Bootnecks in Helmand

Royal Marines from Lima Company, 42 Commando Royal Marines Group wait for orders to proceed during operations in the Helmand province of Southern Afghanistan to bring security to the surrounding areas.

Picture: Sgt James Elmer ABIPP RLC

I had to shake my head when I saw this photograph. I sincerely hope it is on the wall of the PW Office at Lympstone with an enormous question mark. For the none soldiers amongst you, all I will say is that whoever the NCO is, had I been there, he would have been putting his stripes into a bin.
It's bad enough that the MoD send these magnificent young men into action with one of the worst infantry weapons on sale, weighed down with so much armour that fire and movement is impossible and unsustainable, fighting without the close support last seen at Arnhem with it's dour consequence, but to be grouped like the Americans????

All I will add is that I hope the tilled ground is soft.