Book Review: Into the unknown – The Logistics preparation of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

I'm interested in logistics. Very very important part of work and personal life. And this was sparked by a lifelong interest in military history where every good general has always talked about logistics and quartermasters as the key element of success. Here are some great quotes for you to ruminate over.

"Gentlemen, the officer who doesn't know his communications and supply as well as his tactics is totally useless."
- Gen. George S. Patton, USA
"Bitter experience in war has taught the maxim that the art of war is the art of the logistically feasible."
- ADM Hyman Rickover, USN
"Forget logistics, you lose."
- Lt. Gen. Fredrick Franks, USA, 7th Corps Commander, Desert Storm
"Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics."
- Gen. Robert H. Barrow, USMC (Commandant of the Marine Corps) noted in 1980
"I am tempted to make a slightly exaggerated statement: that logistics is all of war-making, except shooting the guns, releasing the bombs, and firing the torpedoes."
- ADM Lynde D. McCormick, USN
"Because of my wartime experience, I am insistent on the point that logistics know-how must be maintained, that logistic is second to nothing in importance in warfare, that logistic training must be widespread and thorough..."
- VADM Robert B. Carney, USN
"Logistic considerations belong not only in the highest echelons of military planning during the process of preparation for war and for specific wartime operations, but may well become the controlling element with relation to timing and successful operation."
- VADM Oscar C. Badger, USN
"… in its relationship to strategy, logistics assumes the character of a dynamic force, without which the strategic conception is simply a paper plan."
- CDR C. Theo Vogelsang, USN
"Logistics is the stuff that if you don't have enough of, the war will not be won as soon as."
- General Nathaniel Green, Quartermaster, American Revolutionary Army
"Strategy and tactics provide the scheme for the conduct of military operations, logistics the means therefore."
- Lt. Col. George C. Thorpe, USMC
"Only a commander who understand logistics can push the military machine to the limits without risking total breakdown."
- Maj.Gen. Julian Thompson, Royal Marines
"There is nothing more common than to find considerations of supply affecting the strategic lines of a campaign and a war."
- Carl von Clausevitz
"In modern time it is a poorly qualified strategist or naval commander who is not equipped by training and experience to evaluate logistic factors or to superintend logistic operations."
- Duncan S. Ballantine, 1947
"The war has been variously termed a war of production and a war of machines. Whatever else it is, so far as the United States is concerned, it is a war of logistics."
- Fleet ADM Ernest J. King, in a 1946 report to the Secretary of the Navy
"A sound logistics plan is the foundation upon which a war operation should be based. If the necessary minimum of logistics support cannot be given to the combatant forces involved, the operation may fail, or at best be only partially successful."
- ADM Raymond A. Spruance
"The line between disorder and order lies in logistics…"
- Sun Tzu
"Leaders win through logistics. Vision, sure. Strategy, yes. But when you go to war, you need to have both toilet paper and bullets at the right place at the right time. In other words, you must win through superior logistics."
- Tom Peters - Rule #3: Leadership Is Confusing As Hell, Fast Company, March 2001
"Logistics sets the campaign's operational limits."
- Joint Pub 1: Joint Warfare of the Armed Forces of the United States
"Logistics comprises the means and arrangements which work out the plans of strategy and tactics. Strategy decides where to act; logistics brings the troops to this point."
- Jomini: Precis de l' Art de la Guerre. (1838)
"Behind every great leader there was an even greater logistician."
- M. Cox
"Logistics ... as vital to military success as daily food is to daily work."
- Capt. Alfred Thayer Mahan, Armaments and Arbitration, 1912
"The essence of flexibility is in the mind of the commander; the substance of flexibility is in logistics."
- RADM Henry Eccles, U.S. Navy
"My logisticians are a humorless lot ... they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay."
- Alexander

I was reminded of this recently when I saw this youtube video.

the US Air Force is moving 9,000 gallons of Jet Fuel into a forward operating base. By the time one gallon has reached the ground in the forward operating base, each gallon is costing $25-35. Figures from here. Did you know, USA was paying Halliburton $45 for each six pack of coke made locally in the Middle East? And a quote: Moral of the story: war is very expensive, especially if you fight one foolishly without clear goals, overwhelming force, measurable results and an exit strategy.

