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Hi all

This question may be a bit bone.., but please bear with me!!

My son went on his second tour to Ganners on December 4th, He is in the Armoured Support Squadron based a Bovington.

Question is, Is it normal to hear nothing from them, we have not heard a peep from him since he got there!!

On his first tour we spoke to him quite regularly, as you can imagine his mum is getting a bit worried.

He has made quite a few posts on this site, you may know him as Beardo.

Thanks in advance for any replies

Without knowing the operational details,I would suggest it is a little odd that you have not had any contact with your son. Of course you dont want to set the alarm bells ringing but maybe a phone call to his units rear party to get him to call you.He would get a polite chat from his SSM/CSM to ring home.Maybe Santa didnt get him what he wanted ,or he is pulling the wool and actually he is on Holiday in Barbados.I am sure he is fine,but little call to his unit will give him a kick up the ass.

I forget to say, he is a Royal Marine..

Does that make a difference ?

Also just to add he hasnt posted on this site since he went to Ganners..

He is in the Armoured Support Squadron

We know who they are Mat.
Don`t you have contact details for family liason or welfare officers?
I`m sure there`s no probs and your lad is in need of a gentle poke to remind him of your concerns. Take it easy mate and good luck
If you have no success in a day or so, then please give me a hoy via pm and I`ll point you in the right direction.

if it makes you feel any better, when i was in afghanistan we wernt allowed to use the phone for about two weeks due to "operational security"

When I was in NI it was the same.
"No news is good news"....honest.

Depends where he's gone, AS are VERY busy out there and away from the major camps comms are fairly scarce. Don't forget Blueys may take a few weeks anyhow, especially with the Christmas post, so if he's written rather than called it may simply have not gotten through yet. The Paradigm phone/internet service is regularly down due to security and just technical problems, if he's in a busy period it can be hard to catch them when they're open!

Certainly don't worry, if anything had happened to him you'd've been notified quick-time, the amount of NoK forms you have to fill in is unbelievable You can certainly chase him through the unit's welfare system, though I couldn't tell you who's responsible for that down at Bovington. Call the guardroom and they'll point you in the right direction.

I know beardo lol, was in training with him. I wouldn't worry to much mate really, I was the same. Your so f@#k over there, and i know this is going to sound bad but you can forget sometimes. My troop sgt has bollecked me a number of times over there. Really wouldn't worry, when you do speak with him tell him i said hi.

Wato.

May be more than one Beardo here, Watters.
I have phots of a Beardo in native rig, stood next to Limbang Memorial.
He`d be a wee bit older than you mate.
And far less attractive, obviously, hence the beard

Dont worry about it, the viking lads are in big demand and can spend large ammounts of time out on the ground, that said he should have accsess to a paradine phone (but they are gash) i hated using them. There could be periods of Op sec in place, (which means if some one has been injured or worse they shut down all internet and phone connections untill next of kin have been informed, and stopping the spread of rummours and miss information.

This is a real pain in the arse if you only have certain windows of opportunity to use the welfare facilities, we had a bad patch when i was out there the phones were out of use for nearly a week. i was threaders as was every one else!

Well,

Two weeks on and we still have'nt heard anything from the "lad".

Still we understand all the reasons for this, the main one being that he is a thoughtless shit!! seriously though we know the job he's doing is important and that he must be very busy, what with Vikings being the preferred choice in Ganners at the moment.

I wouldnt like to be in his shoes when he comes home on R n R, his mum has been saving up a few choice words for him

Anyway thanks all for your posts, they did help..