Forces day 27th June 2009.

[Techy111]

May i as an ex member of HM forces please respectfully remind everyone that tomorrow is OUR Armed Forces day....

Respect to all past and present members of the Armed Forces of the UK...

Tony

[TSR2]

Here Here! CHEERS

[Seaking]

Thanks Techy I for one will hoist a few cold ones with the memories I have of my time in the RN and
to all those brave men and women serving today..........may they all come home safe and sound !!

[Trev Clark]

Crikey, when did this idea come about I better go and polish my medal

[Keith Jones]

That's one of the problems, Trev. How many people knew about Armed Forces Day and when it was to be celebrated? I only heard a vague rumour about it yesterday but couldn't find out much about it at all. AFD should, at the very least, be a bank holiday (perhaps combined with an existing bank holiday if no other date can be found). To celebrate it on a Saturday is, IMO, a total waste of time. It's the end of the working week for most and a lot of those people will want to do other things on their time off work. Is it all just another way for the government to say, "Hey, we care about our forces (but not that much)."

[Chris Trott]

With the rich and honorable history of the United Kingdom's armed forces, I too am saddened to know that you do not have a proper celebration of their sacrifices whether living or passed on. In the US, Veterans Day is the day that we celebrate and was once called "Armistice Day". This day originally celebrated the end of "War to End All Wars", but as it didn't do that, it is much more fitting to simply take the day to honor all of those whom have given their lives or put their lives in harms way to protect our way of life. It's always interesting to see that on Veterans day, almost all politicians and media in the US at least acknowledge our military forces, no matter how against "war" and "the military complex" they may be. I would think that the British are, by and large, just as proud and thankful of their armed forces as we are, but the fact there's not a massive push for a full recognition of those people.

I hope this is something that can be resolved in the future else Britain completely loose it's ability to defend itself (i.e. if you don't show any appreciation for your armed forces, eventually the desire to serve will get too low to be able to field a sustainable force without going to conscription).

[AllanL]

To be fair Chris, we do have Remembrance Day too, it's on November 11th. over here.

The idea for Armed Forces Day is to show our appreciation (but hey don't spend any money to make sure they get home safe) for the current members of Maj's forces - as opposed to the remembrance of those who served and died in past wars.

Being ill-equipped and overstretched has been all too sadly a common situation for our Forces down the centuries.

There has been something of a resurgence in the support of Remembrance Day in past years, but that doesn't seem to stretch to the government spending the required funds to equip those that they sent off on Tony's Illegal Wars.

Time for a Kick-A-Politician Day. Let's start with the cretin who sent the troops to Afghanistan with the claim that they would never have to fire a shot. Seem to remember that at the time, the Defence Ministry did not even get a full-time Minister.

(Born Grumpy with 28 years of marital practise......)

[hobby]

In the UK, in 2006 I think, the present UK Government named today, 27th June, 'Veterans Day' - no trouble at all to link that to the 'Veterans Badges' available on request from our MOD for the past few years.

This year (2009) it was decided somewhere in Government circles to rename 'Veterans Day' [Note: this is the same name as the USA uses] to 'Armed Forces Day' to include those now serving. So 2009 is the first year in which we have an 'Armed Forces Day.' There was also a move to encourage all Reservists to wear uniform to work YESTERDAY (Friday). That did not receive much publicity and would certainly not have been popular with a number of employers.

During 'the troubles' in Ireland I recall that standing orders for reservists stated that we were not to wear uniform in public and that care was to be taken not to leave headgear on view in our own private cars. Ah well, that was some years ago.

By and large I believe that majority of the General Public who do not live in garrison towns or RN ports, or who do not hold jobs linked to defence, feel absolutely no connection with the present armed forces, we have to go back about fifty years to the days of National Service for the majority of the public to have close connections and some knowledge of HM Forces. Recently much has been done to familiarise the public with the demands made of those now serving via several series of TV programs - just a pity that most UK people now spend more time each week using their own computers than watching TV. ITV are said to have problems selling TV advertising slots because more advertising is being transferred to the web. It therefore follows that those TV series of documentaries on the armed forces of today may not now be seen by the target audience.

I am glad to say that the 'Veterans Badges' can be seen being worn with some pride all over the UK and are recognised by armed forces veterans of the USA.

[Techy111]

Cheers for that Hobby......I have applied for mine.....here is the link for anyone else thinking of applying......http://www.veterans-uk.info/vets_badge/vets_badge.htm

Tony

[Tako_Kichi]

It's a pity the ATC is not considered part of the reserve or volunteer force otherwise I'd apply myself.