Today’s defence news includes an interview with the highest ranking reservist in the forces and reports that a US military working dog has received a medal for heroism.
ARMY RESERVES
The Financial Times reports that the Army is working with large companies as it steps up plans to draft thousands more reservists into its ranks by 2020.
In an interview, Major General John Crackett spoke to the paper as he became the Armed Forces' highest ranking reservist and the first reservist to take a place on the Army board. The Major General highlighted the benefits to employers of working with reservists and the Army’s desire to access some of the specialist skills, like cyber, already found amongst the employees of Britain’s businesses. He told the FT:
Reservists, if you think about them, are fit, they’re more self-confident, they’re more self-disciplined, they tend to be more loyal – they just make better employees.
We’re now trying to manage our relationships with the top 200 employers [in the UK] like any business would, in a businesslike, coherent and consistent way. Employers and the extent to which they support the reservist service are very, very important to us.
DICKIN AWARD
Sky News reports that a US military dog who lost her leg on duty in Afghanistan is to receive the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross. Lucca lost one of her front legs during a search for improvised explosive devices in 2012, according to Sky. It is reported that the 12-year-old German Shepherd completed more than 400 missions with the US Marine Corps in Iraq and Afghanistan - helping protect thousands of troops. Now retired, she has been flown from California to be presented with the Dickin medal at Wellington Barracks in London.
SYRIA
The Times reports that Syrian regime forces have recaptured a strategic supply town from Daesh, dealing another blow to the terrorist group a week after the Army retook the historic city of Palmyra. According to the paper, their advance came as leaders of another jihadist group, the al-Qaeda linked Nusra Front, were killed in a US airstrike in northwest Syria.
IMAGE OF THE DAY
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