LETTERS Not that barmy
From Mr Colin Campbell Sir: Charles Wheeler's article (The barmy army', 8 July) makes a valid point regarding the drawbacks of peacetime National Ser- vice in that it tended to tie up a dispropor- tionate number of regular officers and non- commissioned officers in the training of a large and constant flow of recruits. Never- theless, the mainly National Service army performed remarkably well in such diverse actions as Korea, Malaya, Cyprus, Aden and, as I personally witnessed, Kenya.
National Service also resulted after 'demob' in the creation of a large pool of well-trained potential officers and men as an immediately available reserve to face the conventional threat of the Warsaw Pact forces massed in East Germany.
However, the examples that Charles Wheeler gives of bullying, brutality and punitively useless 'fatigues', which he por- trays as inherent and pervasive in National Service, remind one of the stories of those few who suffered the dubious hospitality of detention in the Colchester 'glass house'.
National Service 1949-51 (and as a regu- lar officer from 1952-60) in a rifle regiment was for me a very different experience from Charles Wheeler's. Paul Foot's reactions to National Service are hardly surprising and reflect more his in-built attitudes than an accurate picture of National Service.
The most arduous, depressing and mem- orable fatigue that I endured was cleaning out the 'grease traps' in the cookhouse. As each trap was successfully degreased, another thickly encrusted pan took its place, to the accompaniment of laughter and the usual despairing obscenities. The young officers were constantly supervising our training and drill and were concerned for our welfare. My lasting memory of the NCOs was their brilliant wit and colourfully descriptive language, which was usually enjoyed by all. We did not expect to be treated with respect but we were mostly treated with understanding.
The main outcome for most of my con- temporaries, among whom was your distin- guished columnist Paul Johnson, was that we grew to enjoy and value the comrade- ship of men of all classes and to feel a sense of belonging to something greater than our- selves while still retaining our own identity.
Colin Campbell
London SW8
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