is this morally wrong?

[m.durston]

my g/f's brother has just been medically discharged from the army for a non freezing cold injury to his feet! basically he was on his final exercise down in wales and he stupidly ignored the advice of the corporals and didnt take care of his feet.
this resulted in him having cold and wet feet for the entire week in temperatures that were at freezing point.
he came home on thursday and he delighted in telling his mum that he is going to be on full pay for the next 6 months and he is going to sue the army for compensation.

is it me or is this morally wrong for him to sue and get compensation?
my argument is that he should have listened to the corporals and taken care of his feet and more importantly why should he get compensation for something that didnt occur on deployment and didnt result in him being disabled for the rest of his days.
i think if he sues and wins it will be a kick in the b*ll*cks for the servicemen and women that get maimed and get a pitifully small sum of money in return for their sacrifice.

any thoughts and opinions will be appreciated.

 

[John Fenna]

Short answer - yes!
Self inflicted wound - the Army should sue him for wasting their time and money in training him!
This "sue them" mind set is the worst thing that we ever imported from the USA....

 

[korvin karbon]

******, nothing else to say.

 

[sapper1]

He didn't listen to more experienced instructors and failed to look after himself properly.When I was serving he would have been charged with a self inflicted injury and had a visit to colchester.He should consider himself lucky and just get himself to a job where he has "constant supervision".

 

[welshwhit]

I was under the impression that the army suspended folk for self imposed ailments like heat stroke etc, especially if he's been given advice and chosen not to follow it!

Drew

 

[swyn]

I think that when the truth comes out he will look a complete fool.

In a couple of years or so when he has to put something positive on his CV any sensible job offer will slide sideways away from him as he clearly stands out as 'unsuitable'

The services usually manage to weed out the less suitable and this will possibly take a little longer. Why didn't his 'mates' offer any support, something missing there.

 

[TJRoots]

i think that just giving him 6 months full pay is very generous of the army and it shows compassion on their part, it was obviously his own fault and he knew the risks when he joined, they dont have to give him squat. for him to then go and sue them after they have treated him well in regards to this incident isnt just morally wrong, its bloomin ungrateful!
if he does go ahead and sue them there's very little chance of him winning the case seeing as it was his own fault and the army upheld their obligations by teaching him what he was supposed to do.
chances are it wont ever go to court, alot people decide to sue for allsorts of things but when it comes down to it, they usually get cold feet ...i'll be off now

TJ

 

[tobes01]

What a berk. I'm with Swyn on this, I'll bet the reason he didn't take care of his feet was because he was struggling in other areas.

Nearly 20 years ago I fell out of Sandhurst after two attempts because of cruciate & cartilage injuries to both knees. Nothing serious enough to cause me problems in life, but I couldn't get through a BFT, play sports etc. I applied for a war pension because the NHS wouldn't do anything about it, and got the problems fixed up in a military hospital. That was the right thing to do - but I'm still embarrassed about the £1,000 payout they gave me when I see how the MoD is treating lads now.

With a bit of luck any attempt he makes to sue will fall over, I'll bet the "no win no fee" vermin who advertise on daytime TV won't touch one like this...

 

[BOD]

What is important is that someone like him is out of the army and never in action nor should frontline units ever be dependent on support from the likes of him.

Shirkers and slackers need to be got rid off

 

[Draven]

Short answer - yes!
Self inflicted wound - the Army should sue him for wasting their time and money in training him!
This "sue them" mind set is the worst thing that we ever imported from the USA....

What is important is that someone like him is out of the army and never in action nor should frontline units ever be dependent on support from the likes of him.

Shirkers and slackers need to be got rid off

Couldn't agree more.

Of course it's wrong, he failed to follow advice that should have been common sense and got injured. Personally, if I was his CO I'd have given him a helluva lot more to worry about than chilly feet, especially with talk about suing.

As you say, it's a kick in the teeth to servicemen and women who are injured or give their lives in service of their country. I really can't express on a family forum exactly what I think of him, but were I on a daytime TV chat show, it would take the form of a four minute long beep. It's disgraceful.

 

[m.durston]

at least i'm not the only one who sees this as wrong lol
right more information has come out, apparently he was advised to sue by the people down at larkhill!!!
i have yet to talk to him but this isnt the first i have had to step in.
he was phoning up his mum with only 2 weeks to go and crying to her down the phone that he wanted to leave because he was finding basic training hard.
i was in the room at the time and she handed the phone to me and asked me to talk some sense into him.
i basically told him to 'man up' and asked him what he would rather do, be in the army blowing stuff up as an AS90 gunner or be a trolley wally down at tescos!
he agreed the army was the better choice and i passed the phone back to his mum.

he has always been lazy as this is the example he had picked up from his father and we all thought the army would instill some sense of discipline and give him the direction that he sorely needed.
now he is out i can see him doing nothing with his time and when his 6 months pay is up he will go back to getting up at midday and doing dog walking for money.

