From: -Özzama Bin Kenøbi- <abuse@anarchy.gov>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan,soc.culture.china,soc.culture.india,soc.culture.yugoslavia,soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.british,soc.culture.canada,soc.history,sci.anthropology,alt.conspiracy,soc.culture.europe,sci.anthropology,sci.answers,alt.history
Subject: British ex-Empire can't even afford decent boots
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 01:29:05 -0500
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The UK might want to consider saving up some money rather than chasing
around after Bu$h and his hopeless Cru$ade like a bunch of spineless
opportunistic twits...
Troops buy own boots for Iraq
By Michael Smith
The Indepedent, UK / R.A.G.U.N.S.
More than half the soldiers due to go to Iraq are likely to buy their
own boots and other equipment because the kit they are issued with is
not good enough, a Ministry of Defence survey shows.
they found they needed to buy additional kit. Less than half of all
Most commonly purchased items were jackets, boots, torches and
The results of the survey were disclosed as Silvermans, one of the
country's leading suppliers of military clothing, reported a surge in
Ralph Silverman, the owner, said yesterday that his staff had been
very busy since it emerged that as many as 30,000 British troops could
"We were exceedingly busy before the 1991 Gulf war and today we sent
out more parcels to British Forces Post Office addresses than ever."
Highly critical reports followed a major exercise in Oman in September
to most of the troops.
A report by 4th Armoured Brigade, one of the units expected to be sent
to Kuwait for a possible invasion of Iraq, was scathing about the
MoD's claims that European boots would be fine in the desert.
months of the autumn' did not require [desert boots] was disingenuous
A National Audit Office report said the soldiers' combat suits were
not robust enough to cope with the sand.
Mr Silverman said that American army issue desert boots were among the
tems most frequently bought by British troops.
"They are professional soldiers and they know exactly what they want,"
An Army spokesman said soldiers had been buying their own equipment
"since time immemorial".
He said it was not clear from the survey why so many were doing so,
but if it was because equipment was not good enough measures would be
taken to improve the situation.
.
