Andy Mcnab
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Unfortunately for us yanks, it's primarily British units and kit, but I
can keep my eye out for a US equivalent. I think MilitaryPhotos.net
keeps a similar database (with a more international slant.
Must say, I'm nervous about posting these links here on gnooks.
God help me if they've already made the rounds elsewhere....
>>By Majorette (Monday, 24 Jan 2005 15:47)
A Tsunami caused by battleship - could happen Maj ;-)
>>By Lynn (Monday, 24 Jan 2005 19:37)
Thanks for the links, Maj. As a matter of fact, they HAVE appeared elsewhere--the top-secret F-Troop link finder (a.k.a. "Google").
>>By Just Jon (Wednesday, 26 Jan 2005 14:11)
can i ask a silly question...have any of you guys thought of joining special forces. I only ask cause i liked ER so went to med school. You guys seem to really, really, REALLY like books about hereford (or wherever they are now) soooooo......
>>By docjay (Thursday, 27 Jan 2005 20:28)
Welcome docjay,
I'll let the men address your question about joining special forces since women are not permitted to try out for selection (at least, not officially). Hence, even if I wanted to, the decision has already been made for me.
But I will acknowledge that my career focus has changed since I started reading these books. Right now I study ways to design commercial aircraft cockpits so that they reduce human (aka "pilot") error. But after reading about the extreme conditions under which these men have to perform, I'm more inclined to seek a job improving military kit when I get out of grad school. It's just something that seems important to me.
Thai fighter, eh? We've got a new show here in the States called The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV. If you're into MMA, you might try and pick it up if you get satellite tv........
>>By Majorette (Thursday, 27 Jan 2005 21:52)
Hi Doc, welcome, most of us are too old to join SF, most are all just fantasists who like finding out about secret stuff! There are some who have been there in the past though, perhaps even some still in, they are very discreet, or just liars. There was one intending to do Selection, where is Nem these days? Lucky you didn't watch porn instead of ER. Now, about this pain I keep getting.............
>>By camban (Friday, 28 Jan 2005 12:31)
Must be the spot where you sit on then Camban ?? The Money Spot ? Most men have aches and pains in that area ;-)
Yeah, where is Nem these days ? Then again, one door closes and the other is knocked down again.. Hello Docjay and welcome.
See you around !!
>>By Ninjawoman (Friday, 28 Jan 2005 13:12)
What a lovely bunch you guys are! Hello everyone!
Sooo heres the thing i want to get off my chest: a crisis of personality. The recent conflicts in the gulf as well as my experiences as a service man have led me to the firm conclusion that all war is utterly wrong. No exceptions. Ever. BUT, i hate civvies (not all of em you know who you are) and love service life and personelle. Hmmm what am I to do? I may have found a solution by joining the army (eeuughhh) medical corps as a doctor when I graduate. "But Docjay" I hear you say "won't that entail you going to war and haven't you stated that all war is utterly wrong?" Well yes, but my feeling is that if all war is wrong then the poor misguided lads and lasses that get sent off to fight for the political and financial agenda of these evil guttless minions of satan that are ruining this small planet (osama, bush, blair, sharon, mugabe i`m talking to you) are going to need good doctors to sew their limbs back on so that they may too see the error of their ways and one day help to
campaign against war and the fantastic men and women of our armed services and the armed services and "terrorists" around the world can devote their boundless drive, enthusiasm and intelligence towards making the world a slightly better place.
Sorry for the rant. Long day.
Majorette: some equipment that british forces would thank you for:
Officer-proof maps
Spinal implants for SNCO`s
Boots that repel landmines, water and cowshit
A respirator/helmet/weapon-sight system that in any way shape or form suggest they were designed to all be used at the same time
Fire proof arctic tents.
Arctic survival kit that enables you to survive in the arctic
Ski`s with which you can
Coffee that tastes like coffee
Tea that tastes like tea
Rations that taste like anything other than rations
A-10 proof tanks
Camban does it hurt when you cough?
Then don`t cough. Next!
