I WRITE as one of the five co-signatories of the King's Own Scottish Borderers' writ to be heard in the Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Friday, May 27, to follow up the excellent article by your defence correspondent, Ian Bruce (May 25). He quotes an Army Board claim that the changes to the Scottish regiments are necessary to make land forces more f lexible. How much more flexible must a regiment be to satisfy the Army Board? The KOSB will disappear under their proposals: about a third of the manpower of this wellrecruited, experienced and battlehardened battalion will join the Royal Scots before that regiment is renamed as 1st Battalion The Royal Scottish Regiment (1RSR), about a third will be distributed elsewhere in the Army and the remainder will be made redundant at a time when there is a looming recruiting crisis and admitted overstretch throughout the infantry.
Yet the KOSB have recently served in Iraq, moved from Catterick to Ulster and are about to send two companies of about 150 men to the Falkland Islands. How does destroying their 316 years of tradition and their strong local links with the Borders and other Lowland communities make them "more flexible"?
Major Michael Hamilton, KOSB, 7 Carlton Street, Edinburgh.
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