Friday, July 3, 2009

Another Reason to Love the British Army

I totally want to defect to the British Army and become the chaplain of the 101st Logistic Brigade. OK, that may not sound as sexy as the Brigade of Guards or the Highland Brigade, but the 101st Log Bde is also known as the Blackadder Brigade, after the character that Rowan Atkinson made famous (and no, pratt in the back, I'm not referring to Mister Bean).

Today I came across a post on the UK Ministry of Defence website announcing that the 101st Log Bde is celebrating it's tenth birthday, and this part of the story got my attention.

101 Logistic Brigade, which wears the Blackadder tactical recognition flash after the famous television series, was formed in 1999 from what was the Combat Service Support Group (CSSG).

The CSSG was the successor to the Force Maintenance Area (FMA), which was already using the Blackadder flash following its formation in 1990 in the deserts of Saudi Arabia.

The then commander of the FMA, Brigadier Martin White, recognised the need for a sense of identity and found inspiration in a letter from his daughter in which she quipped 'I hope you have a cunning plan'. And so it was not long before the transit camps in the port of Al Jubail were named after characters from the programme: Baldrick Lines, Blackadder Camp, Meltchett Lines and Camp Bob.


It doesn't get any better than that - it actually, it does, when you see the Brigade's shoulder flash is a blackadder:




You can buy one here.

As General Melchett would say, "Baaaahhhhh!".

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Mad Padre

Mad Padre
Opinions expressed within are in no way the responsibility of anyone's employers or facilitating agencies and should by rights be taken as nothing more than one person's notional musings, attempted witticisms, and prayerful posturings.

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