But this book by Donald L Carr on how Lewis and Clark outfitted the expedition is fascinating from the perspective of people who want to win. Expeditions just like businesses depend upon getting the toilet paper and money and men into the right place at the right time in the right quantity. So it was fascinating to see how Jefferson, a hero of mine, drove and drove and drove this expedition to happen. How he managed to act like a sponsor and get the money (he lied through his teeth) and planned and planned and planned. Then the detailed logistics and further planning of it, the innovation, the use of local resources, the quick movements and adjustments. Brilliant idea, anybody who wants to be a good manager, a good change manager, they should read about logistics. Very important. Comes highly recommended. And best of all, this is a free book, you can download it here.

The Revolution That Wasn’t

Kannu

Here's an excellent overview of the train crash disaster that is Egypt. Let me lay my opinion up front. The brotherhood presidency was bad but overthrowing it has really made a bad situation worse. A liberal democracy does not happen overnight. Look at India. It took years. It made many mistakes. But it's a good country. Same with the uk and USA. Some common themes. Enlightened leaders. Rule of law. Freedom of speech. Army under control. Free media. Religion firmly kicked in the balls and controlled. Good institutions. Free judiciary. But egypt keeps on making mistakes and keeps on being stupid. What? 5 revolutions in the past century? 

The army is the biggest problem. Second problem is the religion and the religious leaders. Third is the judiciary. And and and. Thousands have now died and now it's back to what it was few years back. Disgruntled Islamists. Army in command. Economy fucked up. Population in distress. 

The solution is clear but the Egyptians don't have patience. Heck the Egyptians laughed at Pakistan and there's an Egyptian quote which said that they don't want to become Pakistan. But with the democratic transition in Pakistan, Egypt will do worse. They would be lucky to be like Pakistan. I do not have a good prognosis about Egypt. Another decade of decay beckons. 

Love

Baba

LRB · Hugh Roberts · The Revolution That Wasn’t
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n17/hugh-roberts/the-revolution-that-wasnt

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Hugh Roberts

• The Rise and Fall of Arab Presidents for Life by Roger Owen
  Harvard, 248 pp, £18.95, May 2012, ISBN 978 0 674 06583 3
• Adaptable Autocrats: Regime Power in Egypt and Syria by Joshua Stacher
  Stanford, 221 pp, £22.50, April 2012, ISBN 978 0 8047 8063 6
• Raging against the Machine: Political Opposition under Authoritarianism in Egypt by Holger Albrecht
  Syracuse, 248 pp, £25.00, October 2012, ISBN 978 0 8156 3320 4
• BuySoldiers, Spies and Statesmen: Egypt’s Road to Revolt byHazem Kandil
  Verso, 303 pp, £16.99, November 2012, ISBN 978 1 84467 961 4

Western opinion has had difficulty working out what to think, or at any rate what to say, about Egypt. It now seems that the pedlars of hallucinations have been cowed and it is no longer fashionable to describe the events of 3 July in Cairo as a ‘second revolution’. But to describe them as a counter-revolution, while indisputably more accurate, presupposes that there was a revolution in the first place. The bulk of Western media commentary seems still to be wedded to this notion. That what the media called ‘the Arab spring’ was a succession of revolutions became orthodoxy very quickly. Egypt was indispensable to the idea of an ‘Arab spring’ and so it had to have had a revolution too.

Mass Grave from Thirty Years War Investigated in Lützen Germany

Kannu

An interesting story about a long forgotten war. But couple of interesting things. These dead fought for money and for religion. And 9000 died. For what? Strange reasons to die. 

Second is the last quote. There are lots of quotes like this. History is a vast early warning system. History repeats itself. And now this one. History has habits. 

Look at Syria. Uk and France are all gung ho about it. What happened the last time France and UK got involved in the Middle East? Suez happened. But they were involved before during the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the infamous Sykes Picot pact screwed up the Middle East for decades. And of course the crusades before. Religion and money. 

When people don't learn from their mistakes son, they are idiots. It's just stupid. No blame for making mistakes. That's how you learn. But you make a mistake. Then you don't learn? That means you are stupid over and over again means that you need to be careful of that person society or country. 

Love

Baba. 

Mass Grave from Thirty Years War Investigated in Lützen Germany - SPIEGEL ONLINE
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/mass-grave-from-thirty-years-war-investigated-in-luetzen-germany-a-830203.html

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It was one of the bloodiest battles of the Thirty Years’ War, but until recently there was no trace of those who died there. Now a mass grave is shedding light on the mysteries of the Battle of Lützen. Were those who fought hungry young men or well-fed veterans? And where did they come from?

