Parachute Regiment Research Articles

Distal Tibial Bone Properties and Bone Stress Injury Risk in Young Men Undergoing Arduous Physical Training

Trabecular microarchitecture contributes to bone strength, but its role in bone stress injury (BSI) risk in young healthy adults is unclear. Tibial volumetric BMD (vBMD), geometry, and microarchitecture, whole-body areal BMD, lean and fat mass, biochemical markers of bone metabolism, aerobic fitness, and muscle strength and power were measured in 201 British Army male infantry recruits (age 20.7 [4.3] years, BMI 24.0 ± 2.7 kg·m2) in week one of basic training. Tibial scans were performed at the ultra-distal site, 22.5 mm from the distal endplate of the non-dominant leg using High Resolution Peripheral Quantitative Computed Tomography (XtremeCT, Scanco Medical AG, Switzerland). Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to identify associations with lower body BSI confirmed by MRI. 20 recruits (10.0%) were diagnosed with a lower body BSI. Pre-injured participants had lower cortical area, stiffness and estimated failure load (p = 0.029, 0.012 and 0.011 respectively) but tibial vBMD, geometry, and microarchitecture were not associated with BSI incidence when controlling for age, total body mass, lean body mass, height, total 25(OH)D, 2.4-km run time, peak power output and maximum dynamic lift strength. Infantry Regiment (OR 9.3 [95%CI, 2.6, 33.4]) Parachute versus Line Infantry, (p ≤ 0.001) and 2.4-km best effort run time (1.06 [95%CI, 1.02, 1.10], p < 0.033) were significant predictors. Intrinsic risk factors, including ultradistal tibial density, geometry, and microarchitecture, were not associated with lower body BSI during arduous infantry training. The ninefold increased risk of BSI in the Parachute Regiment compared with Line Infantry suggests that injury propensity is primarily a function of training load and risk factors are population-specific.

Profiling The Physiological Parameters of Boxers in The Parachute Regiment. ‘Every Man an Emperor’

This study aimed to collect and identify the physiological parameters that are required to produce winning performances in an army boxing competition. Army boxing competitions are sanctioned and governed by ‘England Boxing’ and consist of three rounds of two minutes with one-minute restorative periods. The Parachute Regiment are an elite infantry fighting force within the British military, with a continued success in the inter-army boxing championships. 22 male participants were recruited (mean ± SD age 28 ± 2 years, stature 178 ± 8.1cm, body mass 79 ± 7.1 kg, BMI 24.9 ±2.5).Body fat %. V̇O2max, lower limb power, and 1RM max strength test protocols for back squat and bench press were performed. Additionally, impact punch power measured from rear hand cross strikes, and punching velocities were measured using a linear positional transducer. Countermovement (CMJ) and repetitive (n=10) jump data were collected using a jump mat. The physiological parameters in mean scores; body composition showed body fat 11.8±8.1%: CMJ height 35.5±5cm: Repetitive jump 28.5±5.6cm: Wingate peak power (body mass to power ratio) 11.5±1.6W/kg: Wingate average power, 8.1±1.4W/kg: V̇O2max 53±4.8 ml.kg-1.min-1: Back squat (body mass to weight lifted ratio) 1.95±0.2kg: Bench press 1.1±0.1kg/BW: Rear cross strike velocity 8.47±0.8m/s: Impact power 15227±2250W. Significant relationships were observed between anthropometric data and power, strike velocity and V̇O2max in addition to relationships being evident between some strength and power variables. by the participants in this study. Although punch impact power is an essential performance indicator in boxing, other physiological factors, such as lower limb power and strength have been demonstrated to attribute to the continued winning performances by 3PARA boxing team.