>>By docjay (Friday, 28 Jan 2005 18:23)
Ah, docjay I presume.
"Spinal implants for SNCO's", pray, do tell !
"Tea that tastes like tea" Have you tried using your own tea-bags ! We always make our own, while training and even on the battle field. PG Tips Pyramids......that's the ticket !
Most seasoned soldiers would agree on a minimum age standard for infantry personnel going into combat. I know I do.
Regards to going off to war, I would not call myself misguided but in fact clued-on to reality. I personally base my views on actually being in Iraq, talking to the basic Iraqi citizen and experiencing real life in real time. Sadly, it's something that many anti-war protestors fail to do as most have never set foot in Iraq in their entire lives and have never spoken to Iraqi families for their views. You will find that in their lives it is something totally different to that of what you and many other inexperienced people think. You'll be surprised as to what the overwhelming majority of the Iraqi people really think about western anti-war protestors. It's an eye-opener I can assure you.
When the majority of solders fight in Iraq, they are not interested in anti-war protestors and their thoughts. Their interest lies in the well-being of the Iraqi people of which the Iraqi people openly acknowledge. It's a shame that anti-war protestors don't give a thought about the Iraqi people themselves, well, that's what the Iraqi people think anyway.
Regards,
Reg
>>By Reginald (Friday, 28 Jan 2005 19:09)
PS Sorry for the rant as well, it's absolutely nothing personal, not aimed at any specific one, just my own personal view. I hope people have an idea that ol' Reg is not a man of spite with a bitter tongue. Just an ordinary person of which, like all of us, has an area inside which is of a particular nature where just the mere mention of it by someone sets the passions ablaze. Unfortunately for me, one of these areas is Iraq where I think the media has a lot to ask for in indoctrinating the basic western civilian into a sense of false beliefs by their media spin. Let's face it, as I've mentioned before, unless you have actually spent time in Iraq, everything you know about Iraq and every view that you have on the subject, has come from the media in some way. If they get it wrong.......... I could be wrong but it does rather get to me how what I see on TV here is nothing like what I and others see in Iraq and what the majority of Iraqi people feel and think. Surely it is the Iraqi's themselves who are at most affected by the conflicts in their country and not an anti-war protestor who lives thousands of miles away in the western world and has never been to Iraq. If in agreement with this statement, then how come these anti-war protestors are not listening to the Iraqi people and put them in second place concerning a war which is in Iraq in the first place.
Anyway, enough said and I'll try to bite my lip in future.
Always never trying to offend,
Yours,
Reg
>>By Reginald (Saturday, 29 Jan 2005 13:21)
Just to sey hey. I made it to flork. They make it hard, but for a big AM fan, it was a small obstical.
I have read every one of McNabs Books, and i cant waight for the "Toy Solder" to come out on 5may this year.
>>By deandrama (Saturday, 29 Jan 2005 16:30)
Dear maj
We don't get spike tv here, closest thing we have his bravo channel which next sunday is showing tito ortiz taking on the great brazilian belfort...I practise mma and it keeps me fit..
As for SF and joining well some of us have tried the army life, but all that getting up before dawn please. some of us are civilised...lol
>>By f-trooper bri (Sunday, 30 Jan 2005 04:41)
Here's someone being interesting again (from Simonsays.com)
http://www.simonsays.com/content/content.cfm?
sid=358&pid=359274
andy, January 19, 2005
By: hana, from some where
hello simon i just thought that i would say that i have heard a lot about andy and i know some body that knew him personnally please contact me asap im not lying im serious !
>>By Lynn (Sunday, 30 Jan 2005 19:55)
Nice to see honest, civilized disagreement now and then. Cheers, Reg.
Welcome Dean, glad someone less idle than me got you an invite.
Lynn, I'm amazed someone would even bother mentioning that they knew someone who knew him. What with McNab being in the military so long, and now a well-known writer/speaker/jet-setter (hehehe), I think everyone knows someone who knew him.
Mathemeticians have their Erdos numbers; maybe we should start including our McNab number in our profiles, though I guess we'll have to replace "wrote a paper with" to "got drunk with."
>>By Just Jon (Sunday, 30 Jan 2005 20:25)
re: Erdös numbers (for those who don't know).....
Instead of Paul Erdös, we'll use Andy McNab....
Your McNab number is 0 if you are THE Andy McNab, .
Your McNab number is 1 if you served with Andy McNab and/or know him personally.
Your McNab number is 2 if you served with, or know somebody who served with/knows, Andy McNab personally.....
yada yada yada......
*On a side note, if the Six Degrees of Separation theory is correct, there shouldn't be anyone in the world with more than a McNab number of 6.......
(I know, I know, this is really geeky. Don't blame me, some mathematicians came up with this stuff.)
------
Deandrama... welcome and glad you made it into Flork! I know it's a hassle but we're told it's only temprorary, so we're all keeping our fingers crossed......
btw, I think you meant "Boy" Soldier instead of "Toy" Soldier... ;-)
------
F-Trooper Bri..... Don't get Spike TV?? Do you get NBC? NBC is coming out with their own reality show about aspiring boxers called The Contender to rival Spike's The Ultimate Fighter. Needless to say, I'm in heaven these days.....
Docjay, should I be looking for you on one of these shows????
>>By Majorette (Sunday, 30 Jan 2005 21:21)
damn.... got sidetracked thinking of boxers and MMA champs.......
Was gonna say, So our friend hana (from simonsays.com) would have a McNab number of 2.
Well done hana! You know somebody who knows McNab!. *blows a party favor horn and tosses confetti into the air*
>>By Majorette (Sunday, 30 Jan 2005 21:55)
Inspired by Reg and DocJay's latest posts, I shall now bore everyone with my 2-cents worth:
Certainly the media are very good at spinning things out of proportion. They always have and always will.
What I have an "intellectual" problem with, is the US role in Iraq to begin with. I have no reason to doubt Reginald's argument that the majority of the Iraqi people are happy to finally be rid of Saddam. Who wouldn't?
Still, why did Bush decide to go in there in the first place? The motivation seemed to change at least 3 times during the first period when they got involved in Iraqi Freedom.
First they were looking for WMD. As it proved hard to find any (to my knowledge they still haven't found any), the goal changed to the liberation of the Iraqi people.
If the US is supposed to act as the World Police and liberate any scum-ridden country where there's a dictator in charge, they've got their work cut out for them. Why not start with Mr. Genicide himself (DocJay mentioned him), Robert Mugabe - the president of Zimbabwe.
Now of course, the tune is more like "well... we can argue whether or not it was right or wrong to go in there... but now that we ARE there, it seems like a worthy cause.... God bless America (and no place else). (That's at least the tune Fox News would've played).
Can anyone really say with a straight face that they believe Bush decided to go in there because he's just a nice guy who wanted to liberate the poor Iraqi people from a bad man?
His dad could've used the oppurtunity he had 14 years ago to do the job properly.
Right now, the Saddam-loyal Sunni-muslims are causing much of the resistance towards "allied" troops.
I think most of them are just using the oppurtunity to blow shit up. I doubt the majority of them really cares about (or have a clear insight into) politics and right & wrong.
On the other hand -- look at Kosovo a few years ago. The US was in the forefront of the NATO-coalition bombing raids. Until then, the UN had been standing idly by with their thumbs up their butts.
I think ultimately, in many cases it seems like the only nation who's willing to "get their hands dirty" and really DO things, is the US of A.
Still, I think the ingrained American mentality of "what's in it for me?" is always prevalent, and I certainly suspect this has been the case in op Iraqi Freedom.
What I would like to know, is this:
In the case of Iraqi Freedom, when Bush was thinking "what's in it for the US" -- what did he really have in mind... ?
