[jambutty]

I have sat and thought long and hard about the 15 sailors and marines being prisoners in Persia and the following aftermath. I’ve read the views of others on the issue not just on this forum but elsewhere in the media and press etc. and come to the conclusion that half the comments are coming from people who haven’t a clue about the military other than what they have seen in the fictional movies.

Many voices have been raised castigating the 15 for appearing on Persian TV and for admitting that they were in the wrong place. They seem to think that all they had to do was to giver their name rank and number and refuse to do anything else and all would be OK. That maybe the case in the movies but in real life it is different. The 15 did what they did to survive. One armchair warrior even had the stupid audacity to ask why didn’t they try to escape.

I was as pleased as anyone to read that they had arrived safely on British soil with the first consideration being to get them into a military establishment where they could meet their families away from the baying press and report the details of their incarceration.

Since then they have been hounded by the press waving cheque books in the air to buy their stories. It has not been like some people have had the gall to suggest that the 15 sought out the press to ask them if they wanted to buy their stories.

It is a general rule in the armed forces that serving members do not talk to the media or press about service matters or personal matters that have a link to service issues. It just isn’t allowed and woe betide someone who does. A charge quickly follows. But that doesn’t apply to the families of serving personnel providing there is no breach of the Official Secrets Act. Many a serviceman has let his wife, mother, father do the talking whilst he sat back and said nothing. But that was in the days when chequebook journalism hadn’t been invented.

However someone at the Admiralty realising what might happen gave the 15 permission to talk to the press because there was nothing that anyone could do to stop the families talking.
With the gutter press hounding the 15 and their families for stories you can hardly blame them for doing so.

When it became known that six figures sums were being banded about some of the public were up in righteous arms and suggesting that any fee should be donated to various charities and to the families of the servicemen and women who had been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Smacks of jealousy to me.

And now the MOD has placed an embargo on the 15, although I understand that it is only temporary whilst the top brass and government discuss the issue. They will have to concede that 15 individual stories will be told either by the 15 themselves or their families so they may as well give the go ahead.

Considering the way the government treats servicemen and women who return from a combat zone wounded both physically and mentally the 15 should get as much money out of the gutter press as they can and good luck to them.