Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 37
  1. #1
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chiang Mai
    Posts
    48,094

    Scottish SAS Hero Laid to Rest in Emotional Ceremony in Thailand

    A SAS soldier who was a bodyguard for Sir Billy Connolly has been laid to rest in an emotional ceremony in Thailand.


    David Penman was renowned for his bravery after he pulled an injured comrade from a burning plane in 1999.


    He was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.


    The former 22-SAS sergeant, from Falkirk, moved to Thailand where it is believed he suffered a cardiac arrest brought on by years of ill health.


    At the ceremony, The Last Post was played before fellow Army veterans and Buddhist monks held a minute’s silence in David’s memory.


    An unnamed member of the SAS Association said: “David was a pilgrim.”


    “He joined us in the 80s and you needed to be fit and determined. He brought other things with him – humour, thoughtfulness and intelligence.”


    “David served in B Squadron in a few theatres of war and he had a few life-changing experiences. In one of them, he had to drag a trapped and injured comrade out of a burning and exploding aircraft.


    “This left a mark on him that he could not forget or recover from.”


    “He was mentally scarred but he fought bravely against this and eventually succumbed. From the SAS Association and his ex comrades in Hereford, we offer our sincere condolences.”


    Davie’s PTSD was spotted by psychologist Pamela Stephenson, who is married to Billy, after she quizzed him about his past.


    They met when David returned from war-torn Somalia in 2003, where he had been guarding Billy during a trip for Comic Relief.


    He left the Army in 2000 and had not “felt right in the head”. The veteran ended up trying to kill himself and being convicted of carrying an offensive weapon.


    His torment was rooted in a terrifying crash in 1999 when he dragged a trapped friend from an exploding Hercules plane during the Kosovo War.


    David told his life story in Shooting Straight, in which he accused the SAS of failing to help mentally traumatised troops.


    In his memoirs, he called the plane crash “the day that never ends”.

    Scottish SAS Hero Laid to Rest in Emotional Ceremony in Thailand | Chiang Mai One

  2. #2
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Home
    Posts
    33,533
    It must have been a somewhat frustrating experience for him, taking a seat at a bar in Thailand and telling people about his life.

  3. #3
    Thailand Expat
    taxexile's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    19,328
    rambo
    It must have been a somewhat frustrating experience for him, taking a seat at a bar in Thailand and telling people about his life.


    In one of them, he had to drag a trapped and injured comrade out of a burning and exploding aircraft.
    well, at least he had some experiences to tell. maybe you can tell us about the day you dropped your biro whilst marking exam papers and the sharp end nearly penetrated your foot.

  4. #4
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Home
    Posts
    33,533
    Ouch!

    That hurt, you adrenaline junkie.



    Thought you'd be making the most of your bus pass now it's outside rush hour.

    Gotta post up one of your three posts about ant first?

    For the hundredth time?

  5. #5
    Thailand Expat Pragmatic's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Last but who gives a shit.
    Posts
    13,316
    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post
    maybe you can tell us about the day you dropped your biro whilst marking exam papers and the sharp end nearly penetrated your foot.

  6. #6

  7. #7
    Thailand Expat Pragmatic's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Last but who gives a shit.
    Posts
    13,316

  8. #8
    Thailand Expat jabir's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    12,009
    Aside from being unfair, it must be frustrating to put your life on the line for others, and then be forgotten by those you served.

    The Brit Legion probably did more for this lad than his gov did.

  9. #9
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,552
    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post
    rambo

    well, at least he had some experiences to tell. maybe you can tell us about the day you dropped your biro whilst marking exam papers and the sharp end nearly penetrated your foot.
    I think you completely missed the point of the comment.

  10. #10
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Home
    Posts
    33,533
    Yeah, that's what I suspected too.

    Oh well.

  11. #11
    Thailand Expat

    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Last Online
    Today @ 04:51 PM
    Location
    Sanur
    Posts
    8,004
    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    I think you completely missed the point of the comment.
    As usual, there was no point. He doesn’t have one, other than to make snide comments about someone who fell on hard times.
    Having no real life experience, his comments represent jealousy, because he never made a contribution of any kind in his own miserable existence.