>>By ortlieb (Monday, 31 Jan 2005 04:26)
SAS feared dead in Iraq air crash as millions of voters defy terrorists
By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 31/01/2005)
An RAF C130 Hercules transport aircraft, believed to have been carrying SAS troops, crashed 20 miles north-west of Baghdad yesterday.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;
sessionid=
XJJBI402OZTBRQFIQMGCM5OAVCBQUJVC?
xml=/news/2005/01/31/wcrash31.xml&secure
Refresh=true&_requestid=9502
----------------------
Q&A: RAF Hercules crash in Iraq
An RAF Hercules plane has crashed near Baghdad leaving at least nine dead. BBC experts examine what might have happened.
(..)
Q: Could SAS soldiers have been on board?
There is some speculation that this might have been a flight involving special forces but it is government policy not to comment on such speculation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4221897.stm
>>By Lynn (Monday, 31 Jan 2005 12:33)
The Mirror seems to be 'sure'
SAS KILLED IN MID-AIR HORROR
Jan 31 2005
A MISSILE attack was the main suspect in the downing of an RAF Hercules yesterday.
Ten servicemen, including SAS troops and three crew, died when the C130 aircraft broke up over Iraq and plunged to the ground.
The Hercules had taken off from Baghdad airport for Balad, 40 miles to the north and was 25 miles into the flight when disaster struck.
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told the Commons there were 10 fatalities. But military sources said there could be up to 15 people killed. The previous highest single loss of British lives in Iraq was eight.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/tm_objectid=
15134833%26method=full%26siteid=50143%26
headline=sas%2dkilled%2din%2dmid%2dair%2
dhorror-name_page.html
>>By Lynn (Monday, 31 Jan 2005 16:43)
Good post, Ortlieb.
Reg
>>By Reginald (Monday, 31 Jan 2005 18:14)
I`m sure all agree when i say they`re in my prayers
Reg thanks for your measured and quite justified post. In response:
Was in the Gulf last year as a civillian contactor. Not for long, couple of months. But I agree that that gives me a very different perspective from soldiers fighting ,ostensibly, on the orders of their democratically elected government, as well as opening me up to accusations of utter hypocrisy since one of my major objections to the war (indeed most wars) is that they are often fought for an occult financial agenda rather that for the moral ones that are touted to the electorate. But there I was cashing in like everyone else.
But I told myself 'hey, you`re only protecting people. YOU didn`t order the invasion, You didn`t send the troops in.' But being back here now (and reading about further deaths on both sides) that argument holds very little water. We all play our part and my (admitedly unrealistic) view is that if there were NO private protection contractors available then big
buisnesses wouldn`t go there. If NO big buisnesses went there then there would be little political incentive for the government to go to war. A gross oversimplification but I think you get the idea.
The term misguided: not everyone`s like you Reg. Young Tom`s and Grav`s want to go out there to fight, to prove their courage and proffessionalism etc etc rtegardless of the cause. To those young lads i would apply the term misguided. I know i was one of them. The definintion of a hero is someone who thinks he`s invincible usually shortly before catches one up. It`s them I feel the most sorry for. On both sides.
I know, to talk to most Iraqis they are, quite rightly, grateful for the job that most of the troops are doing. Media scutiny has been a little one sided. I`m really not arguing against the war in iraq. I`m arguing against war. I`m arguing against anyone that creates the situation in the first place (ie saddam and bush) situations that result in brave men and women on both sides going off and dying.
I`ts a shitty situation. Me bitching about it won`t change it. That`s why I`m joining up again as a doctor. Not because I think the war was right, or just, or for freedom or for any other idea that simply can not be imposed at the business end of an M16, SA 80 or AK. But because, regardless of your politics, you`re probably going to want that big hole in your chest sown up, to at least give you the chance to decide `hey that probably wasn`t worth dying for after all. Maybe I`ll go home now, a wiser man and raise a family and teach them that war is ultIimatley futile in the hope that they`ll teach their own kids and so on and son until perhaps there will be no more war.` Or not its your choice.
Thanks for listening. I`m not actually a complete hippy by the way just having a rough time of it at the moment! This may not be the best place to vent all this by the way its just that Mcnabs books inspired me to join up in the first place!
By the way...did used to take my own teabags but by god did I resent it. 14 million per tank and they try and scrimp on f%*king tea bags?
We all know that a pre-requisite to entry to the sergeants mess is the surgical removal of one's spine ;-)
Maj was that a reference to the British/world rankings? If so they`re out of date. I had to relinquish my titles at the beginning of this school year as i don`t have time to fight since starting my clinical phase (internship to you yanks). Didn't even think I was still online.
More than enough from me...how was everyone else`s weekend...!?!
>>By docjay (Monday, 31 Jan 2005 18:36)
<<Maj was that a reference to the British/world rankings?>>
hahaha, no. My Google is good but it's not THAT good!
My comment to you was tongue in cheek. f-trooper bri and I were discussing martial arts reality shows. Your profile mentioned that you were a Thai boxer....... I simply joked that I would look for you on the next show.
As for weekends, mine was mixed. Happy to see the elections in Iraq were less bloody than anticipated; saddened to hear about the Herc going down. RIP to all those aboard. :-(
>>By Majorette (Monday, 31 Jan 2005 19:34)
Seems I'm having an eternal weekend, thanx for asking ;-)
So far your venting is not too bad Docjay (and welcome here btw)
Tell me, you're not a complete hippy, means you're at least a bit.
Can Nick Stone start hugging trees or is it time to quit by then, as McNab tells us.
>>By Lynn (Monday, 31 Jan 2005 19:39)
Maj prefers thigh fighters?
what a remarkably crappy way to surge from the sweet cover of MIA,
but i'm weally weally bored ;)
>>By trident (Monday, 31 Jan 2005 19:40)
Tridy....
Hey! At least I didin't say "Tie" Fighters..... then I'd REALLY be advertising my geekiness.
ok.... the fact that I can even make that joke shows what a nerd I am.
I'll just stop now.
(and trident, you can make fun of me any day of the week if it means we get to see more of you. ;-)
>>By Majorette (Monday, 31 Jan 2005 20:04)
Thai fighters...thigh fighters..tie fighters..i'm not kidding i once old a girl (I`m sorry Maj she was a yank) i was an international thai fighter and she actually said (you couldn`t make this up) "no kidding those really exist? I thought they were just from the movie, I guess they`re part of the star wars prgramme. Did we sell them to your country?
Oh dear god help me.
>>By docjay (Monday, 31 Jan 2005 20:22)
actaully Maj, there are not only tie fighters, the empire also has other fighters, ok now i have shown my geekness, yes i long for may 19th to see anakin become darth vader, what you mean you didnt know...lol
I say this once and i'll say it again i'm a nerd a geek, and also a handsome devil, with voice as creamy as devon cream straight from the devon creamery, but it would be welsh cream as i'm not from devon ... ok need my paxil.
>>By f-trooper bri (Tuesday, 1 Feb 2005 00:25)
The Independent today (Hercules crash):
Death in the wilderness: what really happened?
snippet:
The nine members of the RAF on board belonged to a squadron that works with the Special Air Service and Special Boat Service. The other soldier who was killed is believed to have been a member of the SAS.
whole article:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/
story.jsp?story=606557
>>By Lynn (Tuesday, 1 Feb 2005 09:32)
hmm while i've been awol i seem to have missed some good discusions, well from april on i'll be back in the sunny shithole known as iraq so i will give you a runing commentary of whats happening in the south. also can someone get me a copy of return of the sith when it comes out if the raghead dvd copying empire is a bit slow pleaseeeeeeeee!. well just a short one so have fun.
>>By fony (Tuesday, 1 Feb 2005 13:31)
DocJay:
Hahaha! Tie figthers... Yeah, who would've thunk it!
This girl's wouldn't be Jessica "But buffalo's don't have wings?" Simpson, would it?
LOL!! :-D Mr. Lachey - what were you thinking, man?!?
>>By ortlieb (Tuesday, 1 Feb 2005 13:40)
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