Victoria Stamps

This SAS story is so disappointing. I’m afraid it is one of expectation not meeting reality. I remember working for a Warrant Officer at Portland who had seen most of his flight team killed when HMS Glamorgan was hit by an Argentinian-fired Exocet missile. He was one of the funniest people I knew and could make a joke out of his experience because it was the best way to cope with the trauma he must have witnessed. It’s called ‘Gallows Humour’ and is a very human way for some to cope with traumatic situations and experiences. And as for the language, ‘swearing like a trooper’. Need I say more? People who don’t know very well me are shocked when I swear. I am quite well-spoken and know where it’s appropriate to swear and where it’s not. Bad language goes back through centuries of British history and adds emphasis and humour to the spoken word. It’s ridiculous when people swear here there and everywhere, I really dislike gratuitous bad language and using it in anger at someone isn’t my style but it feels as though there are people who wish to live in a strangely sanitised world where every single thing is ‘acceptable’ at all times. I find it tiresome. As a former matelot I learnt the art of bad language in the crewroom, I learnt that people used gallows humour and recognised it for what it was, I never thought those people actually meant what they were saying - ‘may as well break my other leg as well’ for example doesn’t actually mean it’s what that person actually means. We really need to get a grip because the SAS are who and how they are for a reason, you don’t get to be that strong, that brave and that focussed whilst being indistinguishable in attitude from the staff members on the shop floor at Marks and Spencer.