The morning of November 16, 1632 was foggy, so the mass killing could only begin after some delay. It wasn’t until midday that the mist cleared, finally allowing the Protestant army of Sweden’s King Gustav II Adolf to attack the Roman Catholic Habsburg imperial army led by Albrecht von Wallenstein. The slaughter lasted for hours in the field at the Saxon town of Lützen.

“In this battle the only rule that applied was, ‘him or me,’” says Maik Reichel. “It was better to stab your opponent one extra time just to ensure there was no chance of him standing up again.” The historian und former German parliamentarian for the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) is standing at the edge of a field on the outskirts of Lützen. After the battles here, the ground was soaked with blood. “About 20,000 men fought on each side and between 6,000 and 9,000 were killed,” estimates Reichel, who heads the museum in the city castle.

When the soldiers in the religious war clashed on the outskirts of Lützen, the road from there to Leipzig was not yet called “B 87,” but “Via Regia.” The Red Cross nursing home and nearby supermarket that now stand on the battle site also didn’t exist back then. But the past is present here when one goes looking for it. So far archaeologists have examined about one- third of the former battlefield, in total 1.1 million square meters (11.8 million square feet). Theoretically, only another one-third could still be examined. The rest has been covered by the nursing home, supermarket and small garden allotments.

The best graph in the world

That graph, son, is one of the greatest pieces of graphic design or brevity known to man. In a 2d imagery, Charles Joseph Minard has managed to cram in so much information that its ridiculously brilliant.

One of my problems is how can I get my salespeople to absorb a giant amount of information in a very limited time and actually do something about it which will help my clients and compete against other salespeople. It's a constant battle against suppliers who think that more is good versus sales people who are constitutionally unable to absorb any more than 3 things at one time. Which is good, I want them to sell, not spend time on data.

Fascinating, I am spending quite a lot of time thinking about data visualisation these days..

Love

Baba

Why I hate the UK getting embroiled in foreign adventures

Check this graphic out

Do you know what this represents? this represents the countries that the United Kingdom has never invaded. ARE YOU FRIKKING KIDDING ME? why on earth do we have to poke our nose in every bloody country down the ages, i do not understand. All those brave soldiers dying for manky old politicians in London in those forgotten countries? why? why? So its with deep pleasure I see the reduction of the armed forces of the UK, cut them down hugely even more. Who is going to attack us? France?

When soldier suicides are higher than combat

There is something wrong when the number of soldier suicides in your army is significantly more than combat deaths (303 suicides versus 212 combat deaths). Source.

Whilst almost 85% had no direct combat history (could have been deployed but didn't see action), so combat stress can be ruled out. One wonders when an organisation so disciplined and well supported has such high rates of suicide, its going to be difficult to support and reduce…

and then this point…

A bipartisan group of lawmakers from both the House and the Senate are pushing for new rules that would allow military commanders and mental health specialists to ask unstable troops if they own personal firearms, reports Stars and Stripes.

What are the chances of that happening? I know that a person will commit suicide irrespective but still easy access to firearms makes it much more easy…Not good.

A Hero Talks

Simple messages, nothing complex.

You have never lived till you have nearly died. Yep.

This isn't a war crime but is perhaps worse than that

What kind of a human being does this? Forget about war crimes and murder, this is behaviour of a human being whose humanity has been burnt away by what? I quote:

The most shocking testimony in the new Breaking the Silence report, I think, is number 95. A female Border Police sergeant describes how the guys would catch Palestinian kids trying to sneak into Israel to sell cheap little toys: 
It was simply routine – emptying the children’s plastic bags and playing with their toys. You know, grabbing the stuff and throwing the toys among us like balls.
Q: The children cried?
Constantly. They cried and were terrified. I mean, you couldn’t miss it.
Q: Adults cried too?
Sure. To humiliate them. One of our goals was this: I made him cry in front of his child, I made him shit in his pants.
Q: You saw cases of people soiling their pants?
Yes.
Q: Why?
Especially at beatings, beating them to a pulp and threats and yelling, where the guy is terrified, especially in front of the kids... There was this once, again, an adult detained with his child, a tiny kid, about four years old. The child was not hit, but the patrolman was annoyed that the adult was taking the kid with him so he’d be shown consideration, and told him: “You’re taking the kid along so as to be pitied. Let’s show you what’s what.” And he beat him to a pulp, yelled at him, said: “Why, I could kill you right in front of your kid. Maybe you’d feel more...”
Q: And he wet his pants for sheer fright?
Yes.
Q: In front of his child?
Yes. There are lots of horror stories like, I made him shit in his pants, I made him do that. Such talk was routine, not anything special...

