Steve Davies

And you are qualified to make that remark how exactly?

An exchange tour with the Royal Navy for you it is, then!

Kaman The Air Force has named some bases after people (Edwards AFB, Ca, being a classic example), but does seem to prefer to name buildings and streets in their honour instead. Although a Brit with no real right to chime in here, I think yours is an excellent idea. Good luck with it. Cheers Steve

How are the US investigations into BAe Systems going? And are there any similar investigations ongoing into US defence companies? Source: BBC

Congrats to Alarm Red for making 69 posts. Now, more from the source (continues on where my previous post left off).

Would be nice if the author could spell "you're", but beyond that this tallies with some of what I was told OTR when this shit storm started. (Source)

I can't wait for either!

I find it hard to believe that I was alive when people actually dressed like that. Since fashion is apparently a cyclical affair, how long will it be until we start dressing like that again?

Sounds reasonable - Naval Aviators call the carrier 'the boat' in a bid to be irreverent.

Just two of the many questions that come to mind: Do Air Force Captains really go on the record making such utterances as: "It was like 1 in the morning". What is he, 12-years-old? And, what does the Air Force say about people making a living on the side? The definition of a pro is someone who does something that is their primary form of income. How's that going to go down with his analysis at the joint test centre? And, to follow Stoleit's lead:

The real WTF is why this guy spent his time filming from the shoulders up!

West's reaction to his ejection from the awards following his on-stage outburst: https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c3f_1253107652 Since he's repeatedly saying, give a 'black man a chance', I am guessing he knows something about Beyonce that we don't. Or, he's a self pitying idiot who falls back on the race card whenever he doesn't get what he wants or is being scrutinised for his behaviour. Utter dick.

Only those who haven't read the entire thread. Still, that would have been a good retort.

Vertigo doing detail at his latest gig:

And for the educated American:

Seemed like a very humble guy in the interviews I saw of him; something of a rarity nowadays. And I though that he was the bollocks in Point Break. RIP.

What a bell end.

That tallies with what posters on the other forum - men who met him in Iraq - have said about him being a dangerous egotist. It will also prompt the NYT's 'not our fault, blame the British' defence to become even louder.

I have read that one, too. My ex-Girlfriend's Grandfather was featured in the book - Lysander pilot who went missing over France and never came back.

RF I didn't know that story behind 'H's' death - the controversy deepens. Our media is certainly as fickle as any other, but it does indeed seem that they manage on the whole to keep their noses a little cleaner than those in the US. It's not perfect, however, and in his recent book The Junior Officers' Reading Club, Hennessey gives the embeds and British media as a whole a bit of a shoeing for trying to fight the troop's corner on lack of equipment and for trying to embellish the heroics of soldiers killed in combat.

Huey Yes, some of the more astute media over here have spent quite a bit of time grilling members of their own profession about the conduct - specifically, the motives and decision making - of freelancers and embeds in AFG and Iraq. I know that it cannot be a new phenomenon, but I certainly don't recall these sorts of issues rearing their ugly heads when the press covered war zones in the past (Balkans, Falklands and so on). Cheers

Strongly recommend The Junior Officers' Reading Club. Whilst the book is written by a British Officer and contains a little bit of a laborious discussion of about his training at Sandhurst, it has some excellent insights into fighting and the ANA in Helmand Province, and also sings the praises of the A-10 and F-15E communities.

Mike According to posters on a British Army forum I visit who have met him, the NYT reporter is something of an egotist. Your CNN guy seems to be of a different ilk. Another example of an embed who is not a freakin' Ghoul is Ross Kemp, who the spent quite a bit of time under fire in Helmand. Despite his employer being the same Australian twat that owns Fox, the NYT and the WSJ, his reporting was balanced, politically-neutral and well received by the British Army. Oh, and Michael Yon is another very good freelancer (ex-SF, IIRC).

SBS led the raid. Bloke killed was a Para from the Special Forces Support Group, 1 Para. I wish the media would stop callling him a Commando - he would be offended not to be afforded his proper title!

But not the family of the British soldier?