Magnificent!
Of course, if you set off on time, you wouldn't need to run....
Magnificent!
Of course, if you set off on time, you wouldn't need to run....
I like Coldstreamer's drill better but I wouldn't care for the funny hats!
"Pick up a rifle and you change instantly from a subject to a citizen." - Jeff Cooper
Noticed the other day a clip / report on an Afghan officer due to attend Sandhurst, so maybe there now. Taken a few years to get this far.
davidbfpo
We had Afghan officer cadets at RMA Sandhurst until 1979. I was at staff college with the "class of '79" officer cadet who is now a colonel. Since then we started taking officer cadets again in 2005.
News to me about the American officer cadet. From what I understand it the US system of officer training is quite different from the UK's.
We tended to take mostly Commonwealth officer cadets and a lot of african and middle eastern. Very few Latin American as I recall. In my platoon there was a Thai, an Omani and a Malawian officer cadet, all top blokes and with some interesting stories to tell.
We see a lot of foreign officers on various courses, in fact all the career courses that I have done have had foreign officers on them. Strangely we do not send UK officers on many foreign courses; I cannot help but think we are missing a bit of a trick there.
Red Rat and David,
I have a friend serving on contract now in Kabul who was largely responsible for creating or putting together the new Afghan equivalent of West Point over the past two years.
He told me that one of the outside sources of funding for unique aspects of the Afghan Military Service Academy (don't know it's actual, technical name just now) came from the Government of Turkey, who agreed to fund a chapel, a mosque to be precise, being built as part of the total campus there in Kabul. This was and is a practical, far sighted event in my book.
Am interested in the current tense yellow journalism row going on in the UK Parliament over raising and sending more UK troops to Afghanistan. I believe these UK additional forces and equipment, particularly more helicopters, are sorely needed.
FOR GRADUATE STUDENT INPUT AND STUDY OR DISCUSSION: A friend who is a retired PhD (university professor) here in the South where we all live asked me the other day what are the reasons we are in Afghanistan; why do we still need to be there; and also he asked, his view, why don't we just pull out and declare victory?
Rather than bore everyone with my answers, I am interested in the inputs to these questions from and by the UK graduate students old and new Registered or as Members on the SWJ.
George,
SWC have debated this question before, in various threads and posts, often returning to the comparison between the Taliban can wait and we have not got the patience for staying long enough. Hopeflly the new thread: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=7832 drawing upon David Kilcullen helps to give an answer.
davidbfpo
Last edited by davidbfpo; 07-17-2009 at 12:50 PM. Reason: Add link
A rather laudatory article in places, but with some reflective passages. The title and sub-title:Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...he-future.htmlNew model army: Sandhurst's officers of the future
As Sandhurst marks its 200th anniversary, the prospect of active service has boosted numbers of officer cadets, but how will the military academy fare in the future?
davidbfpo
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