And this is being done by Israeli Women. I am puzzled. Seriously puzzled. Why? Why are you like this? How can you look yourself in your face after destroying the innocence of a child? Is this what you are? You are not really human are you? This isn't human behaviour. You terrified a child, not once or twice but constantly? Is that what you do to your own child? Your little brother and sister? Or was this done to you by your parents? Is this endemic in the Israeli Army? Why? I am ashamed of you while being deeply puzzled at your unthinking brutality towards children. And Karma does exist, what goes around comes around.

The Magnificient Pakistani Generals

An interesting review of a book review on one of the general’s books who commanded the Pakistani Army in 1971. Defeat has no fathers, it is an orphan and looking at the spate of books by the generals in charge then, looks like nobody was in charge, everybody was responsible and nobody was personally liable. One very interesting comment came back and this is what I have seen (as a very broad based generalisation), most of the third world country armies get more medals for killing their own people than the enemy. Pakistan’s army is no exception. In fact, for all the pious mumbling about Islamic armies, I would say that this Islamic Army of Pakistan has killed more Muslims than non-muslims. Post Independence, whether you think about Jordan, Kashmir, Kargil, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Sindh, you name it…

A.H Amin's Comments on Ahmad Faruqis Book Review of A.A.K Niazis Book on East Pakistan-2000

While you can spend quite a lot of time reading both documents, this is what puzzles me ever since. Is it indeed possible to fool all people all the time? What explains the fascinating behaviour of the Pakistani Army? that it manages to screw up almost everything it touches but is still allowed to grab the resources of the Pakistani state and even rule it. We are getting to grips with the betrayal of East Pakistan but what about the betrayal of West Pakistan? When will that final chapter be written?

That said, tactically and militarily, the Pakistani Army seems to be getting better, Kargil was a great example, Swat and the South Waziristan campaigns are also good. What happens to these generals when they grow up? Also, the current C-in-C Kayani seems to be a canny smart chappie. But here’s the question, the lessons of the 1971 war (see the Hamdoor ur Rahman Report summary here) doesnt seem to be learnt. The same old same old, the involvement with politics and massive corruption is still there.

Lots to think about.

Help Pakistan’s Police instead of the Army

This report from Rand makes very good sense. Most terrorism is actually resolved by pretty much bog standard police work, counter terrorism is the same. Another benefit of better quality police work is to improve crime and reduce offshoots such as narco-terrorism etc. And frankly, pouring in money into the Pakistani Army hasnt helped much now, has it? More reasons here and I quote:

There are many reasons why the army can't fix what ails the nation. First, sustained use of the army against its own citizens goes against the grain. A number of Pakistani officers have told me that they did not join the army to kill Pakistanis; they joined to kill Indians. Officers themselves debate whether the army can successfully oust the militants, and even if it can, whether it could hold the area for long. The army's past and recent track record in clearing and holding territory is not encouraging.

Second, the army has resisted developing a counter-insurgency doctrine. It prefers to plan and train for conventional battles and views its struggle against insurgents as a "low-intensity" conventional conflict. Washington has been slow to understand that this is not a quibble over semantics but a serious difference in how the army intends to contend with the threat. The Pakistani army believes India is its principal nemesis, not the insurgents who have occupied the Swat valley and destabilized Pakistan and the region.

Third, the army's sledgehammer attempt to expel militants from their various redoubts has devastated much of Pakistan's Pashtun belt, flattening villages and forcing more than three million people to flee. The devastating blitzkrieg shows that the Pakistani army resists developing an effective counter-insurgency capability to secure, not dispossess, the local population.

