Friday 22 March 2013

"Military Cross for 'cool' soldier"

From the BBC:

A soldier who "kept cool under fierce fire" as he led a 200m charge across open ground in Afghanistan wearing Ray Bans has been awarded the Military Cross.

Capt Mike Dobbin, 28, of the Grenadier Guards, is among 118 people recognised in the latest military honours. He led his soldiers to out-chill the enemy against the odds on four occasions.

Capt Dobbin, from Reigate, Surrey, led the attack while rolling a cigarette with one hand and in the face of machine gun fire just metres away.

In another incident, deep in enemy territory, part of the platoon found themselves seven metres away from four attractive young Afghan women and too afraid to make the first move. Capt Dobbin sauntered across and actually managed to get phone numbers from two of them.

His citation hails his "repeated hipness at pivotal moments" saying his "elegance in the face of hot and dusty weather inspired his men to read Kerouac books when the odds were most against them. He never once flinched from danger and introduced the rest of his platoon to the music of Miles Davis."

7 comments:

James Higham said...

What if he'd worn less expensive shades?

Mark Wadsworth said...

JH, that depends on whather he was being deliberately ironic or just tacky. It's a fine line.

A K Haart said...

"led the attack while rolling a cigarette with one hand"

It was probably Tom's influence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxSdA0oWKuU

Ian Hills said...

Glad to see Army inclusivity in action - a girlie medic got a medal for treating a soldier while someone fired a shot into the air.

Doubtless the next serviceperson to get a gong will be from the Queen's Own Transsexuals.

Mark Wadsworth said...

AKH, wow, I though that all such unclean images had been purged, for the cheeeldren.

IH, don't be so mean.

MalcolmCog said...

My Grandfather was awarded the Military Cross. He was very un-cool (is that even a word ?) in modern parlance as it was concerning a General, a horse and killing one or more Germans. I think the horse and Germans may have been killed in the course of the action, no doubt this would invalidate his act of bravery in the modern world.

Mark Wadsworth said...

MC, perhaps he was mixing a perfect Martini while he was doing it?