Combat Barbie

    Katrina Hodge

Corporal, British Army

- and -

Miss England 2009

She signed up at age 17 after her older brother challenged her to join the army.

After basic training she reported for duty "wearing kitten heels, false eyelashes and with her clothes in a pink suitcase, earning her the nickname Combat Barbie."

 She rose to fame after it was reported in the British papers in 2005 that she had earned a commendation for her bravery while serving with the Royal Anglian Regiment in Iraq for wrestling two rifles from a prisoner following a road traffic accident and then flooring him with her bare hands - thus saving lives of her comrades. She was promoted to Lance Corporal.

Cpl. Hodge returned to active duty in the Army, September 2010 and deployed to Afghanistan in early 2011.

You Go, Girl! 

Un-Bloody-Believable: Dhimmitude

The Rt Rev Stephen Venner , the new bishop for the U.K.'s Armed Forces:

"The Taliban can be admired for their Faith and Loyalty."

He does not want the Afghan insurgents "portrayed too negatively".

The Rt Rev Stephen Venner called for a more sympathetic approach to the Islamic fundamentalists that recognises their humanity.

What the hell?
Admiring their faith and loyalty? Their humanity?
These people whose faith values death over life? Whose faith includes stoning women to death? Whose humanity uses women and children as shields?


What's negative about that?


I wonder if Rev Venner has spent any time in the field with the troops in Afghanistan. I bet the answer is no.

Perhaps he and Peter Davies, the mayor of Doncaster who claimed "British society could learn from Taliban family values", could be guests of the Taliban. Experience the life. Without protection from any troops.


Hat/Tip: to Stable Hand at  The Jawa Report
 who comments:

When I first saw the headline in my inbox, I thought ah, satire. Nope. How many times have we heard "if only if we will be more nice to the terrorists".......?

I guess throwing acid in young girls faces doesn't matter to the Bishop, we just have to be nicer .... aaaarrrggghhhh. Jawa has an archive full of Taliban shit. Or the beheading archives, plenty there from the sick bastages.

Fallen Hero: SSgt Olaf Schmid

Staff Sergeant Olaf 'Oz' Schmid, 30, a bomb disposal specialist who had defused more than 60 IEDs in Afghanistan, was KIA on his last day before two weeks of leave.

The U.K.Times OnLine

Requiescat in Pace, Soldier

Fallen Hero: Cpl. John Harrison

Cpl. John Harrison, 29, of the Parachute Regiment but serving with a Special Forces Unit, died in a pre-dawn raid on Sept. 9th to free Stephen Farrell, the British-born New York Times reporter. 

 It has since become known that Farrell had ignored security advice from Afghan police who told him not to travel in the area where he was captured, a known Taliban stronghold.  

Mr. Farrell's Afghan interpreter, Sultan Munadi, was also killed.

Requiescat in Pace, Soldier

Prince Harry, Playboy Soldier

ince Harry of England is visiting New York this weekend. 

  Ed Pilkington of the Guardian notes:

The scale of the PR challenge facing the 24-year-old prince, who has set foot in the US only once before, as a child, has been underlined by advance media coverage.

 The New York Daily News noted his "hard-partying ways", Time magazine highlighted his penchant for "long, alcohol-fueled nights" and the Associated Press reminded its subscribers of the apology he had to make for wearing a Nazi swastika at a fancy-dress party.

Mr. Pilkington neglected to mention soldier Prince Harry's combat tour in Afghanistan.  

UberPig's excellent response at BlackFive:

Playboy indeed. I think by going to Afghanistan, Prince Harry showed more character than his older brother, or his father, or his sainted mother, or the vast majority of young men from his highly privileged background. Ed Pilkington and the Guardian may think Harry has something left to prove, that Harry needs to establish his estrogen credentials, that Harry needs to start playing ball. Don't rock the boat, Harry. Don't make the rest of your class look bad. Don't make Ed Pilkington's class, which washes the balls of your privileged class, look bad. Get back to the business of being a Prince and acting like your mother and doing charity work and playing polo and driving bio-diesel fueled cars like your father because that makes the Guardian's liberal readers feel all warm inside and less guilty that they aren't making the same kinds of personal sacrifices their service members make in Afghanistan and Iraq every day.

Un-Bloody-Believable: Company Policy

From the TimesOnLine: Soldier Forced to Sleep in Car

A 24-year old soldier and veteran of tours in Iraq and Afghanistan was refused a hotel room at the Metro Hotel, Woking, Surrey, England, after he traveled to Surrey to assist with the funeral of a friend KIA.

Corporal Tomos Stringer of 13 Air Assault Support Regiment, The Royal Logistic Corps, was told that "it was company policy not to accept members of the Armed Forces."

"The corporal, who was not in uniform, presented his warrant card when asked by the hotel for proof of identity. After being refused a room, he had to bed down in his car, with his wrist, broken during a convoy ambush, encased in plaster."

The hotel issued a belated apology after angry calls flooded its phone lines and after Corporal Stringer’s MP, Hywel Williams, Derek Twigg, the Defence Minister, and Bob Ainsworth, the Armed Forces Minister, wrote to the hotel.

“The Metro Hotel, Woking, sincerely regrets any upset caused towards Corporal Stringer and his family . . . The hotel management has always had an open-door policy to all its visitors and guests, including members of the military and Armed Forces.”

Oh, and "the receptionist made a mistake".

