Bullying in the Forces

Hello everybody I wrote this article a few years back. With a new inquest into the tragic and suspicious circumstances regarding the recruits at Deepcut a few years back . I have again published my own thoughts regarding bullying in the forces.
Bullying in the forces these days gets quite a bit of publicity and it is the wrong kind of publicity which the forces could do without. The bullies whether they are privates, NCOs or officers should be weeded out and discharged from the service. Young men and women don’t join the forces to be bullied. Military life in the early days of enlistment can be and is tough, because discipline is a key factor. Later in one’s military life, when decisions have to be made, it will all come to fruit what they have been taught and they will step forward and be counted.
What happened at Deepcut and shoved under the table in my opinion was a disgrace. When I read, of young men and women taking their own life in a chosen profession it makes my blood boil. Unbelievably most of these young recruits died of bullet wounds, while on guard duty. To you the reader does that sound right to you? Then the whitewash reads there was no bullying at Deepcut. One thing good that has no doubt come out of Deepcut since the tragedies, the non-identified bullies will have been weeded out. Hopefully for the sake of others that follow, a big lesson has been learned.
As you all know I was a national serviceman in the King’s Own Royal Border Regiment. During my two years’ service, I never saw or heard of any bullying in the regiment and that is the truth. A good rollicking is not bullying and everyone who has served in the forces has been on the end of a good rollicking. That is the name of the game it is all part and parcel of being later, an end product. Coming back, to have not seen or heard of any bullying in the King’s Own Royal Border Regiment. The regiment had loads of lads who had been amateur boxers. Most came from the Liverpool, Manchester, and areas of South Lancashire. Not one of those lads and some had been champion boxers was bullies and of course they would not stand for any bullying in their vicinity. You the reader will think that must have been a tough regiment, well yes it was, but it was channelled into the comradeship amongst their respective fellow soldiers. The icing on the cake was that the toughest men of the regiment came from the Egremont, Whitehaven area of Cumbria. They were very strong able men and it was a pleasure to be in their company. That is why I never saw any bullying in the regiment, because these men whether they were NCO’s or not, would not have allowed it.
It is a worrying time for parents when their children go off to join the forces. The last thing they want is for their child to be bullied. We all know it will go on, and it is up to the forces to choose wisely who they make into corporals. They must go into their backgrounds before giving out promotions. What the military don’t want is someone who has been bullied all his life, getting promotion and being the biggest bully of them all.
If there are any members of the forces who are reading this article and are being bullied. Do not keep it to yourself, go and see an officer who you know will listen to your plight and if he does not listen go higher. Why should you suffer, because of the ignorant loutish behaviour of an individual? Remember bullies do not like it when one turns on them, if that does not work get hold of a lad from Egremont!

Alan