Chip Chapman

@GuyMartyr @2PARA_HQ Indeed Guy. A very likeable man

@NotesFASMil @2PARA_HQ Remembered with much affection.

Saddened to inform of the death of Lt Alex Ward @2PARA_HQ class of 82 He is shown here poking his head to the left of the bride at a v hastily arranged pre-war wedding. RIP Alex.

@IanKirkwood20 @2PARA_HQ @TheParachuteReg "Hello 2 this is 23, for f*** sake beam me up, out!" Hope we see you on the 45th!

@NotesFASMil @2PARA_HQ @TheParachuteReg Hey chip i remember the amount of times you had to pick me up after falling over,you were sound.

44 years ago - @2PARA_HQ landed at night on the Falklands to move to Sussex Mountain to ‘hold’ that feature prior to a breakout. A very physically demanding night made worse by constant taking of cover due to ‘air raid warning RED’ messages. @TheParachuteReg

@Doorbundle @TheParachuteReg @2PARA_HQ No, but no one would read 9 on x!

@NotesFASMil @TheParachuteReg @2PARA_HQ Are the the other pages of the Op Order still "Classified"?

@TheParachuteReg @2PARA_HQ 14 May 82 - the original 2 PARA Op order for the Falklands landings (Op SUTTON). Due to OPSEC, they would not be breifed downwards for quite a few days. (from the National Archives, p1 and 9 only shown)

Another new PM this year would put the ‘turnover rate’ as the highest since William IV (1830-37). He had Grey, Melbourne, Wellington and Peel - all still well known for one reason or another. Anyone for tea, a trip to New South Wales, Waterloo or to a police station?

Still the only PM since Churchill to have been in office during the reign of 2 monarchs... 😂😂

There was a time when politicians had.... (from a menu at a dinner night some years ago - can't vouch for the truth of the saying...)

@BriW74 Italy must be up to 2 football teams…

@NotesFASMil We have somehow become 1980s/90s Italy.

There are more former PMs alive than at any time in British history. Can you imagine wheeling them all out at every Remembrance, Royal wedding or coronation? One more towards the football team this week?

@Henry59lewis You'll need to hsve been on the 'start line' at Goose Green for the full set!

@NotesFASMil What about the few of us that have done both 🤔😜🤣🤣🤣

In 20 years time, there will be more people who jumped into Tristan da Cunha than were on the balcony! Well done to everyone

General Mattis as CENTCOM Commander sagely said ref Iran that “we need both bookends of war. How a war ends is more important that how it starts”. And that’s the problem that the strategy bridge between pol intent and military power has yet to resolve.

Free speech is a ‘means’ not an ‘end’: for creating a knowledgable public and healthy, rational and informed debate.

Even ECHR applies conditions, restrictions or penalties as are necessary in the interests of national security, public safety or the prevention of disorder or crime.

There is no such thing as absolute free speech - and neither should there be. Even in the US, despite the First Amendment, it can be caveated by the “clear and present danger” test

ANZAC Day "He is all of them, and he is one of us"

Hands off, Donald... What we have, we hold. Goose Green, Falklands Islands, May 1982.

Tolstoy tells us that the 2 greatest warriors are ‘time’ and ‘patience’. So, whose clock are we currently on in Iran? And can 'OP ECONOMIC FURY' really work?

There are 2 parts to war: a mechanistic part which may be learnt & the understanding of it- which is far harder Why was Assad able to survive? 1. External military intervention (not mere econ support) 2. The regime maintained a core of loyalist force 3. Opposition fragmentation.

When the Arab Spring commenced, & the revolt against Assad in Syria accelerated, every mechanistic metric foretold the collapse of the Assad regime - GDP contracted by 53% between 2011 and 2015 mainly due to loss of major industrial centres, oil production collapse & sanctions.