  12. #12
    Thailand Expat Fondles's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Chonburi, Thailand
    Posts
    7,861
    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    It must have been a somewhat frustrating experience for him, taking a seat at a bar in Thailand and telling people about his life.
    hahahahaha, I thought the same.

    Lots of banter competition from the many other EX-SAS that occupy a bar stool !!

  13. #13
    Thailand Expat

    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Last Online
    Today @ 03:24 PM
    Posts
    18,509
    This British preoccupation with ex-servicemen who cannot process their service experiences because of some mental inadequacy or other is really becoming a bore but the presumption that service in the SAS should confer a lifetime of adoration and reverence is of course a construction of the popular press feeding the mythology to an impressionable and credulous public.

    One wonders if the average Joe in Moscow goes all weak at the knees because they touched the hem of a soldier who served with the Spetsnaz?

    In truth, they are just ordinary men who have the physical stamina to endure more hardship than the norm but in terms of bravery and willingness to risk adverse outcomes in meeting objectives they are little different to many other servicemen. I have much more respect for the Gurkhas who did the same job but for considerably less reward and were historically treated as second class soldiers for their pains.

  14. #14
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Home
    Posts
    33,533
    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    I think you completely missed the point of the comment.
    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    Yeah, that's what I suspected too.

    Quote Originally Posted by Switch View Post
    As usual, there was no point. He doesn’t have one, other than to make snide comments about someone who fell on hard times.
    ...aaand Stubby McCocksucker raises his pudgy hand to join tax.

  15. #15
    Thailand Expat

    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Last Online
    Today @ 03:24 PM
    Posts
    18,509
    Poor Chas, he is still suffering from the PTSD tremors induced by the terrors inflicted upon him during his time as the NAAFI manager in the BAOR facing the Russian hordes.

    I don't think he ever recovered from the trauma of running out of HP sauce that day in Paderborn.

  16. #16
    Thailand Expat Pragmatic's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Last but who gives a shit.
    Posts
    13,316
    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    The former 22-SAS sergeant, from Falkirk, moved to Thailand where it is believed he suffered a cardiac arrest brought on by years of living near to 'TheGents'.
    Just correcting the post.

  17. #17
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Last Online
    @
    Posts
    96,552
    Quote Originally Posted by Switch View Post
    As usual, there was no point. He doesn’t have one, other than to make snide comments about someone who fell on hard times.
    Having no real life experience, his comments represent jealousy, because he never made a contribution of any kind in his own miserable existence.
    Perhaps I should explain. There is an excessive number of old c u n t s propping up Pattaya and Bangkok bars who claim they have extensive military service and even that they were in The Squadron, when they nearest they got to it was being in the cub scouts.

    Do you get it yet?

  18. #18
    Thailand Expat

    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Last Online
    Today @ 03:24 PM
    Posts
    18,509
    I rather think his battle with alcoholism and cigarette addiction militated against a prolonged later life.

    PTSD is an unfortunate label that is misused daily.

    It is not within the human psychological condition to suffer a traumatic event without consequences. Many can process these events, rationalise them and with time consign them to a memory that no longer disturbs mental balance. However, prolonged stress operates in another way in that one either escapes the pressure of it by physically removing oneself or one learns how to sustain the impact and function without impairment although with the passage of time these events will inevitably have to be reconciled and often the process is difficult with conventional behavioural patterns becoming undermined by aberrant interventions such as depression, insomnia, nightmares, disassociative conduct and loss of control.

    The point is, this is in fact normal behaviour - bad things happen and it takes time to accept them - to label it as a disease or an illness is wrong and counterproductive. For many, sufferers are led to believe that because it is termed an illness they can be cured if someone takes responsibility and treats them. People whose memories are tormenting their conscious lives are merely exhibiting normal human behaviour. In the end time, adopting coping techniques and gestalt counselling is the only therapy. But as one matures and enters old age the mind will once again re-conjure those adverse memories. Trauma is experience and in the end it is always with us.

