IMO Discussion Board

Cocaine wars - The Irish Front

ZULU — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 22:56:49 GMT

Quote:

Cocaine wars - the Irish front Ireland correspondent Henry McDonald joins an Irish naval patrol searching for vessels smuggling cocaine from Latin America and west Africa into the Irish Republic, the first drop-off point for drug cartels sending narcotics into Britain and Europe

Good video

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/vide...smuggling-navy

Minister Killeen Unveils The John King Memorial In Ballinrobe

trellheim — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 09:54:37 GMT

Minister Killeen Unveils The John King Memorial In Ballinrobe
Co. Mayo, Ireland � 06 Sep. 2010 � Mr Tony Killeen TD, Minister for Defence was in Ballinrobe on Saturday to officiate at the unveiling of a memorial in honour of John King, a Mayo man who was awarded two Congressional medals of Honour for his service to the American Navy.

John King is only one of nineteen men that received two Congressional Medals of Honour.

The John King Association already exists in America and this is the first time the US marine is honoured in his native county. The seven-foot bronze statue at The Cornmarket was sculpted by the renowned sculpture Rick Lewis.

John King was born in Currabee, Ballinrobe in 1862. He emigrated to the United States as a young man and enlisted in the American Navy in 1893. His time in the Navy spanned 26 years. He first served in the USS Vicksburg and worked in the boiler rooms of 13 naval vessels. He was discharged in 1916 but was recalled in 1917 following the outbreak of World War One. He served two more years and received his final discharge in 1919.

Speaking at the unveiling ceremony Minister Killeen said: �I am honoured to be here today to unveil the John King Memorial. It is a fitting tribute to honour such a remarkable man. John King received the Congressional Medal of Honour on two occasions. It is America�s most important award to a person during their lifetime. His story is truly a fascinating one.�

John King died in 1938 in the USA and is buried in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The US guided missile armed destroyer, the USS John King (DDG-3) named after him, was commissioned in 1961.

Minister Killeen paid tribute to all those involved in organising the ceremony for this great hero.

-ENDS-

Notes to Editor:
- For further information please contact Mark Dunphy of Dunphy Public Relations on 00353868534900 or media ( @ ) dunphypr dot com
- High-resolution images of Minister Killeen are available to download from www.dunphyprimages.com

Status Quo remake "In the Army Now" for Charity

Buck — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:34:49 GMT

Remade for Help for Heroes and The British Forces Foundation.

That's your lot in the video, isn't it RGJ?

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...or-Heroes.html

I'm new

Senan — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:04:14 GMT

Right, so I've been a member of the site for ages and I've wanted to join since I was 14. I just turned 17 this month. It'd be just my luck that there's almost no recruitment. I rang the 62 Reserve Infantry battalion the other day and they told me to come down one of the nights with a parent a passport and some photos, so that I can begin vetting. He then told me that they get allocations where they are allowed take in a certain batch of recruits, but he was unsure how often this happened.

Could anyone enlighten me as to how long the security vetting takes? And how often these "batches" of recruits are allowed in?

Britain/France To Pool Military Resources

Lordinajamjar — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 05:01:58 GMT

I guess in this post cold-war world there is little economic sense in individual nations maintaining the same level of investment in military hardware.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...-Liam-Fox.html

Royal Marines Reserve CIMIC ops - DF personnel involvment

ZULU — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:37:18 GMT

Please try to keep this one on topic. The last one went haywire

Quote:

Portrush-born British soldier in Curragh training first
Tuesday, 22 December 2009

A Portrush-born soldier has become the first British officer to instruct at the Curragh camp since 1922 when Ireland became a Free State.

Lt Col Mark McKinney, 44, spent eight days helping teach human rights and humanitarian law at the Irish Defence Forces' UN training centre.

Lt Col McKinney, who now lives near Perth in Scotland, is a member of the Dundee detachment of the Royal Marines Reserve Scotland. He is in charge of civil and military co-operation.

"I am immensely proud and humbled that a reservist was offered such a positive ground-breaking opportunity," he said.

"I am personally delighted that we have strengthened our already good relationship with the Defence Forces and I am looking forward to a regular exchange of students and instructors on all our courses, which will continue to foster good relations with our NATO and EU allies."

The course also taught negotiation and mediation techniques, working with non-governmental organisations.

