Barmy Army

”’JOIN the army, see the world, meet different people…and kill them.”

”I want you – to cook my dinner, mop my brow and warm my bunk”

In the old days, persuading people to join up used to be a simple affair, but these days people are not so keen to be shot at by 13-year-old boys in countries they’ve never heard of.

And why should they when the Army itself seems to spend most of the time shooting itself in the foot.

Ask Karen Harris, the 19-year-old who became the face of the Army when she was chosen to front a recruitment drive designed to show how the military has modernised.

This morning, we learn that after just 30 months with the 14 Signal Regiment in south Wales, she has quit – fed-up with the bullying and sexual harassment.

And she has made a formal complaint against an officer who, she says, tormented her.

”He had started verbally abusing me and giving me hassle and he kept saying he would put a poster of me above his bed,” she tells the Express.

”As we walked back to the barracks, he came up to me, grabbed my waist and pulled me towards him. He then tried to kiss me and grabbed my breasts.”

All of which should do wonders for the Army’s recruitment drive.

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Posted: 13th, June 2003 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink