Bye Bye Camp Bastion - bye bye major operations?

After the flag comes down in Afghanistan, the news this morning is all about the flawed care for Military veterans. 

"The government is failing to abide by its military covenant, medical experts who treat injured soldiers have said.

Leading professors in psychology and orthopaedics say the healthcare system is not providing veterans with the service they have been promised.

The Armed Forces Covenant, described as a duty of care to the armed forces, states veterans should be "sustained and rewarded" .

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said it was "fully committed" to the covenant."

BBC News

The government needs to get a clear handle on this one. As well as morally and ethically wrong, this sort of thing will be a vote loser. 

Very few service personnel sign up thinking about what will life be like if they get injured and given a medical discharge. As a boy when I signed up you started the enrolment  process around the age of 14 1/2 to begin service at 16 when you left school at no time did I ever see a glossy brochure about the reality of war, what sort of care you would get if any, should you be medically discharged. Never got to see any pictures of service men with missing limbs or with their faces half blown away. What we got was glossy brochures about how we would travel the world, make great mates, live in comfortable barracks, how we would learn a trade and have the best health care available, but absolutely nothing about being sent into conflicts around the world.

You could argue what on earth were you signing up to join the army for then? For me it was a guaranteed job when I left school and a means to learn a trade, something I actually did when I left the forces, the thought of going into battle somewhere or tiptoeing through a mine field in pitch darkness with a gale force wind and rain pelting down never crossed my mind and was never mentioned in the joining up process only the glamorous side was ever mentioned. As the saying goes as you get older you get wiser, and when you look at service personel who have left the forces, with nothing but a handshake and a bus pass home and maybe a bit of financial compensation you have to ask yourself was it worth it. I'm a member of one of the Sapper groups on Facebook and with nearly 6k of members many of them are coming to realise just how much they have been let down by this country after they have either returned from a conflict or have been told their services are no longer required. One member said something the other night which is very true, in that it takes a minimum of 6 months to train a soldier to basic standard and it takes 24hrs to train him back into civilian life. Many ex-forces have become so institutionalised  they will never grasp civilian life easily. For those who have recently been laid off may find they end up with PTSD which may only become apparent years after they have left the service and the only people to put them back together again are charities. If I knew at 16 what I know now about how this country treats its ex-forces, I would have more than likely joined the production line at Wrigleys chewing gum factory instead....

I know so many former muckers that are institutionalised and have struggled to establish themselves in civvy street. The common thing you see is depression and alcohol and seems to be prevalent in those that did more than 12 years. After 22 years a lot have battled their way up the promotion ladder, used to eating in the Sergeants Mess, enjoy the respect and benefits that goes with it, subsided married quarters, and they are somebody.

Then they do their resettlement course which the most popular seemed to be for most trades back in '99 was a HGV license. Then they land in civvy street as an inexperienced but older truck driver working on minimum wage, or bouncing around from low paid job to low paid job, with no respect or perks of their former lives. But at least they have a military pension to fall back on if they did 22 years.

For those that got culled during their service as part of the governments draw down then the situation was worse, a lot didn't want to leave. When I saw it back in the mid 90's, there was no logic or fairness to how people got made redundant. There were guys serving in Bosnia who were told they would be jobless when they got back, and young lads with no rank got a minimal payout, and no pension rights.

Unfortunately between conflicts the popularity and image of the military fades from public view, it's natural, the world moves on. Which is something that has been the same since Nelsons day, when ships got laid up and crews dumped on the docks to fend for themselves.

We've moved on since then, but looks like we still got some way to go.

One common theme for ex forces is the feeling of being on the outside, it takes a long time to accept you are a civilian. Plenty never do. Ex forces can normally spot each other pretty quickly normally from a comment derived from service slang, to mannerisms, even work ethic.

I think this is where social media has actually played a really important role, and why ex forces groups are so popular. It's a place to talk the same language with people who understand exactly what you are talking about, even though you may have never met or your service careers were decades apart. 

Maybe more publicity or emphasise should be given about social media communities for those leaving the forces, or those who are suffering from depression etc. Or maybe they already do?