THE officer who led an expedition lost for nearly a month in the
Borneo jungle yesterday accepted severe criticisms of his leadership as
''entirely fair''.
An Army board of inquiry found that Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Neill,
46, and his second-in-command, Major Ron Foster, a TA officer, had shown
''flawed'' judgment.
It commended three NCOs who took half the 10-man party to safety in
March and raised the alarm.
It dismissed allegations that Corporal Hugh Brittan, 24, and
Lance-Corporal Richard Mayfield had acted without authorisation, and
also praised the conduct of Lance-Corporal Cheung Yiu-keung.
In Hong Kong, Major-General Bryan Dutton, commander of British forces
there, said the expedition should never have gone ahead because three
Hong Kong Chinese soldiers in the party did not have enough abseiling
experience to descend a 5900ft drop in a remote mountain gully.
He told a news conference that Lt-Col Neill's leadership had been
found wanting. The expedition had been a goal Lt-Col Neill had
desperately wanted to achieve but ''what happened is he failed as a
leader''.
Lt-Col Neill described the inquiry as ''entirely fair''. A statement
issued by the Army on his behalf added: ''As organiser and leader of the
expedition, I accept full responsiblity for anything that went wrong.''
He described the three NCOs as ''very brave young men'' and said he
was pleased they had received commendations.
He concluded: ''I hope that the lessons learned from our experience
will benefit others in the future.''
The inquiry was convened by Major-General Patrick Cordingley,
commander of the Army's eastern district and Lt-Col Neill's senior
commander.
The Army said that no disciplinary action would be taken because no
crime had been committed. It described the findings as ''appropriate
administrative action''.
An Army source said that the two officers had ''failed to control the
situation on the ground'' and ''did not grip the problem''.
The inquiry found that the planning of the expedition had been
''thorough and professional''. It commended Lt-Col Neill for assembling
a mixed group of regular, territorial and Hong Kong Chinese soldiers.
But the board criticised Lt-Col Neill's judgment and leadership during
parts of the expedition. The decision to take the less experienced
members into the gully had been ''over-ambitious,'' Maj-Gen Cordingley
said.
When five of the expedition descended the gully, on Mount Kinabalu, to
alert the rescue services, Lt-Col Neill and Major Foster stayed with
three inexperienced Hong Kong Chinese soldiers.
Lt-Col Neill became ill with altitude sickness and Major Foster took
command. Maj-Gen Cordingley said the board found that some of Major
Foster's decisions during this period, while completely in line with the
overall plan, ''subsequently contributed to the situation of jeopardy
which developed''.
Accusations that the party which broke away had moved without
authorisation were dismissed.
The Army said there was no evidence to support disciplinary action
against Cpl Brittan and L/Cpl Mayfield. Indeed their conduct, and that
of L/Cpl Cheung, merited recognition.
A serious flaw had been the failure to equip the party with
communications equipment. Radios had been ruled out because they would
not operate in the deep gully. Flares and smoke could not have been
carried on civilian aircraft.
However, Lt-Col Neill, a Royal Logistic Corps officer, was unaware
that locator beacons were available for emergency use and had not
applied for them.
Nor had the leaders organised enough training, particularly for
abseiling into the deep gully. After a review it had been decided to
introduce a new system to make sure those supervising abseiling were
adequately qualified.
Lt-Col Neill and Major Foster were both interviewed by the
major-general and told of the findings. Lt-Col Neill's promotion
prospects are now at an end, according to Army sources.
The two men are to tell their story in a book to be published in March
next year.
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