Marking the passing of those who have served this country. Contributions from comrades, friends and family welcome

History doesn't repeat itself but it sure does rhyme.' -Mark Twain

The British Army has recently launched a recruitment campaign aimed primarily at attracting new personnel into the Army Reserves. Designed to highlight the many roles that Reservists can play in uniform and opportunities for both professional and personal development, the 'Normal Days' campaign is the latest in a series of military recruitment drives. Over the last two years, the Army has launched several such high profile campaigns, writes Meghan Fitzpatrick. The current advertising blitz has cost roughly £7 million. The efforts have gone largely unrewarded. According to recruitment figures, 'last year the Army only managed to increase the total strength of the reserves by 20—it was also more than 3,000 soldiers short of its recruitment goal for full time soldiers.'

Lance Corporal Joshua Leakey, 27, of the Parachute Regiment, who has been awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the presence of the enemy. He is only the 15th winner since World War II.

On the 22 August 2013, Lance Corporal Leakey, deployed on a combined UK/US assault led by the United States Marine Corp into a Taliban stronghold to disrupt a key insurgent group.

On leaving their helicopters, the force came under machine gun and rocket propelled grenade fire, pinning down the command group on the exposed forward slope of a hill. For an hour the team attempted to extract from the killing zone; a Marine Corp Captain was shot and wounded and their communications were put out of action.

Lance Corporal Leakey said: "When you hear there's a man down, the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. Clearly then your plans change."

139 members of the armed forces and 1 civilian have been named in the latest Operational Honours and Awards List, which recognises service on operations in Afghanistan and national operations for the period October 2013 to June 2014. This distinguished group is led by :

AFGHANISTAN
Victoria Cross
Lance Corporal Joshua LEAKEY, The Parachute Regiment

The citation for this highest award for gallantry is in the next post, and the other 138 awards are listed on the next page.

James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence of the United States, has said that he personally was in favour of sending lethal military aid to Ukraine, despite the intelligence community assessment that arming Ukraine would provoke Russia.

The hearing was part of the U.S. Senate Committee of Armed Services annual review of "Worldwide Threats" and its findings will further inform the U.S. defence authorization plans. However, it will take a decision by the White House for lethal aid shipments to start.

So what is going through President Barack Obama's head as he ponders such decisions, under increasing pressure from the likes of Senator John McCain, who chairs the Armed Services Committee and strongly supports arming Ukraine, and now the testimony of his most senior intelligence official, asks Adam Nathan?

Nick Watts, Deputy Director General of the U K Defence Forum recently sat down with General Sir Richard Shirreff lately Deputy Supreme Commander Europe, the senior British commander in NATO's military structure. The NATO biennial Summit in Wales in September 2014, was concerned with the subject of how best to respond to Russian actions in Ukraine and what this might mean for the way the Alliance protects its Member States who are adjacent to Russia in the Baltic.

"On the face of it, the summit said what needed to be said." By which Shirreff means a clear and coherent message from NATO; a strong position in the face of Russian aggression in Eastern Europe. This includes measures such as the formation of a Very High Readiness Joint Task Force. But he wonders about the substance. "One area where it was not was the promise that within 10 years nations should aspire to be spending 2% on defence. That is a ten year rule which doesn't pass any hollow laughter test. The test will be the development of the Joint Deployment Force. The real nitty-gritty of readiness, sustainability, equipment and training. As an ex- NATO force generator, I would be pretty suspicious of whether the nations will sign up for that or not."