Hollow Words

"I wouldn't dream of disagreeing with Her Majesty's Coroner, but the facts are..."

Those are the hollow words of the Commander of Joint Helicopter Command, Rear Admiral Tony Johnstone-Burt  in an interview with the BBC today responding to the coroner Andrew Walker's narrative verdict on the death of Cpl Mark Wright in Afghanistan in September 2006.

In the verdict on the incident, in which Mark Wright lost his life and six other soldiers lost limbs, the coroner said:

That a brave soldier is lost in battle is always a matter of deep sadness but when that life is lost where it need not have been because of a lack of equipment and assets those responsible should hang their heads in shame

He listed eight major failures that contributed to the death of the soldier, including the fact that it was the downwash of the Chinook helicopter sent in to rescue the troops that set off the land mines.  His other findings on the causes or contributing factors were:

• There was a lack of appropriate UK helicopters in Afghanistan fitted with a winch
  
• There were administrative delays in sending an appropriate helicopter
• There was a failure not to ensure that there were sufficient batteries and radio battery charges at the observation posts and this serious failure reduced the ability to communicate by radio.
• There was  failure not to provide meaningful information to soldiers stationed at these observation posts about the threat of mines in the areas where they were to operate
• There were failures in the teaching methods used... that resulted in the soldiers, who operated at these forward observation posts, not appreciating that the traditional training to locate and mark mines, as part of clearing a path out of a mined area, were unsuitable for the terrain at Kajaki and that training failed to take account of the technology that was available to better address the detection of mines
• There was a serious failure to make an assessment of the threat from mines at Kajaki or to take account of local knowledge of the threat from mines
• here was a serious failure on the part of those responsible for briefing the Chinook helicopter command without making reference to a mine map that indicated the presence of an area known to be mined and the pilot unknowingly planned to land his aircraft in this area
• There was a serious failure to meet the NATO doctrine to provide, within one hour, advanced resuscitation measures
• There was an individual failure in that the officer responsible for passing updated information about the mine threat did not understand the information set out in the maps he had been provided with and therefore he was unable to interpret these maps

Yet despite these comprehensive findings, arrived after taking comprehensive evidence from all those involved, Rear Admiral Tony Johnstone-Burt appears on the BBC claiming there was no fault on behalf of the MOD.  He uses spin to deride the coroner's report and hides behind suggesting that this is a time for honouring the bravery a of Mark Wright and the other soldiers not for recriminations.

As an example, when asked specifically about the fact that it was the backwash form the Chinook helicopter that set off the land mines he states:

That not true at all... the facts are that the Chinook did go into the area and landed well clear, at least 40 to 50 metres away

But the coroner didn't make any claim suggesting that it was where the helicopter landed that set off the land mines.  It was the backdraft caused by hovering over the area that was to blame.

It is high time that the MoD showed far more respect in public to those who have laid down their lives for this country and accept that issues with regard to funding, equipment and training have caused and are still causing the deaths of British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.  There has been much discussion about the 'covenant' between the Government and the Armed Forces and whether it has been broken in recent years.  Part of ensuring the covenant works is to admit openly when there have been failures and to do everything possible to correct them. There must be no more hollow words...