SNIPER ONE – the book you need to read

I’ve just had the pleasure of finishing SNIPER ONE, a new book detailing a British sniper’s tour of duty in Iraq, 2004. Here’s my review:

Blurb

 

April 2004: Sgt Dan Mills and his platoon of snipers fly into southern Iraq, part of an infantry battalion sent to win hearts and minds. They were soon fighting for their lives.

 

Back home we were told they were peacekeeping. But there was no peace to keep. Because within days of arriving in theatre, Mills and his men were caught up in the longest, most sustained firefight British troops had faced for over fifty years.

 

This awe-inspiring account tells of total war in throat-burning winds and fifty-degree heat, blasted by mortars and surrounded by heavily armed militias. For six months, they fought alone: isolated, besieged and under constant enemy fire. Their heroic stand a modern-day Rorke’s Drift.

 

Review

 

I was and still am a massive fan of the two ‘90s behind-enemy-lines-in-Iraq classics, Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab and The One That Got Away by Chris Ryan. So when I heard Sniper One, a new non-fiction account of British soldiers fighting in Iraq, mentioned in the same breath as Bravo Two Zero I knew I had to get my hands on it.

 

I’m glad I did.

 

This is exciting, even exhilarating reading material, a top-class book that works because it’s got such fantastic drive to it. There’s no waffle here, no philosophising or background information, just a simple, straightforward narrative from the point of view of a sergeant in sniper platoon who finds himself stationed in a town occupied by hostile forces. The blurb compares what happens to Rorke’s Drift – the infamous story of British soldiers battling overwhelming numbers of Zulus in the 19^th century – and they’re not far wrong. Action-packed and adrenaline-pumping throughout, this is a riveting read because it’s down to earth and matter of fact. Dan Mills tells it how it is.

 

I’m not surprised that attempts were made to ‘ban’ this book; I imagine few members of the Great British Public have any kind of idea that this is how things are in a war zone. Our troops are holed up in a concrete building and in the coming weeks they find themselves defending it from repeated mortar attack, as well as rocket propelled grenades, roadside bombs and hundreds of machine-gun wielding enemies. There’s a Boy’s Own adventure style aspect to it which doesn’t hurt at all, and is inevitable considering all the action going on. But what hooked me is that there’s no swaggering accounts of heroism or unwanted posturing; these are just guys doing their job as best they can. I also liked the fact that Mills isn’t afraid to write the truth – yes, it does feel mighty good when you take out a guy who just blew up one of your men.

 

Sniper One is a modern-day classic, and I truly mean that. Expertly paced, full of gritty realism and a surprising amount of humour amid the chaos, this is how accounts of warfare should be: written by the guys on the front line who tell it how it is. An eye-opening delight.

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Hollywood SFX giant Stan Winston dies at 62

Within days of losing another Hollywood great – actress and dancer Cyd Charisse – I was saddened to read of the passing of Stan Winston, a true Hollywood legend that very few people would have recognised in the flesh. That’s because this genius worked behind-the-scenes as a special effects technician, bringing to life numerous creations and in the process helping create some of the very best films of all time. As a child of the ’80s, I grew up with this man’s work and believe he was second only to Ray Harryhausen as one of the great pioneers of our time.

A technician whose speciality lay in good old animatronics and makeup work – as opposed to the bland modern-day CGI stuff they come up with in Hollywood – some of Winston’s achievements include:

The Terminator (1984): A film I saw as a kid that gave me nightmares. Arnold Schwarzenegger was perfect as the robotic villain, and Winston’s effects – including a full-size stop-motion marauding robot at the film’s climax – are breathtaking. He followed this up with more amazing work in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).

Predator (1987) and its sequel: Another fantastic movie villain, this time the ultimate hunter-killer. More nightmarish scenes of this creature hunting human prey in the jungle and city.

Aliens (1986) : on a surprisingly low budget, Winston helped to create more rubber-suited bad guys that’ll give you sleepless nights. The shot of the aliens crawling through the roof space is one of my all-time favourite moments in film.

Jurassic Park (1993) : A film I saw in the cinema as a 12-year-old and the experience has always stayed with me. Who else but Winston could have brought all these terrifying, HUGE dinosaurs to the screen with such realism? Okay, so the film itself was bogged down with Spielberg’s sentimentality, but there’s no faulting the special effects in this one.