 

[He' s left the building]

my g/f's brother has just been medically discharged from the army for a non freezing cold injury to his feet! basically he was on his final exercise down in wales and he stupidly ignored the advice of the corporals and didnt take care of his feet.
this resulted in him having cold and wet feet for the entire week in temperatures that were at freezing point.

I'm somewhat surprised (and slightly appalled) by the widespread condemnation of this trainee soldier.

Nobody has yet asked about the exact circumstances of his injury.

One very important question that needs to be answered is what type of boot was this man supplied with and was this footwear choice appropriate to the conditions? Were the soldiers permitted to choose their own boots according to the prevailing conditions or is it a case of one-size-fits-all and wear what you are given?

If soldiers are expected to train (and ultimately fight) in extremes of climate, be that extreme cold or extreme heat, then they deserve at the very least to be adequately equipped and prepared.

 

[sapper1]

leave it out Boops.the army have always supplied adequate kit for trainees.If they didn't then no-one would pass out.Perhaps you should join up and see how it really is.Don't forget it was the british army(led by politicians) that won every war we've been in.The british army relies on soldiers that can think for themselves and adapt to any and all conditions.If you can't adapt and improvise and carry on when you feel like quitting ,then you are no use to the army.

 

[He' s left the building]

leave it out Boops.the army have always supplied adequate kit for trainees.If they didn't then no-one would pass out.Perhaps you should join up and see how it really is.Don't forget it was the british army(led by politicians) that won every war we've been in.The british army relies on soldiers that can think for themselves and adapt to any and all conditions.If you can't adapt and improvise and carry on when you feel like quitting ,then you are no use to the army.

Are you being serious there or have I missed the irony? We are talking about an organisation that deployed paratroopers to sub-Saharan Africa (Sierra Leone, May/June 2000) without anti-malarials and then expressed surprise when thirty of these elite fighting troops developed malaria and asked for compensation.

How can a soldier improvise adequate boots, clothing, armour, etc?

I don't want to start an argument but there are several people here who are commenting on a situation we know very little about.

My questions regarding the type of boots issued are very relevant.

If you have greater insight than others why don't you tell us how 'it really is'.

If issued gear is so great then why do we constantly read reports about soldiers having to buy their own boots, sleeping bags, etc.

I'm not anti-forces, far from it.

 

[m.durston]

boops i know the exact circumstances of the injury because he was phoning his mum on exercise and complaining to here that his feet were wet and and cold.
when i got on the phone to him he said he hadnt changed his socks in something like 3 days because he didnt have time!
i replied that was b*ll*cks, if he had time to heat up his food he had time to change socks and dry his feet.
his injury was down to pure laziness nothing else.

 

[sapper1]

People like this guy are always moaning about something,if it's in the papers it must be true.
How many complaints have there actually been?Would papers sell if they had a headline as follows.

BRITISH TROOPS HAPPY WITH ISSUED KIT.

BRITISH TROOPS HAPPY TO GO ABROAD AND FIGHT LIKE THEY HAVE TRAINED TO DO.
You have fallen into the trap of believeing everything the telly and papers tell you.I have served in one of the most poorly equiped sections of the army and found the kit to be adequate.

 

[locum76]

If they army have this 'self inflicted injury' rule, and they haven't applied the consequences to this case, perhaps the matter is more complicated.

They have given him 6 months leave, implying some fault on his superiors part. Are you sure that you have all the facts?

 

[He' s left the building]

boops i know the exact circumstances of the injury because he was phoning his mum on exercise and complaining to here that his feet were wet and and cold.
when i got on the phone to him he said he hadnt changed his socks in something like 3 days because he didnt have time!
i replied that was b*ll*cks, if he had time to heat up his food he had time to change socks and dry his feet.
his injury was down to pure laziness nothing else.

If you're absolutely sure then we will have take your word for that, but how can you be so sure what happened if you weren't there?

Some very interesting reading here which suggests a fairly widespread problem: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8101291.stm

I hope nobody thinks I'm baiting people here by thinking differently to others, I have genuine (expedition medical background) interest in climatic injuries and it would appear at first glance that this is an emerging issue for our forces (in which I also have an interest as a UK tax payer in addition to my personal opinion that we as a nation owe a decent standard of care to our servicemen and women)

 

[m.durston]

that article is very interesting but he definitely hasnt got it as bad as that fella from nigeria. i could understand it about black soldiers from commonwealth countries suffering from the cold as i used to work in a big freezer with guys from zimbabwe and the poor sods took ages to acclimatise to the conditions.

i think the MoD has a case to answer for some soldiers but not all. he was told that his feet would take 6 months to heal properly ie warm up properly after being cold and that he was being medically discharged as a result. this is the reason he has 6 months on full pay but i still think if he had heeded the advice of his instructors he wouldnt have got himself into this pickle.

 

[locum76]

fair enough dude. I haven't been in the army so I don't know how it works. It was just the first question that occurred to me.

If your boy is taking the mick then I would agree it is a bit out of order for him to do this.