Screaming in silence Facebook group

 I have created a Facebook Group  to promote my new book Screaming In Silence  but also to advocate the use of Poetry in the self help of PTSD (post Traumatic Stress Disorder ) Please comment and if you do buy the book please leave a review, you can join the group  Here  

Problems with comments on Facebook

Somebody posted some interesting photos of the Falklands from 82 on our Regimental Face book group. He made a comment about the terrible conditions those poor Argentinian lads had to live in. He was with our sister battery that took over from us after the War. I made a jokey comment saying “It wasn't too cushy for us lads either,” Someone else jumped in and escalated everything by casting doubts on how many aircraft we hit, saying maybe we should have taken photographs to prove our kills. Nowhere was anything said disrespectful towards our sister battery, I have no doubt that if hostilities has continued that they would have continued the air defence of the Falklands with utmost professionalism. I think this proves how things said on Face book can be taken the wrong way. If that soldier was recounting his time in the Falklands in a bar with me, and I said the same thing, with a smile on my face, we would have laughed and got the next round and continued the crack. I am used to other Regiments and know it all civilians attacking our Record in the War, but when it comes from someone in the same Regiment it is harder to take. While I am on a rant I might as well continue. Someone put a photograph on the 12 Regt group of my Rapier showing Mickey Quinn, who is no longer with us, on the anniversary of the attack on the Galahad. You can tell how many people had seen the image it was over 80. only one person commented. Now if someone puts a photograph of a big breakfast, there are dozens of comments. I was extremely saddened by this. I know some people in the Regiment don’t like me, but that is no excuse for not respecting one of our own. That is the difference between a Royal Artillery Battery like ours compared to say a Facebook group of the Parachute Regiment, where a photo of a fallen Para would rightly so have received hundreds of comments. The truth is the camaraderie and brotherhood is far stronger in the Para’s the Marines and other infantry Regiments. (Above is the photo of Mickey Quinn R.I.P. )Well that’s how I see things anyway. That gentleman concludes my thoughts for today.

Problems with Facebook.

Like millions of other people around the world, I have a Face book account, its worked fine for a couple of years. I have found old comrade from my Army days, interacted, posted photos, you know the drill. I also started a group for all Air Defenders called Cloudpunchers Worlwide. A few days ago it all seemed to go wrong, I could not upload images or even text messages, which as you can imagine if extremely frustrating. I tried many different things to fix it, I even thought it might be a problem with my own PC, but no the problem with Face book. The problem with face book is you cannot communicate with a human being, you can report things, but that’s about as far as it goes. I decided that the only way I could fix things was to start a brand new profile. This was a real pain in the arse, as I had to let all my friends know, plus I had to painstakingly transfer all my photos one by one. You would think in this day and age that there would be a platform for transferring all your images at once, like you can do on mobile phones. So anyway things are working again. If you’re an Air Defender please come and join my group. If the same problems do recur I will be parting company with Facebook.

CLOUDPUNCHERS WORLDWIDE UPDATE

Well is been a few months now since I started Cloudpunchers Worldwide. We now have around 500 members, some other Facebook groups are all bothered about the numbers they have, some military groups, I'm a member of have Tens of Thousands of members, but this in itself poses problems, with your usual spam and Walter Mitties (People pretending they have been in the military), then you have your usual Political and Religious garbage that just fuels discontent, plus the ever growing trend to have daily pornography. Its ok if your into that thing but I don’t believe it has any place on my group and that’s how its staying. I am confident that the vast majority in the group have a link with Air Defence. At the moment there is a very small membership from the US, as it’s a Worldwide group I would obviously like more International members. So if your reading this and have a link to Air Defence, you don’t have to have been an operator, you may have been Signals, Driver, Medic, Chef, or something else, whatever you are more than welcome, Remember Air Defenders do it at Altitude.  Join the group    HERE  

