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Get ready to go to Afghan front line, Army tells sacked officers
An officer speaking on behalf of the sacked men said: "With the pensions issue and now this you can imagine their thoughts after 15 years loyal service where they've regularly risked their lives." Two highly experienced company commanders from the 2nd Bn The Yorkshire Regiment have been made compulsorily redundant despite their battalion being at 48 hours readiness to deploy to Afghanistan. The officers will be sent to the front line in the knowledge that they "will not know where next month's income is coming from," colleagues have said. The men are part of the Theatre Reserve Battalion based in Cyprus that is trained to fight in Afghanistan at a moment's notice. Every battalion that has been the TRB has deployed elements on every tour since the Helmand campaign began in 2006. But their compulsory redundancy appears to flout the pledge made by defence chiefs and politicians that "no one who is currently preparing to join operations, already deployed on operations or in recovery from operations will be made redundant". The officers have also suffered the financial blow, first disclosed by The Daily Telegraph earlier this week that means they will lose out on a pension worth up £300,000 by being sacked just months short of their 16 year qualifying period. Soldiers also now face having to wait an extra five years to get a pension with plans to move the immediate pensionable age to 45. Posted by: 2012-06-23 |
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