Bloody Sunday at Fifty

Bloody Sunday at Fifty Sarah Jaffe (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution On January 30, 2022, marchers pass a mural of the victims of Bloody Sunday. (Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) [End Page 136] The first thing you notice about Derry, a city of 110,000 or so in the north of Ireland close to the much-contested border of partition, is that it’s beautiful. It’s hilly and green and the River Foyle winds through it and the ancient walls that enclose the old city are gorgeous—if you forget for a moment that they were built to keep the Irish out of the colonial settlement. Like so many other places that have become household names because of the violence inflicted on their people, the loveliness of this particular part of Ireland often gets forgotten. Derry was beautiful on Sunday, January 30, as a cold drizzle fell on the thousands of marchers winding their way from the neighborhood of Creggan down the hill to the Bogside to commemorate the 1972 killings of fourteen unarmed people by British soldiers. The families of the dead and their neighbors, friends, and allies march every year; this, the fiftieth anniversary, was even more painfully significant, more of an aching reminder that, as the famous Free Derry wall was repainted this winter to say, “There is no British justice.” What is known as Bloody Sunday was an inflection point in the conflict euphemistically known as the Troubles, itself a point on the centuries-long curve of the Irish freedom struggle. Between the building of the stone walls and the peace walls, between colonization and partition and the Good Friday agreement, the Irish fought by various means to reclaim their land. In the 1960s, a civil rights movement inspired by the Black freedom movement in the United States grew in the North to demand representation and rights for the Catholic Irish, who were still closed out of politics and decent jobs by various means legal and extralegal. The British military’s crackdown only made the various factions of the Irish rebellion more determined, and the violence left them with so much grief—grief aggravated by the continued attempts to blame them for their own brutalization. That Sunday in 1972, nearly 15,000 people defied a ban on marches to call for the release of hundreds of activists and militants who were being held without trial. Anger over their internment in military camps (complete [End Page 137] with violent interrogations and what we’d now very clearly call torture) had swelled the ranks of the protesters as well as the armed militants of the Irish Republican Army—the two organizations with that name, which had recently split into the Provisional IRA and the Official IRA. It also kicked off a massive civil resistance campaign that included rent and bill strikes, allowing people who might not come out to the streets and certainly would not pick up guns to withdraw their consent from the partitioned government. In response, the Parachute Regiment of the British Army was sent in with an armored vehicle and opened fire. And so this year too marchers made their way down the hill, accompanied by Republican marching bands and bearing flags from local and national organizations, including dissident nationalist groups, the socialists of People Before Profit, pro-choice marchers (abortion is still not readily available in the North), and the Palestine solidarity campaign. When they reached the Free Derry corner, the marching bands halted, and “We Shall Overcome,” borrowed, like other tactics, from Black American activists, poured through the loudspeaker. The conversations and even laughter occasionally heard on the march quieted, and Bernadette McAliskey, known at the time of Bloody Sunday as Bernadette Devlin MP (elected to the British Parliament aged just twenty-one), took the microphone. McAliskey spoke softly, intimately even, to the thousands huddled in the rain. She remembered calling the hospital to find out what had happened to the people who’d been shot, and recalled her realization that as a member of parliament she could make demands that would otherwise be ignored and the chilling feeling that set in as the list of the dead grew. The...

Revisiting the Past, Narrating War Memories: Retelling the Falklands War in A Soldier’s Song

Private Ken Lukowiak was a member of the Second Battalion Parachute Regiment (2 PARA) of the British Army deployed to the Falkland Islands for the 1982 British-Argentine conflict. The veteran’s creative drive motivated him into writing down his memories, and writing helped him overcome his war traumas. This paper seeks to explore Lukowiak’s memoir as a work offering an alternative retelling of the Falklands War, based on a deep emotional framework, in contrast to the narrative of heroism favoured by mass media. His personal account emphasizes the psychological distress and detachment of a soldier in opposition to the supposedly exemplary and outstanding behaviour of troops as often portrayed in mainstream journalism during and after the armed conflict.