There are numerous other films, too many to note, and in not one of them has the special effects work let me down. Stan Winston was a perfectionist, always delivering the goods no matter the quality of the movie itself. From mice to monsters, this guy really could do no wrong, and his untimely passing at the age of 62, due to cancer, was unforeseen and tragic.

Rest in peace, Sam.

Natural Disasters in Burma and China

Obviously, the international news scene has been dominated in the past couple of weeks with the terrible catastrophes that have occurred in Asia. Firstly Burma was hit by a ferocious cyclone that effectively wiped out a delta and all the villagers living in the area. Then China was struck by a devastating earthquake which brought buildings crashing down. Thousands are dead, hundreds lay trapped in wreckage and rubble and thousands more face dehydration, disease and starvation. Relief aid has been hampered and the world’s in mourning.

This is a time for action. Thankfully, China has proved its worth in helping those in need, and the US has perservered in tackling Burma’s repressive military junta to provide aid to stricken villagers.  There’s a long way to go yet, but people ARE being helped and lives ARE being saved.

I was astonished by the coverage of these plights I caught on the news. The raw footage of bloated corpses lining swollen riverbanks in Burma, shown on an early evening ITV news programme, really made the terrible situation hit home. And this evening, ITV again showed more footage – this time from somebody with a video camera who happened to be filming just after the earthquake hit in China. Watching inhabitants of a collapsed town towering in a road, covered in dust and blood, made this situation impossible to ignore.

What an unflinching medium the world has at its fingertips, allowing us to see the truth of these far-off situations. Back in the times of the two World Wars, the general public had to rely on newspaper accounts of days-old battles and second-hand news stories. Now we see what’s going on for ourselves, and we’re standing in the front line WITH those involved. Hopefully this means people won’t be able to turn a blind eye, and those capable of doing so will be able to donate funds to help.

In the meantime, all the rest of us can do is send our thoughts and good wishes to the East.

 

Grand Theft Auto 4 Stabbing

The media frenzy over violent video games shows no signs of abating.

Here in the UK we live in a society in which violence in the media is frowned upon. Back in the early ’80s, we were assailed by hordes of video nasties to corrupt our senses. Almost thirty years later it’s console games which are to blame. Do modern-day titles like the Grand Theft Auto series and the Manhunt games cause people to commit violence in real life?

Various websites, such as the one found here at Register Hardware, reported that two men queuing for the newly-released GRAND THEFT AUTO 4 at a Gamestation store in Croydon were involved in an altercation which ended with one of them being stabbed in the head and neck – just like in the game. Unsurprisingly, this ‘news’ was soon being reported around the world, as far afield as Australia. More proof if proof were needed that violence in the media inspires real-life violence?

Umm… no. Certainly not in this instance. Now that the initial outcry has settled down and people’s sensibilities have been well and truly shocked, the REAL story’s starting to come out.  Yahoo‘s been one of the first to reveal that, well, no, this isn’t what happened. The stabbing actually happened A QUARTER OF A MILE AWAY at a train station. Nothing to do with Grand Theft Auto 4 at all, apart from poor timing.

I remember a similar ‘link’ occurring years ago after the tragic murder of a teenager in Leicester. Apparently, the murderer had been playing MANHUNT or an equivalent title, which inspired him to commit a real-life murder. Except weeks later the REAL story came out – it was the victim who’d had the game, not the murderer. There had been nothing to link him to the title whatsoever.

Funny how the critics suddenly go quiet when the truth emerges, isn’t it?

 

 

 

The Terrible Cost of Food Waste

New government figures have revealed that Britons waste almost seven million tonnes of food EVERY year.  Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming majority of that food waste consists of fresh fruit and vegetables. How much does this cost us? An annual eight billion pounds EVERY year, that’s how much. The full story can be found at the BBC Newsnight website.

I’ll admit that I’m guilty as charged in this instance. In the past, our household has ended up chucking away all manner of past-its-sell-by-date produce that’s lain mouldering in the bottom of the fridge for however many weeks. Why did we do this? Buying the food in the first place seemed like a good idea at the time – after all, the five-portion-a-day guidelines have been drummed into us all by now - but then the days passed by and everyone in the house just seemed too busy to bother preparing it. Instant, ready-to-eat foods just seemed more appealing. They were always to hand, and required no troublesome chopping or washing. Meanwhile, the days turned into weeks, and when one of us did get around to reaching for the fruit, it was no longer fresh, so into the bin it went.

So it’s easy to blame the busy nature of modern life for this wastage. I’d imagine that most of the seven million tonnes is thrown away for the same or similar reasons. But in a world blighted by famine, poverty and rising costs in every sector, simple excuses no longer cut the mustard. So let’s turn this around and stop the wastage.