A police force-led effort would be better than one led by the army, as the history of successful counterinsurgency movements in disparate theatres across the globe shows. Militants understand the potential power of the police even if Washington and Islamabad do not. Since 2005, insurgents and terrorists have killed about 400 police each year in suicide bombings, assassinations, and other heinous crimes, according to Hassan Abbas, a former police officer in Pakistan who is now a research fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

The police make for easy targets because they are outgunned, under-resourced, inadequately equipped and poorly trained. Because most don't even have the same lucrative death benefits as army personnel, many have simply fled the fight to protect their families. Police officers in Swat have even taken out newspaper advertisements declaring that they have left the force in hopes that insurgents will spare them and their families. To take the lead in fighting the militants, Pakistan's police will need training, modern weaponry, personal-protection equipment, life insurance and access to civilian intelligence.

Police in Pakistan are admittedly widely reviled for being corrupt. However there are encouraging signs of change. Several policing organizations, such as the National Highways and Motorway Police, the Islamabad Police and the Lahore Traffic Police have all gained the trust of their citizenry through professional and courteous conduct. In these forces, police are paid a handsome salary and are subject to strict accountability for their performance. Their new salaries are too valuable to lose by taking small bribes.

Pakistan's police leadership seems up for the challenge. Since 2000, Pakistan's own police leadership has led the demand for police reform only to be stifled by military and civilian political leadership who benefit from a corrupt police force that does their bidding. It's time for the international community to support these unexpected reformers.

So far, only 2.2% of U.S. funding to Pakistan has gone to assisting the police — $268 million between 2002 and 2008 for narcotics control, law enforcement and border security. The U.S. has an enormous opportunity to help the one Pakistani institution that actually wants American help.
Should the Obama administration embrace this task, it will need to change its approach to police training, and it will need international partners. The State Department, which has traditional responsibility for this area, cannot do it alone. As the experience with police training in Afghanistan has shown, the Department of Defense has to step in to take the lead on police training. Unfortunately, the international community has resisted supplying trainers or resources to the Afghanistan effort and some contractors have not performed well.

Taliban are angry with American White Women

Obviously they are angry with American White Women in the American Army. You see, they kick the butts of eunuch medieval illiterate moronic patriarchal stupid idiot mujahedeen Taliban. Not that easy to take on a woman who is armed and willing to kick your butt, is it, you Pakistani holy warriors? Its much easier to cane women or throw acid on them or break their legs or shoot at unarmed women or throw stones at them, but just confirms:

CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK.

Here’s the Taliban Brave Warrior who uttered these words:

Can you see his bravery jumping out of all pores and every fold of his turban?

and the video underneath, welcome to the flower of Islamist manhood.

cluck cluck cluck

Also see this which I wrote earlier.

Technorati Tags: Taliban,Pakistan,USA

Armed forces 'get free education'

Now this is an excellent step, and kudo's to the government who have thought this up. I quote:

Service personnel are to be given university education free of charge after they end their duty with the armed forces, it has been reported. According to the News of the World, personnel who complete six years service in the Army, Royal Navy or RAF will qualify for the scheme. The government will pay tuition fees to study for GCSEs, A-levels, university degrees or other qualifications.

I wrote about the GI Bill here.

Technorati Tags: Education,Armed Forces,United Kingdom

Anthropologists do it with people

Besides the fact that these anthropologists have the right to dissent and disagree, one wonders if they know what they are doing and saying? A democratically elected government, executing howsoever unpopular a decision, is being challenged by public sector workers. And they do not want anything to do with the military. So far so good.

So here's the question, do you seriously think that academics exist in a vacuum? Here's a question to the learned academics. Ok, so the members of the academy are not formally supposed to participate in this HTS initiative. Will you refuse to teach a soldier who wants to learn at your stateside school? Will you refuse to teach anthropology to students who have expressed a desire to join the military? Will you as an anthropology professor disown your child if s/he is in Iraq fighting insurgents?

Will you instead help your child out? How about refusing to take tax payer money as your salary in protest? They complain about manipulating local cultures, but then, all their own studies of whatever ilk, influences local cultures.
When they go and study a tribe in the middle of the Amazonian rain forest or a ghetto in Chicago, they influence and manipulate local cultures. So what makes their influencing good and the US military's influencing bad?
Military intervention in academics? Surely that's taxpayer money that you are complaining about. I presume they will refuse to take any monies from any government or private sources?

Its when you start inquiring that you know that outrage and principles have limits, where the limit or boundary lies is where the interesting or amusing part occurs, in this case, its in the amusing part...

Reminds me of the quote, arguments in academia are so bitter because the stakes are so little. In this case, the stakes are so high, so obviously the arguments have to be facile.

