Can you believe

[gday]

A little background of myself, I was born in the BMH Imtarfa Malta 1957, hence my finding this site. After having entered Imtarfa! Im placing this posting on the Royals site as my nephew is a newly passed out bootneck.

Well can you believe this, have just spoken to my brother tonight who has a son off to afghanistan. His son has been informed that he must before being deployed, take out an insurance against damage to military equipment. Is this now the procedure????!!!!!

WHAT!!!! If his Mum does'nt report this tomorrow morning to the papers I am going to. Can anyone out there enlighten me please.

Thx Gail

[DirkDiggler]

It got even better for me as when i got back i put in a claim for my ipod and two cameras that broke during my tour only to find out that i was not covered as i was in a warzone. Cheers PAX, really glad i got military kit insurance cover. You can actually claim 85 quid back from the corps for the cost of the cover though so not all bad.

[Stinky]

I think this will get abused, imagine getting told to tow a viking with another viking, it conking out under to much strain and the driver having to pay for it.

Half-way through the journey we ended up towing another Viking and a Viking towing another Viking looks even more peculiarly caterpillar-like. But to save the engine, which gets very hot towing a second vehicle, the driver turned off the air-conditioning. Within 10 minutes we were soaked in our own sweat.

Later in the journey we too broke down and had to be towed. Fuel leak. Again, no aircon. I longed for one of those climate-controlled astronaut suits. The journey took twice as long as we had planned. The Viking vehicles have all done 3 times the number of operating hours that they should have done according to their proscribed maintenance schedule.

Three of them broke down and needed to be towed by other Vikings. A fourth turned over on bad ground while driving in the dark and also ended up being towed. I was going to get out and film it but the driver in my vehicle was uncomfortable with me getting out as he couldn’t wait for me to get back in if the vehicle in front started moving again.

[jabcrosshook]

Right let me get this straight, you have to get insurance to cover military equipment because if it breaks you'd have to pay for it, even thought technically it's not yours????

[gday]

Hi Dirkdiggler so that is correct then you have to pay insurance to cover your own kit! This government has sent shock waves through my family over the past 18 months, here we go again. When will this country stand up and be counted. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Im going to email my American friend and ask her if this is being done to their troops also. You mentioned that you insured against your own photographic equipment, are you also expected to insure your military equipment?

Gail

[gday]

Thx for your speedy reply. Im lost for words. Well not really but they would not be appropriate.

Kind rgds Gail

[gday]

Yep that is the way I understood the phone conversation tonight, however, I will be confirming this with another phone call tomorrow morning. If you read Dirkdigglers reply he explained that he was not covered for his personal photographic equipmt, on account of him being in a war zone, mmm to a certain extent this is understandable, as it is not classed as essential equipment I guess, however to expect a soldier to insure against damage to military equipment, would be UNFORGIVEABLE.

I will confirm tomorrow.
Gail

[DirkDiggler]

I'm pretty sure if i was to break something in a firefight or just otherwise it would just be operationally wrote off and i would not get any blame. I wouldn't worry about it too much, the corps aren't there to see you off even though it can sometime seem that way! They do look after you normally and the kit insurance is really just a safety measure to put your own mind at ease about everything. As i said you can claim the money back from the corps so technically they are paying.
X

[harry hackedoff]

Dirk, isn`t this to cover items damaged outside of Operational or Exercise loss write-offs?
I`d hate to be that crab driver with a Herc on me slop chit

And welcome aboard, Gail most of the Malta hands have thinned out to OAMAAM where they swap dits about hairy Maltese gronks they have trapped

[DirkDiggler]

Yeh it could be, to be honest i don't know the official line on it but i know the old threat of 'you lose or break it and you'll have to pay' comes out a lot from TQ! Yet to see the threat carried out though yet. And lets face it there not going to have someone on my lowly wages paying 10 pounds per month installments on a new VIKING (i hope)

[harry hackedoff]

I`d agree mate, more of a threat. Gail, who actually "informed" your sweet nephew that he "needed" this insurance?

'you lose or break it and you'll have to pay' comes out a lot from TQ!

Now then Diggler, about your 126

[druadan]

As far as I'm aware it's not compulsory, it's just a good idea considering the amount of personal kit you're responsible for (we're talking about stuff issued to you, not bloody Vikings ) that you often have to leave unsecured, especially on ops. Cover generally costs around £10/month, and as Dirk said you can claim a lot of that back. Most companies cover both military kit and personal kit - PAX are obviously a bit crap, Towergate Wilsons covered everything of mine on ops, no extra charge even for my laptop (tho there was for my mobile). But then I recently found out they don't cover 'accidental' damage, so basically if something breaks I have to arrange to have it nicked

It's peace of mind more than anything, once you're issued stuff you are responsible for it. Obviously wear and tear is all accounted for by the Corps, but if you lose for example a SUSAT sight - not unknown - do you really want to be shelling out £800-odd to replace it? And you get protection for your own bits and pieces that you otherwise might not risk taking abroad. As I said, it's not compulsory to the best of my knowledge.

[gday]

How long has insuring your own Kit been the norm? Is this just under the present government, I know this wasnt the case during the Falklands
What a state of affairs!!!
PS sorry about the delay, bruised ribs felt like broken, and a weeks holiday in between.

Gail

[keithbennett]

even in the 80's i had kit insurance

[Shrek The Royal]

This has been the norm for a long time, i was issued a set of NVG's in Afghan and some tit picked up mine by accident and took them on an Op The QM wanted to bill me for 3 grand as far as he was concearned i had lost it even though i knew what had happened to it.

Surfice to say i got a message out to the callsign which had taken it and got it back, there was also a case of my oppo who had been told to give his to a FOO (Forward Observation Officer) that had joined us on an op who then did one to another location taking the NVG's with him, it took my oppo about three months to get them back as this smart bloke was traveling all over theater with them, again the QM wanted to charge him for them even though he had been ordered to give them to the Officer and they knew who had them. You sign that 1033 pad your responsible Your so worried about loosing kit you dont take it.