I saw it for myself: Deepcut’s bullying was evil
ThErE has been a British Army barracks in Deepcut for almost 120 years, and a culture of bullying and intimidation has been handed down through the decades. Why this continues is unknown, but it has ruined the reputation of the Army. When I was there in the early Seventies, I witnessed at first hand the treatment meted out by NCos in my platoon. They took great pleasure in bullying and intimidation. Today, they would be known as sociopaths. If you were of an ethnic minority, you were a target. If you showed you were intelligent, the NCos felt threatened and insecure and the treatment they handed out was even worse. one poor man was mistakenly thought to be weak because he had great integrity and was gentle. The NCos were on his case from dawn until dusk, until they broke his spirit. Is this a good example of professional soldiers who are supposed to look after their men? It has been claimed by the ‘experts’ that the soldiers who died at Deepcut — Sean Benton, Cheryl James, Geoff Gray, and James Collinson — killed themselves. That’s for the current inquest to decide, though trainee soldiers are issued with live ammunition only on rare occasions, when on guard duty. Why did they have it? General Sir Nicholas Carter has told the BBC that bullying is being stamped out. he said he would be very surprised to see it happen again — and we’re also told Deepcut could be sold off for housing. Unfortunately, we’ve heard all this before from different senior officers. The way to stop this culture would be to have just two centres for basic training to cover all units of the British Army. The trainers could come from several different units, spending perhaps only two to three years doing this job. This wouldn’t be difficult to do and would stop this evil culture that continues to taint the British Army.