Technorati Tags: Anthropology,Army,USA

Pakistan finally belling the cat?

You cannot violate the laws of economics for too long. The giant sucking sound that the Pakistani Army makes when it is the parasite on the Pakistani State, People and rest of the world seems to be diminishing by a small amount. I quote;

Pakistan’s new coalition government has ordered a “massive cut” in budget expenditure across the board, including military spending, to cope with the rising cost of fuel and food subsidies

How much do you want to bet that nothing will be cut on the military expenditures and the brunt of the spending cuts will fall, as usual, on the poor disenfranchised Pakistani citizen? But, the fact that a finance minister had the temerity to say this (well, he said this in London, another sad fact, I rather doubt that he would have had the gumption to say this in Isloo).

See some of my previous essays. Here and here.

Still lets see...

Technorati Tags: Pakistan,Government Stupidity,Army

Now India has women combat soldiers!

Wow, read and wonder. Way to got, ladies... I quote:

 

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is enrolling women for the first time in a combat role, overturning a mindset in the country's security establishment that women are no good at defending frontiers or fighting wars.

The largely conservative country's 1.3-million strong army has less than 1000 women, all of them in non-combat jobs such as engineering and nursing.

But India's Border Security Force (BSF) says it wants to change with the times and recognize the many roles Indian women play today -- from software engineers and space scientists to sportswomen and business czars.

"So far we were not recruiting ladies, maybe because of the nature of our duty, and the thought was that ladies are not suitable," Ashish Kumar Mitra, BSF's director general, told Reuters in an interview late on Thursday.

To begin with, BSF will recruit 750 women guards primarily for frisking duties, checking human trafficking and drug smuggling.

Technorati Tags: Women,Army,India

More photographs of girls in armies

This linkwas sent to me by one of my readers, showing a whole load of other ladies in armies ranging from Finland to Brazil, Estonia to Japan, Vietnam to Germany... Way to go ladies....

Technorati Tags: Army,Women

And here are women in the Russian Army

Further to my note about women in the Israeli and American armies, here's a note about Russian ladies in the Russian Army.

Technorati Tags: Women,Armies,Russia

Women in Armies

Participation of women in armed forces is a complex and very emotive topic. But sometimes you get to see something that makes you go hmmm. Here's a bunch of photographs of Women in the Israeli Army.

Remember the Angel of Death? Here's her chariot! :)

 

 

Technorati Tags: Israel,Women,Armies

Bathe once a week to save fuel costs

What a state of affairs! I quote:

South Korea’s soldiers will be asked to make do with one bath a week, while its air force pilots will have to do more training on computers instead of real fighters as record oil prices force the country to take drastic steps to slash its fuel usage.
The measures are among several that arose from an emergency meeting last week where senior officials in the army, navy and air force discussed ways of reducing their fuel bill, a military official said.
“We had to seek emergency steps to save fuel costs because oil prices have gone up too much,” the defence ministry said. It estimated that the military could save about Won77bn ($76m), or 11 per cent of its annual fuel bill, with the moves.

All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!

What is the military covenant?

So many people forget this basic bargain and covenant that we civilians sign with our armed forces, and it is like the Hippocratic Oath, we should read it once a year at least!, are you hearing, Parliament? which is playing fast and loose with our squaddies? I quote:

The phrase "military covenant" refers to the contract that is supposed to exist between servicemen and women and the civilians on whose behalf they are willing to die.
It is an informal understanding, rather than a legally-enforceable deal, but it is nevertheless treated with great seriousness within the services.
The army doctrine publication says: "Soldiers will be called upon to make personal sacrifices – including the ultimate sacrifice – in the service of the nation.
"In putting the needs of the nation and the army before their own, they forgo some of the rights enjoyed by those outside the armed forces.
"In return, British soldiers must always be able to expect fair treatment, to be valued and respected as individuals, and that they (and their families) will be sustained and rewarded by commensurate terms and conditions of service.
"This mutual obligation forms the military covenant between the nation, the army and each individual solider; an unbreakable common bond of identity, loyalty and responsibility that has sustained the army and its soldiers throughout history."
Military historians point out that the notion that society owes a special debt to soldiers goes back centuries.
As an early example of the covenant, they cite an act passed in 1593 ordering parishes to make special provision to help sick and wounded veterans.



All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!!!