Save the Fighting Colonels

Decorated SAS commander is forced to quit after refusing to leave the frontline

The commander of the SAS has quit the Army after refusing to stop personally leading frontline operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.The 40-year-old lieutenant colonel, whose identity cannot be disclosed for security reasons, had been decorated for bravery in battles with Taliban fighters and Iraqi insurgents.

However Ministry of Defence superiors are believed to have told him he should be overseeing the unit from a more removed position and not going out on operations in combat zones.The officer, who had served for just over 12 months and was due to continue for another three years, has now left the Army after being relieved of command.

The Army is short of almost 900 officers and thousands of other ranks because of recruitment and retention problems.

Daily Mail UK

Of course he's left the bloody Army--along with countless others. Those who join to fight and who are good at it get ground down by the MOD culture of bureaucratic bullshit. This man is in the great tradition of "fighting colonels", much loved by their men and absolutely essential to the cohesion and pride in their unit that special forces soldiers rely on so much.But the drones at the MOD would have him filling out effing personnel evaluation reports and field munitions expenditure estimates yadayadayada as a condition of his further promotion.Bastards. No wonder he left, and the unit is very much the poorer for it.

-KG

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