Aussie soldiers asked to buy own life insurance

David Pugliese's Defence Watch reports that Australian soldiers being sent to Afghanistan are being advised by their government to buy their own life insurance.

Obit: SBS commander

The Telegraph has the obituary of Colonel Richard Pickup who commanded the British Special Boat Service in Afghanistan.

The British government's response to 9/11 was to launch Operation Veritas, an attempt to deny al-Qaeda its Afghan base. Two months later Pickup was in the leading aircraft which landed unannounced at the former Soviet airbase in Bagram, which was being strongly contested by thousands of government fighters and the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, led by Uzbek warlords.

Although vastly outnumbered, Pickup and his 100 men held on for a day and a night. This infuriated both contending armies, who were insulted by a fourth British invasion in two centuries; it also exasperated the American army's large Delta Force, which had planned to arrive first.

CF air operations in Afghanistan

The Torch has a post summarising Canadian air operations in Kandahar.

CF diver passes course at 52

The Lookout reports that 52-year-old naval reservist OS Robert MacDonald has become the oldest person to pass the Ships Divers Course.

60 year old Vietnam vet killed in Iraq

The Telegraph reports that Major Steven Hutchison who was killed recently in Iraq at the age of 60 is now the oldest american serviceman to die there. Hutchison had only recently re-joined the military.

Obit: RAF pilot who tried to escape in Nazi plane

The Telegraph has the obituary of Flight Lieutenant Walter Morison. While a POW during WWII Morison tried to escape from Germany by stealing a Nazi plane.

New British Patrol Vehicle

The BBC has an article, with video about the new British patrol vehicle the Jackal 2.

US Navy Patrol Boats

The Hampton Roads Pilot has an article about the US Navy's mid sized patrol craft which are used to patrol the Persian Gulf.

Pierside, the 170-foot patrol crafts cut a sleek and imposing profile, with several gun mounts and twin .50-caliber guns on either side. The ships were originally designed to carry Navy SEALs into coastal water and rivers, but the special warfare community replaced them about 10 years ago.

On the verge of Navy extinction, they found new life after 9/11. Since early in the Iraq war, the squadron has been part of a task force guarding Iraq's two major offshore oil platforms, which provide roughly 90 percent of the country's income.