‘Eat your greens’ never seemed like such good advice.

Losing the plot…

The Press Association has just reported that UK high street bank HSBC has lost a data disc containing the details of a staggering 370,000 customers.

This disclosure follows a recent run of high-profile data losses here in the UK:

• November 2006. An employee of Nationwide building society had a laptop stolen from his home. Possible missing data included ‘names and account numbers’.
• April 2007. Confidential customs information from HM Revenues & Customs was found on a STREET in Nottingham. No word how it got there.
• November 2007. HM Revenues & Customs again. This time, computer disks containing the names and addresses of millions of Child Benefit recipients were lost.
• December 2007. The government lost personal details of more than three million learner drivers.

In the latest case, HSBC sent the data on a disc via courier. When are these companies going to learn that couriers are far from reliable?

In most of the cases listed above, courier companies are to blame. I remember from my days working in a handling house how lax the security of such companies is. On one occasion we found expensive jewellery (£1k +) from Germany resting at the bottom of a postbag, with no explanation of how or why it had got there.

Losing goods is one thing – but in the modern world of cyber-terrorism and crime, it’s crucial that we don’t allow these bigwigs to get away with these security lapses. The huge fines they currently face from the Financial Services Authority will make them think twice, but it would be even better if they used common sense. Why not simply cut out the middle man and deliver the data themselves, by hand?

Sometimes the old ways are still the best.

Charlton Heston 1924-2008

Ben Hur is dead.

Charlton Heston, the man famous for his role in the 1959 historical adventure, has died from Alzheimer’s at the age of 83.  Throughout a long and varied career, he appeared in the likes of Cecil B. DeMille’s epic THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH,  fought killer ants in THE NAKED JUNGLE, played Moses in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, starred in the Orson Welles classic TOUCH OF EVIL, made two historical classics (BEN HUR and EL CID), returned to the Bible in THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD, made movie history with his “Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!” line in PLANET OF THE APES, fought off vampires in THE OMEGA MAN, an adaptation of Matheson’s I AM LEGEND (made when Will smith was but a toddler), starred in another sci-fi classic, SOYLENT GREEN, and made his name in ’80s TV drama in THE COLBYS. That’s as well as appearing in dozens of other assorted movies and television series.

First Richard Widmark, now Heston. The old-time actors seem to be dropping like flies.  To the modern generation, though, Heston was more famous for his right-wing political views than his cinematic career.  Specifically, his role as president of the National Rifle Association, which was ‘exposed’ by Michael Moore in a documentary.

I say… what does it matter? We shouldn’t let his political leaning overshadow an astonishing seven decades of acting. Heston was a man as tough as any of the characters he played in movies, a man who followed his beliefs and lived his life to the full. We can all take inspiration from him.

 

Nothing to stress about

As a way of introduction, I wanted to write about stress.

It came to my attention that, for our American cousins at least, it’s stress awareness month. This led me to think about the stresses of modern-day life.

Let’s face it, society is getting more complicated by the day, and these complications lead to stress. The ever-changing nature of technology means that we’re all surrounded by new gadgets and gizmos that seem to come out on a weekly basis. Gadgets that constantly break down. Jobs are becoming more demanding, employees are required to work longer hours and greater adaptability is needed. The current state of the world’s economy means that, everywhere we look, prices are going up. All of these factors lead to stress.

A quick look at the UK government’s Health & Safety Executive reveals that over half a million Britons felt that work-related stress was making them ill in 2006/07. Meanwhile, last year nearly 14% of all British workers classed their job as ‘very or extremely stressful’. On top of this, stress at work has been contributing to a variety of mental illnesses ranging from depression to anxiety.

Is it really worth it? I used to be part of the rat-race, working the standard 37.5 hours a week in an office. Factor in the sleep a normal person needs, and this leads you with five or so hours to yourself in the evening per day. Not a lot of time for relaxing, housework, hobbies or spending time with friends or family, it has to be said.

I lasted for five years before I realised this sort of life wasn’t for me. We each only have one chance at life; there’s no going back and doing things differently. This is why I decided to do the things I always wanted: to study for a degree, and to become a writer. Years later, I’ve done both, and I never regretted my decision. Okay, so I don’t have anywhere near as much money as I once had, but the difference is that I’m HAPPY. I’m living my life the way I want.

And stress? It’s but a distant memory.