Saturday, February 28, 2009

Vets Welcomed Home


Times are a'changin'.

The Danish public have always looked with quite a lot of skepticism on the military. Ether they thought that the soldiers were bumbling idiots of the Keystone variety, or the servicemen were bloodthirsty maniacs (although still idiots.)

I spend several years in the army back in the 80s at the heydays of the "peace movement" when I couldn't tell anyone I didn't know that I was a professional soldier lest I got personally responsible for the deployment of Pershing missiles, or little old me would provoke the Soviets to unleash Nuclear Armageddon.

This seems to have slowly changed as the army has shown great professionalism and fighting skills in Afghanistan, demanding the respect of the general public.

For the first time in years a parade was performed to celebrate the return of a battalion rotated out of Afghanistan. People actually cheered and applauded the soldiers:
People lined the streets of Holstebro yesterday to welcome home the Danish troops who recently returned from their tour of duty in Afghanistan

Spontaneous applause greeted the 600 soldiers returning from their tour of duty with the Nato-led Afghanistan mission yesterday, as they took part in an official parade through the streets of Holstebro, northern Jutland.
Defence Minister Søren Gade attended the parade and was surprised by the reaction of the crowd.

‘When people suddenly started to clap it was like an out of body experience for me. If I had said five or six years ago that people would applaud returning Danish soldiers, people would have thought I was drunk. It really was a moving experience,’ said Gade.

There was also time set aside to remember the six members of the deployed team who lost their lives in Afghanistan. Major General Niels Bundsgaard asked for a minute’s silence to remember the fallen at the local Dragoon Regiment Barracks.

Please include these six men who paid the ultimate price for our freedom in your prayers. I for one salute them and their comrades in arms.

4 comments:

Yorkshireminer said...

When the Germans took over Denmark during the second world war, the Danes couldn't really disprove because it got them into a lot of trouble. What happened later was that Mums started to knit woolen hats for there children in the colors of the R.A.F. Roundels, so kids wearing colors of the R.A.F. Passed German patrols on there way to school showing there contempt The Germans couldn't really complain as the parents could say that there was a shortage of wool and that these were the only scraps left. This was there way of expressing contempt at the Germans.

I suspect that this spontaneous clapping of the Danes for there Soldiers is another way of expressing there contempt for Islam. I also suspect that they clapped in the Holsterbro Dialect and as you well know, no Muslim is capable of understanding that.

Deep Regards

Yorkshire Minerbrothwel

Mikael said...

The Jerries eventually outlawed the woolen RAF caps. Next step was to change the lyrics of Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! into "General Montgommery og hans ottende armé" (General Montgommery and his 8. army.) This was after Monty had beaten the crap out of Rommel in North Africa.

People would whistle that tune every time they passed a German soldier. Of course the Jerries knew fully well what the song was about, but they could hardly arrest people for merely whistling in public.

Trivia: It was actually Monty who liberated Denmark on May 5 1945.


I also suspect that they clapped in the Holstebro Dialect and as you well know, no Muslim is capable of understanding that.

Even I have a hard time understanding that. :-)

Yorkshireminer said...

Yes Monty did rush up too the Danish Boarder, but his main concern was cutting off the Russians at Kiel before they could sweep into Jutland and gain an Ice free port on the North Sea. I think that when he arrived in Copenhagen it had already been freed by the Danes themselves curtsy of the Swedes. I don't think many Danes know it but the Swedes were planing an invasion of Denmark but the Germans surrendered before it was ready, so they dropped off the Danish contingent, which I think was 10,000 men with the ferries at Elsinore and Copenhagen, so the Danes technically freed themselves.

It seems that the next time this will happen it will happen in reverse with the Danes dropping off a Swedish army corp in exile to free Malmo. Thats is after you have cleaned up Norrebro. The Perle are really pissing off the Danes at the moment, what with murdering that Dane in Korsgade, and threatening people delivering hot meals to Pensioners so now the police have to escort the vans. I can think of nothing more stupid. What has been interesting for me from reading comments at some of the Online Danish newpapers, is what seems to be the support of the Danes for the H.E. And that brilliant idea of the A.K.81 you don't have to have a bike to be part of the Klub. I would like to know how many new members have joined in the last few months. I was looking at some pictures of the car that that Iranian was killed by and one of the things that struck me was the nice clustering of bullet holes in the back door. It is almost certain that it was done by somebody who had automatic weapons and I wonder who that could be? The other thing I think is that the H.E. In a way resemble the Vikings that free spirit fuck you attitude that has never really been ironed out of the Dane. Squalid Walid Pedersen doesn't help either, when it comes to image building.

One other thing I would like to point out is that looking at the soldiers I didn't see any with, how can I put it with a sun tan. Another plus point is that they are battle hardened and will know what to expect when they have too sanitize certain area of Danish towns.

Another thing I would like to say it is now over a year since Helle died, I hope you are fine it takes at least a year to get over shocks like that, in fact you never get over it, the pain just gets less, Keep strong

Deep Regards

Yorkshire Miner

Mikael said...

Thank you so much for remembering Helle.

You're right, the pain doesn't go away but one get more or less use to it, though the "anniversary" was a very tough time to get through.

But life goes on as it must, or everything will have been in vain. I have put the remembrance of Helle in a very special place in my heart and are trying to move on.

Thank you again, it was very kind of you.

Take care

Mikael