"Corporal Stringer, of 13 Air Assault Support Regiment, The Royal Logistic Corps, has returned to Afghanistan. His mother, Gaynor Stringer, from Criccieth, North Wales, told The Times: “I’m very, very angry. It’s discrimination. They would never get away with it if it was against someone of ethnic origin.”

I wonder what the 'ethnicity' of the hotel management might be.

Un-Bloody-Believable: Merry Christmas, Troops

Via The London Daily Mail:

Afghan heroes home for Christmas forced to change out of uniforms on freezing runway before using airport terminal ...

The Lowlights:

Scores of soldiers flying home from Afghanistan on Christmas leave were ordered to change out of their uniforms - which they had worn while risking their lives during months of intense fighting against the Taliban - before being allowed into a civilian airport terminal.

The December 23 flight, carrying 200 personnel, had been diverted from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire to Birmingham because of bad weather.

The troops were told they could either wait for buses to take them back to Brize Norton or else travel home via public transport - in which case they must change into civilian clothes before entering the terminal.

Around 50 chose the latter option and, because there was no room in the cabin, most changed outside in the freezing air.

Last night the airport authorities denied responsibility, saying: "We support our Armed Forces and whatever form of dress they choose to wear at our airport."

The MoD eventually confirmed it has a ban on troops wearing uniforms in civilian airports, claiming it was because of ... security reasons.

Un-Bloody-Believable

What is the cost of a swim these days?

Apparently a couple of women in Headley Court, Surrey, England don't think an arm or leg is enough.

Injured soldiers

Those idiot women should be named and shamed in the paper, on the telly, on billboards, on posters on the tube, and wherever else.

"A proper response to this self-centered woman would have been that although she may have paid in the coin of the realm for a single visit to this public swimming pool these patriots had paid for a lifetime pass to that facility with their blood and missing limbs." - trinitytim

"And the same should be done here for every single one of those traitorous types you see protesting in the streets of America, spitting on troops, sitting in front of trucks, dropping babies on their heads etc." - RetFireman

UnBloody Believable: A Broken Covenant

Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson, 23 year-old British paratrooper, who proudly volunteered to serve his country, was grievously wounded in September, 2006, on the front lines in Afghanistan.

He suffered a total of 37 terrible injuries when he was blown up by a land mine, losing both legs and sustaining damage to his spine, skull, pelvis, hands, spleen and ribcage, and was in a coma for 3 months, during which he contracted MRSA.

After gradually regaining consciousness he could not speak and remembered nothing of the past three years.

Today he is making progress but with no legs, a badly disabled left arm and a severely damaged spine.
He is struggling to learn to speak again and cannot take in liquids by mouth.

Ben is expected to spend a year or more in a military rehabilitation center, but will then need a specially-adapted home and specialized daily care.

He has been told that red tape surrounding the Government's compensation scheme means only three of his injuries can be taken into account. The rest count for nothing.

As compensation for his ruined life, Ben has been offered only £152,150 - little more than half the maximum award for maimed military personnel and less than a third of the £484,000 doled out to an RAF typist who claimed she had suffered repetitive strain injury to her thumb.

In addition to his lump sum, Ben will receive a pension of around £19,000 a year. But his family believe a far bigger award is crucial to enable him to rebuild a life with some dignity.

In a civil claim involving similar injuries, an individual could expect compensation of upwards of a million pounds.

Ben's mother, Mrs. Diane Dernie, has been told that Ben's case does not qualify for legal aid.

Mrs. Dernie has shunned publicity but she is so angry at the treatment of her son that she has decided to spearhead the campaign to raise £50,000 to fund the first High Court challenge against the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, arguing that its rules are patently unfair in the most severe cases.

A successful judicial review would ensure that several other soldiers maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan will receive financial security.

Ben's case exemplifies the mounting concern about the Government's treatment of the Armed Forces.

Opposition MPs, veterans' organizations and even some commanders are arguing that the military covenant - which guarantees personnel fair treatment in return for risking their lives - is being broken.

The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme was set up in 2005 to cover payments to men and women injured on duty.

Losing all four limbs is a Category 1 injury, earning a £285,000 lump sum. But having both legs amputated is in Category 3, worth only £115,000.

His brain injury is also in Category 3, but for his second injury he receives only 30 per cent of the maximum - an additional £34,500.

Finally he receives a paltry £2,650 for severe fractures which rendered his left arm almost useless.

None of his other injuries is worth a penny.

And if that doesn't make you mad enough, check this out:

• an RAF typist who injured her thumb at work was awarded £484,000 after suing the Ministry of Defence. The woman developed a repetitive strain injury while typing computer data and claimed it left her unable to work and caused her to become depressed.

• a Fraudster who never held down a job receives £248,000 after claiming he fell over in the shower at Wayland Prison, Norfolk. He claimed the injury left his legs numb and made him impotent. He later fathered a daughter.

• a Teacher won £330,000 from Birmingham City Council for her "trauma" after an intruder enters her classroom but does not physically harm her.

• a Prisoner who tried to kill himself at Northallerton Young Offenders' Institution in North Yorkshire was awarded £575,000 from the Prison Service - even though his life was saved by prison officers.

• A total of £750,000 was paid to 197 heroin addicts who claimed that the "cold turkey" withdrawal treatment they were forced to go through amounted to "torture".

Do a sore thumb, a fake fall, a dubious trauma, a failed suicide, supposed 'torture' = what this brave young man has suffered?

I think not.

I hope the MoD get off their collective arses and do right by Ben.