Repatriations

[ducati]

Whilst on another thread we are talking about raising money to restore the statue to a long dead soldier,
I was saddened to watch a programme on the BBC News channel last night talking about the return of repatriation flights to Bryse Norton. The work on the infrastructure there, to support the families of the fallen, suggests to me that many more of these repatriation flights are expected.

[tonkatojo]

Not sure about "Bryse Norton" but Brize Norton is just about finished and ready for the worst.

[orkneycadian]

I guess if we are going to be sending armed forces to their deaths in any country in the world that fancies a bit of an uprising, civil war or just plain old civil disobediance, then we are going to need a repatriation production line.... :(

RAF Lyneham is closing, yet we are establishing operational bases in world hot spots. :confused

It looks like the way world politics are going, the bases need to be in the UK for defence - Not in some far flung part of the world for "peacekeeping" or "humanitarian" reasons....

[pat]

Certainly do not like what the governement are planning for the repatriations at RAF Brize Norton - shoving them out 'The Back Gate', not the front gate and to go through the village of Carterton, which has a very high percentage of ex/service personnel.
Having lived in this village and know the gate they are proposing to use as the exit for repatriations I feel this is a trying to hide the amount of folk being killed in Afghan and to stop the folk paying their respects as they have been doing in Wootton Bassett.
If there is no paying of respects as in Wootton Bassett people will not notice how many are being quietly slipped through those little gates onto the road and straight to Oxford Coroner, the governement can then manipulate the figures as they want or ignore it totally.
Their is I believe somebody of people trying to put pressure on to allow the repatriations to exit the main gate at RAF Brize Norton and through the village of Carterton where I imagine they will try to hold a similar paying of respect as they have been doing at Wootton Bassett.
Carterton is a mainly service area and will be prepared to allow people to pay their respects