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL CLOUDPUNCHERS WORLDWIDE

 Cloudpunchers Wordwide  

CLOUDPUNCHERS WORLDWIDE

CLOUDPUNCHERS WORLDWIDE 

The Birth of Cloudpunchers worldwide Facebook Group

Like many ex servicemen as well as many millions of civilians I have a Facebook account. I am also a member of several military Facebook groups with people from all walks of life and many different branches of the Armed Forces. One other group I am a member with to keep in touch with friends I served with is the 12 Regiment Royal Artillery face book page. The group is run by several admins a few ex Senior NCOs and is watched over by the Commanding Officer of 12 Regiment.  I obviously can understand why you need Admins as you can always get a few bad apples falling through the net to cause trouble or post obscene , Racist and other objectionable material. Plus there is obviously the relatives of those soldiers that have sadly lost their lives fighting in recent conflicts around  the world, so we wouldn't want photographs of dead British soldiers as this would be obviously extremely upsetting to all concerned. The one great thing about the serviceman especially the British one is their sense of humour, to a civilian it can be seen as very close to the knuckle, we just have a way of ripping the piss out of each other as a way of letting off steam and keeping up moral, but most of us do know when to draw the line. I have noticed on other sites where there is a mixture of ex and serving military with civilians that the civilians just don’t get the humour and take it very seriously and spit the dummy out, or have a hair trigger when it comes to reporting certain images, to me if they find it offensive then don’t read it or look at it, or even state their objections, but don't go running to the Nannies at Facebook every five minutes.  Some perfectly decent honest and down to earth Facebook groups have been closed down for a ridiculous objections. Well to get to my story, I made one of those piss take Hitler videos on You Tube , I didn't post in on my Blog for a few reasons, one, it was piss take about members of an Air Defence Battery and Hitler being rejected for my old Battery T Battery so anyone who hasent been Air Defence wouldn't understand it and two it used swear words. Knowing the squaddy sense of humour I posted it on my old Regimental Facebook page 12 Regt RA. You can watch the video Here  After about 24 hours the video was removed by one of the Admins. I thought this was a shame as I new the vast majority of the soldiers it was meant for would find it hilarious, so after a few chops and name changes I have started a new Facebook group called CloudPunchers Worldwide   Obviously the bulk of this group is ex British army and particularly Air Defence Gunners, although there now is a Royal Navy presence, I would like a few more sailors and Marines and Air Force. As it is Cloudpunchers Worldwide the group is open Internationally, I welcome servicemen from all corners of the earth who would like to strike up new bonds with like minded people that have done a similar job with Air Defence. So if you’re an American, Canadian, Australian to name a few Countries please apply to join, love to hear from you and see photos of your Air Defence equipment. So “This is 32 Alpha Cloudpuncher Worldwide needs reinforcements Out”…

KEYBOARD WARRIORS

GUILTY AS CHARGED, JUST NEED TO SEW MY CHAIR PATCH ON MY COMBATS.

MILBABES

BE SECURITY AWARE ONLINE

LOOSE LIPS KILLS OUR SERVICEMEN

Be vigilant at all times on Facebook and other social network sites, the enemy are everywhere.

A message to David Cameron From British Veterans

If you agree with me that is not our mentally and physically disabled veterans fault that Britain has a huge deficit then please join my  FACEBOOK GROUP

Is it our veterans fault that Britain is broke?

If you agree with me that our veterans did not cause the huge deficit we have in this Country and should not have to undergo humiliating medicals who’s soul purpose is to save money and not help our injured Heroes, then you can help by joining my face book group HERE  Write to your MP your local and National paper and protect the very men and woman who were willing to lay down their lives for all of us. As a sufferer of PTSD myself I worry that some veterans will take their own lives, if you think I’m over reacting then remember more Falklands veterans have taken their own lives since the 1982 than the 255 that were killed in action. That’s not including the suicides from Northern Ireland, Iraq and now Afghanistan.