Lt Col McKinney spent 17 years as a regular in the Royal Marines and completed five tours there.

He has worked in planning for the UN mission in Liberia where he worked closely with the Defence Forces.

And he maintains that without the efforts of the 90th Infantry Battalion and the Special Operations Task Group provided by the Defence Forces, the mission would almost certainly have failed.

The mission, however, went on to be a complete success and Liberia now has the first ever female president in Africa and enjoys a peace and stability uncommon in the region.

It was the close relationship built up over his seven months in West Africa that later enabled a link to be developed for joint civil/military co-operation training.

FYI!! Wounded Platoon on Now BBC2

Craghopper — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:24:03 GMT

Heads up Wounded Platoon just started on BBC2!

Canadian Forces 09 tour of Kandahar.

rod and serpent — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:39:57 GMT

Seen this on the History channel

http://www.sidereel.com/Combat_School

Irish Guards headed to Afghan

RoyalGreenJacket — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 10:29:29 GMT

hundreds of Irish Guardsmen of been given a send-off by the people of Windsor ahead of their deployment to Afghanistan:

Good luck lads, safe home.

New Uniform?

Docman — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:04:23 GMT

From DF Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dfmagaz...66040/sizes/l/

1. What uniform is that? - I recognise the aigellette (?) of the Presidential Aide de Camp and the Cav unit flash but the uniform is new to me. All the motorcyclists seem to be wearing a varient of it.

2. What happened to Presidential Blue on the bikes?

New blood

Shaz — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:28:12 GMT

Alright lads and ladies, I'd like to start by saying hi to all of you and that I am proudly signing up for general service this year. I just have a few questions for all of the experienced service men and women among you.

1. I have only just recently sent in my application and am awaiting word on fitness test, medical and interview.. Do you have any tips for them?

2. Is the recruit camp based in a dedicated training centre or is it held in the closest camp or any camp around the country?

3. This is more a question from my girlfriend haha - Do you get leave at any stage during recruit training to go home?

4. I didn't think I had tue qualifications to apply for a cadetship but I would like to rise through the ranks, is this possible? And if so how far can you ascend?

5. After passing out is it possible to get transferred to a preferred camp?

6. Are there many opportunities for courses? I.e sniper, marksman, driving, cooking etc

7. I would love to serve overseas, what is it like?

Thanks for your patience with my relatively big/annoying post and I hope I can get at least a few of them answered. Incase you guys are wondering I'm a 23 year old chap with a taste for promotion living in drogheda ( I couldn't find an introduction page ) anyway thanks in advance.

\:)| Shaz

Peacock Class former UK officer comment!

Tempest — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:47:16 GMT

Leafing through the parish magazine of a little village I live near yestterday I was surprised to come across comments about the Peacock class PVs!

The village of Chiddingfold has HMS Chiddingfold named after it (not sure why, it's miles from the sea!), which is a mine counter measures vessel, currently based in Bahrain.

It's Lt Commander, Adam Northover, reminiscing about his career, wrote:

"My earlt naval training took me to the Hong Kond Squadron where I served in HMS Peacock (which was awful......honest!) and then to HMS Liverpool".

[Article] Victims of German air raid remembered

Victor — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:32:42 GMT

Victims of German air raid remembered
MICHAEL PARSONS

A TEMPORARY road sign in south Co Wexford on Saturday morning pointed to �Campile: Scene of 1940 German Bombing�.

A woman in the village confided to The Irish Times : �They shouldn�t have said �German�.� She thought Germans living in the area or tourists might find it offensive, especially as they were �bailing us out� in Europe. She needn�t have worried.

German ambassador Busso von Alvensleben was received with warmth and affection when he attended the opening of a memorial sculpture garden to commemorate the 70th anniversary of an air raid during the second World War.

Mary Ellen Kent (30), her sister Kitty (26) and Kathleen Hurley (27) died when a Luftwaffe aircraft bombed the Shelburne Agricultural Co-operative Society on August 26th, 1940.

Relatives of the three women were among a crowd of 500 people who heard the ambassador �remember and mourn� the victims and acknowledge that �the war inflicted by Germany on neighbouring Britain did not spare Ireland�.

Five survivors also attended, including Jimmy Whelan (86), who recalled working in the co-op building on the fateful day as �a 16-year-old serving my time as a harness maker�. He credits his survival to having left the canteen after lunch to go outside �to feed a few greyhound pups�.