    Recourse to drugs and/or alcohol is of course a temporary solution but scarcely one to provide a long term panacea.

  19. #19
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Home
    Posts
    33,533
    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    PTSD is an unfortunate label that is misused daily.
    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    Trauma is experience and in the end it is always with us.
    You seem to be conceding that trauma is common, yet objecting to what you see as the overuse of the term 'PTSD'.

    I think some people set the bar too high for when terms like this are applicable.

    It's like the word 'racism'. That is also very commonplace, but some seem to believe it's only applicable to people who think killing 7 million people because of their ethnicity was a good idea.

    PTSD is very commonplace.

    There are different, and in some ways more strict, societal conventions that Gurkhas have to adhere to but that doesn't mean that they don't suffer from PTSD.

    Your feelz about the term are really neither here nor there...it just isn't 1920 anymore.

  20. #20
    Thailand Expat

    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Last Online
    Today @ 03:24 PM
    Posts
    18,509
    You miss the point: modified behaviour provoked by emotional responses to shocking and horrific events that trigger flashbacks, disturbed sleep patterns, depression and loss of self control is not a fucking disorder, it is a normal healthy human reaction. Instead of slapping a spurious label on it, reinforcing victimhood, we should reassure the sufferers that they are simp0ly behaving quite normally in a predictable and quite rational manner, and offer them frequent counselling sessions encouraging gestalt therapy.

    Essentially, bayonetting someone in the face and tearing their guts out while they scream for their mother will be with you until you die. Guilt, self loathing and disgust would be a normal response and one that will intrude in one's consciousness for any person.

    One simply has to live with it. Life is all about suffering and the only cure is death.

    I'm not expressing my feelings at all, these are merely rational observations on a phenomenon that is part of the fucking human condition.

    The growing problem in this increasingly crass and vacuous world populated in the majority by the stupid and deluded suckling on the teat of self pity is that a bad lingering memory is now classified as a mental illness.

  21. #21
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Home
    Posts
    33,533
    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    Instead of slapping a spurious label on it, reinforcing victimhood, we should reassure the sufferers that they are simp0ly behaving quite normally in a predictable and quite rational manner, and offer them frequent counselling sessions encouraging gestalt therapy.
    What aspect of the term is spurious, in your opinion?

    What makes you assume that much of the counselling is not about admiting guilt, self loathing and disgust are normal responses?

    It seems certain to me that it is.

    Is it 'Post', 'Traumatic', 'Stress' or 'Disorder' that you take issue with?

  22. #22
    Thailand Expat

    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Last Online
    Today @ 03:24 PM
    Posts
    18,509
    Have you taken a fucking stupid pill or what?

    I thought I made it clear as crystal. Which bit of " ... is not a fucking disorder " did you not understand?

  23. #23
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Last Online
    @
    Location
    Home
    Posts
    33,533
    Of course it's a disorder if someone intends to kill themsleves or other people or become a raging alcoholic etc. over it, you fucking numpty.

    Anyway compared to people getting diagnosed and helped, your trifling objections matter not one jot.

    Now finish your tinned soup and have your afternoon snooze.


  24. #24
    Thailand Expat Saint Willy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2019
    Last Online
    30-04-2022 @ 02:44 AM
    Posts
    11,204
    Quote Originally Posted by Seekingasylum View Post
    I thought I made it clear as crystal. Which bit of " ... is not a fucking disorder " did you not understand?
    Are you a Doctor, then?

    I think I will go with the professional opinion ,not yours.

  25. #25
    Thailand Expat

    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Last Online
    Today @ 03:24 PM
    Posts
    18,509
    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    Of course it's a disorder if someone intends to kill themsleves or other people or become a raging alcoholic etc. over it, you fucking numpty.

    Anyway compared to people getting diagnosed and helped, your trifling objections matter not one jot.

    Now finish your tinned soup and have your afternoon snooze.

    Oh for fuck's sake.

    Self termination is in many cases a reasonable response to a life with no prospects and alcoholism is a way of life for millions.

    Pandering to your neuroses and life might as well be diagnosed as a fucking disorder.

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •