaters, Woodbridge, Mildenhall or Lakenheath to encounter problems, since overseas US guys tend to be more polite and let’s face it, if you insulted an F-16 pilot after drinking too much Adnams ale in an Ipswich boozer, the chances are that the guy would order in a squadron of B-52s to nuke the place. At least I like to think that was always an option.
‘Men and women that we have trained to fight can be identified by their uniforms, taunting them occurs at your own risk, the Ministry of Defence appreciates your generous offer to help them hone their skills, but we accept no responsibility for injuries you may sustain’.
Yes any death caused by service personnel defending themselves against assault by the civilians they defend should be noted on the coroner’s report as ‘death by misadventure’ or in extreme cases ‘suicide’. What kind of idiot squares up to a trained killer?
Ah, but has anyone else here ever been to Peterborough? Trust me on this, if you’ve ever been there then you would know why they attack anyone – you might get jailed and thus your standard of living would dramatically improve. I used to think Slough (as in ‘come now oh friendly bombs’) was bad until I did some work in Peterborough.
the guy from the local branch of the British Legion that they had on Radio 5 this morning at about 7:30 seemed pretty sure that the abusers where young Muslims.
Ah, but has anyone else here ever been to Peterborough?
Yes, indeed. I was born there.
From what I have read of the history of it it wasn’t always as unpleasant as it is now. It seems that it was always dull, though.
I too was born and raised in Peterborough. I think you’re being a little harsh, Julian: it does have a decent cathedral. On the other hand, it has a ghettoised Muslim community and an acute case of ‘chav Vs goth’ tensions, for which it recently featured in a Radio 4 documentary. From my experience, its the latter set that are more likely to be aggressive on the street (presuming the RAF personnel weren’t walking by the Mosques or anything silly like that).
No, they don’t have to have a reason to abuse you, and I doubt there was any substance at all to what these men and women suffered, but I’m not going to get all ‘you must kiss the badge’ like the Daily Mail have done with this.
Not only should our service men and women wear their uniforms proudly, but if this sick perversion continues they should also carry their weapons as well.
I doubt the traitorous scum, whether white, black, muslim or non-muslim, are ever going to change their ways so as a nation we either give in, or stand up to them.
Which is it to be?
I don’t think anyone would support a law that allowed normal people to retaliate with fatal force when verbally abused. And, rightly or wrongly, no one in this country is allowed to carry a weapon on the street. Why should a man in uniform have that right, if that’s what you’re suggesting?
My wife was born in ’79 and as such is a woman of her age. I rarely see her in anything but jeans and a T shirt etc. Fortunately one effect of feminism is that she doesn’t kick-up a fuss that she earns more than me. This allows me to spend more time cooking (and you really wouldn’t want to eat her food) and take the work a little easier.
She’s a translator and spent a year in Moscow. She once saw a truly beautiful man on the Moscow underground railway. The fact he was in a Red Airforce Officers uniform didn’t detract one iota. He probably flew a Sukhoi for a living. And yes, if I did, I would use it around the ladies and it would work…
Now I know the RAF uniform looks like some kind of “suit” (Lionel Mandrake) but it’s still the uniform of our Royal Airforce.
My point is you’re not being sexist JP. Fighter planes and the uniforms associated with them just are sexy. My wife is as modern as they come but I think it helped that I told her I was a PhD astrophysics student. It meant I was on 6 grand a year but I think it carried more cache than being any high rank of social worker.
Which brings me on to the real point. At 8AM this morning the cat started whining something chronic. No food. Anyway, I hike off to the Co-op and buy him tunny fish in jelly and biccies. And I saw this RAF story on the front-page of a newspaper (forget which). I’m glad that SI has mentioned this because I’m outraged.
I am really beside myself. Obviously, they were Muslims. Obviously. Because to all the rest of us the RAF are the best of the best. The RAF were Britain’s finest hour. The Spitfires and Hurricanes gave Hitler his first beating. I was born in ’73 but I grew up on the tales of the likes of Johnnie Johnson and Sailor Malan.
A couple of years ago I took the missus to Sunderland Airshow. Well, a Sukhoi 26 danced real pretty and a B-52 turned up and a Belgian F-16 made a lot of glorious noise and there was the Red Arrows but it was the Harrier GR9 that captured her attention. 12 tons of aluminium just shouldn’t hang in the air and nod at you like that.
It just hovered over the North Sea defying gravity with the aid of a RR Pegasus vectored thrust turbofan. Lizzy was like, “that’s impossible!”. No amount of explanation worked.
And these gits are abusing RAF staff? We ought to re-introduce bowelling for such fuckers. Not only are they dissing something wonderful (and flight is wonderful) but they are dissing the roundel. Anyone who knows a smidgen of history would call them cunts of the first water.
Why do I know they’re Muslims? Could this be related to the fact that Prince Harry served as a JTAC and, according to The Sun, blew 30 beards back to Allah by calling in fast air? I suspect the RAF might have been involved. If not, then the USAF and that’s hardly likely to make them rage and seethe any less.
Short version. You can be a Brit or if you dislike us you can fuck off back to the sands of your fathers and wallow in Islam’s crapulence. Because if you don’t like the RAF then you can go fuck yourselves. This is a choice you have to make.
Every time I buy kibble for the cat (it does attract VAT?) I, inter alia, buy a part of a Typhoon or a Lightning and you have been effing-well warned and no beard is long enough to prevent your head being blown off by a well-aimed 1000lb Paveway III. From, oddly enough, a Harrier GR9. And guess where they fly from… RAF Wittering.
You are either part of one of the greatest nations the world has ever seen or you’re not. And frankly there is our way or the highway.
JP, I know your dad was a Javelin backseater. This is a fucking outrage.
Nick, I think you are vastly overestimating the sincerity and maturity of Peterborough’s white youth. This, though, is as right as right can be:
😀
Islam’s crapulence
Isn’t crapulence prohibited by their religion?
Ham, don’t take my anger literally. However, drastic measures are needed to stop our drip by drip descent as a society.
OK, shooting the b*****ds may well be taking it a bit too far. I’ll be just as happy if those abusing our troops stumble across a few squaddies on a Saturday night at closing time.
The area around Peterborough is quite full of American servicemembers, too, with RAF Molesworth and RAF Alconbury just down the A1. I was stationed there for a number of years and it was a given that some areas of Peterborough were simply unfriendly toward us Septics. I recall a friend of mine being attacked outside of a club in P’boro resulting in his receiving a broken eye socket and jaw. The local police and the courts weren’t sympathetic. Going so far as to fail to notify him of his attackers’ court date and, thus, allowing the charges to be dropped since there was no one there to testify.
I don’t know if it the attack was due to his military status or nationality. I’m guessing it was a little of both.
More a Greene King IPA man myself.
I used to go out to Colchester at the weekend on a regular basis – there were certainly a lot of squaddies out looking for trouble, the large majority of them neanderthal idiots.
Squaddies getting drunk and getting in scraps with locals is hardly a new feature of British life and it’s hardly a feature unique to the British armed forces. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard similar stories about Squabbies in Portsmouth and environs too, dating back decades.
A friend of mine who’s father was in the Special Police in Preston during WW2 said a good percentage of their work in the evenings was breaking up fights between American airmen who were cutting out the middle men and just going at each other.
I suspect this has less to do with the uniforms than it does with more generic envy and friction with outsiders living in your community.
When I was in the RAF we couldn’t wait to get out of our uniforms and head down to the local town dressed in the most up-to-date civvies we could afford. I was constantly waging a war of evasion with the SWO to avoid having to get my hair cut so I could pass for a hep-cat in my favourite pub, (the Bell in Bath), which had live jazz every night and regular lock-ins. The other main attraction of Bath was that it had two teaching hospitals. Student nurses! God’s gift to randy service men, at least in those days.
Of course, I was only an SAC. Had I been a steely flashing the wings on my chest it might have been different, (and I might have been able to aspire to the girls in the teacher’s training college).
That’s not to say I wasn’t proud of my uniform or that I tried to hide my service from anyone, nor that my years in the RAF were not rewarding in many ways, but while I never saw the need to wear my dress blues into town, I think banning the guys from wearing theirs in Peterborough is silly and counterproductive.
But since Gordon has opined on the subject, I’m inclined to think that maybe the CO got it right.
The Squaddies in Colchester used to get into the odd fight, no question.
However there’s been none of that there for yonks. Despite the fact that it’s 16th Air Assault stationed there and they’re all total nutters (I count quite a few of them amongst my friends).
Personally I think the correct response to having personnel receiving abuse as a result of their uniform would be to encourage more members of our forces to wear it off-camp.
We pay an astonishingly small price annually (thanks to ludicrous defense cuts) to have men and women put their bodies in the path of those who’d strip our liberties from us in seconds. That’s the one tax I think is an absolute, sodding bargain.
To be fair this is the RAF we are talking about. Apart from the RAF Regiment most of them are trained to be technicians of one sort or another.
Let’s face it, lowlifes and scum who pick on others for no good reason have only explanation. They are pathetic wastes in their own eyes and others, and find solace in attacking the ones with pride, self-esteem, and respect. My hats off to the brave lads and lasses of the Armed force, on either side of the pond.
It’s “Tommy this an’ Tommy that….”
These Peterborough people aren’t gobbing off while they are on day trips to Hereford and Poole though. Anyway most ‘guins are probably going to be a bit useless in a ruck.