Despite a theory that the co-op had been deliberately targeted by the Germans for allegedly supplying butter to the British army, Mr Whelan believes it �was an accident� and that the pilot had intended to target a town in Wales.

Mr von Alvensleben hoped �the memorial sculptures will recall the horrors of war and preserve the memory� of the women who had died. He was delighted that the artwork was a joint project between German sculptor Anika Untermann (19) from Aachen and Wexford sculptor Ciar�n O�Brien (34).

The ambassador noted that relations between Ireland and Germany had improved �since those sad days�.

CAMPILE BOMBING NAZI GOVERNMENT EXPRESSED REGRET:

THE IRISH charg� d�affaires in Berlin raised the Campile bombing with the authorities in Berlin.

In October 1940, the then Irish Department of External Affairs issued a statement in which it noted that the German government �because of their desire to act in the spirit of their friendly relations with Ireland, are prepared to admit the possibility the bombs had been dropped by a German aircraft, the pilot of which had lost his way owing to bad visibility�.

The statement added that the German foreign office had expressed its �regret� for the incident, offered �sincere sympathy� to those who suffered and expressed its willingness to �pay compensation for the loss and damage sustained�.

It is not known if any compensation was paid by Germany but, the following year, the D�il passed the Neutrality (War Damage to Property) Bill in 1941 and set aside State funds to pay compensation.

Eighteen claims were received from residents of Campile.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...277855237.html

An Cosant�ir- Operation Sealion

timhorgan — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 08:51:31 GMT

Having found time to catch up on the excellent articles written in An Cosant�ir after the war when the enterprising staff showed excellent ingenuity and enterprise in interviewing senior German Officers I was most impressed by the interview of General Blumentritt, Von Runstedt's Chief Of Operations on the Western Front.

Blumentritt is quite clear that during Dunkirk " Hitler had explained his intention to reach an agreement with England andat Dunkirk-our Panzer Divisions were held back, Air fleet 3 restrained from all-out offensive action". The article clearly shows that the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe allowed the British Expeditionary Army to escape.

The sigificance of these artices in An Cosant�ir would also clearly indicate that the Irish Government were correct in maintaining neutrality as the Germans must have some good indicators of a possible deal.

This article in itself is well worth reading and all credit to Thomas Dunne who was described in An Cosant�ir as "ex Army Intelligence".

new UK Nuclear submarine joins the Royal Navy

RoyalGreenJacket — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:03:05 GMT

The UK's most powerful attack submarine, HMS Astute, has been welcomed into the Royal Navy today in a commissioning ceremony .

HMS Astute, which officially becomes 'Her Majesty's Ship' today, is quieter than any of her predecessors, meaning she has the ability to operate covertly and remain undetected in almost all circumstances despite being fifty per cent bigger than any attack submarine in the Royal Navy's current fleet.

The latest nuclear-powered technology means she will never need to be refuelled and can circumnavigate the world submerged, manufacturing the crew's oxygen from seawater as she goes.

The submarine has the capacity to carry a mix of up to 38 Spearfish heavyweight torpedoes and Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, and can target enemy submarines, surface ships and land targets with pinpoint accuracy, while her world-beating sonar system has a range of 3,000 nautical miles (5,500km).

About HMS Astute

*She never needs to be refueled.
*She manufactures her own oxygen from seawater as well as her own drinking water.
*She could theoretically remain submerged for her 25-year life, if it were not for the need to restock the crew's food supplies.
*She is 97 metres from bow to stern.
*She has a beam of 11.2 metres.
*She displaces 7,400 tonnes of seawater.
*Her cabling and pipework would stretch from Glasgow to Dundee.
She is the first Royal Navy submarine not to have a traditional periscope, instead using electro-optics to capture a 360-degree image of the surface for subsequent analysis by the commanding officer.
*Astute is the first submarine to have an individual bunk for each crew member.
*She is faster under the water than she is on the surface - capable of speeds in excess of 20 knots (37km/h), although her top speed is classified.
*Astute's crew of 98 are fed by five chefs who, on an average patrol, will serve up 18,000 sausages and 4,200 weetabix for breakfast.

Read more here: www - HMS Astute

impressive bit of kit!