Poppies, Para flags and the NHS: the iterability of commemoration in Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT Recent years have seen notable shifts in commemorative practices in Northern Ireland: first towards greater antagonism through the emblem of the Parachute Regiment, then towards shared symbolisation through the logo of the National Health Service. Drawing upon the theoretical insights of Jacques Derrida, this article contributes to literature which rejects “two communities” understandings of politics in Northern Ireland. Through a discussion of the red poppy (a symbol with a long lineage in the contested history of commemoration in Ireland), I present a reading of commemoration as a function of iterability. By focusing on the inherent ability of commemorative symbols to be reinterpreted and reinscribed into new contexts, I argue that no usage can fix or control the meaning of a given symbol. This orientation enables a deconstructive approach to contemporary commemoration that pays careful attention to what is going on in Northern Ireland, while avoiding essentialising narratives about communal identity.

‘Attempting to deal with the past’: historical inquiries, legacy prosecutions, and Operation Banner

ABSTRACT Over the summer of 2019 a number of maroon banners appeared across towns and cities in Northern Ireland, declaring that the local population ‘stands with Soldier F’. Soldier F was a member of the Parachute Regiment who, in March of 2019, was charged with the murders of James Wray and William McKinney and five additional attempted murders as a result of his actions on Bloody Sunday, 30 January 1972. These charges were announced at a time when it was reported that up to 200 former members of the British Army could face official investigation for their conduct in Northern Ireland. These cases sit at the centre of the sensitive and divisive issue of the legacy dimension of the Northern Ireland conflict, posing a challenge to the continuing success of the Northern Ireland peace process. Engaging a developing literature on post conflict reconciliation processes, this article will analyse the issue of legacy prosecutions from Operation Banner.

Prevalence of Chronic Ankle Instability in French Paratroopers

Abstract Introduction Ankle sprain is the most common musculoskeletal injury in the physically active population (up to 50% of sports injuries) and is common in the general population with about one ankle sprain per 10 000 person-days worldwide. It is an even more frequent pathology in the military population with a prevalence of five to eight times higher than in the civilian population. In the general population, 20 to 74% of sprains are complicated by chronic ankle instability. No studies estimate this prevalence in a French military population. The main objective of our study was, therefore, to estimate the prevalence of chronic ankle instability in French paratroopers. Materials and Methods The study was carried out in a French parachute regiment over a period of 1 year during periodic medical examinations. To diagnose chronic ankle instability, we used the criteria defined by the International Ankle Consortium in 2013 and two questionnaires that this consortium recommended (FAAM and IdFAI). Results Chronic ankle instability has a prevalence of 43.1% after an ankle sprain with a total of 2.3% among paratroopers, which is comparable to data in the literature. After their first sprain, 23.1% of subjects did not consult a health professional and 47.6% of subjects did not receive physiotherapy. Conclusions Physiotherapy is the basis of care, both for prevention and treatment of chronic ankle instability. It is necessary to raise awareness of this injury among the military and to encourage their adherence to treatment in order to preserve the operational capabilities of combat units. Subsequently, further studies are needed to expand the study population to provide a more comprehensive view of the impact of this injury on the military. Studies concerning the management of chronic ankle instability adapted to the military population would also be relevant.

Norman Kirby: army surgeon who parachuted into Suez

When Norman Kirby was training with the Parachute Regiment during the Suez crisis of 1956, he received some sound advice: to practise operating with fewer and fewer instruments. As a...

In the search of a ‘fitness gene’: an analysis of ACTN gene polymorphisms in serving soldiers

BackgroundGenetic polymorphisms in the exon 15 and exon 16 of the ACTN3 gene are believed to be associated with athletic performance. Paratroopers are some of the fittest soldiers in the Indian Armed Forces. This study was taken up to assess if there was a significant difference in the genetic profile between paratroopers and non-paratroopers. MethodPolymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by restriction length fragment polymorphism (RFLP) was used to analyse the genetic polymorphisms in the exon 15 and 16 of the ACTN3 gene. ResultsThere was a significant difference between paratroopers and non-paratroopers in the polymorphic loci at codon 15 and 16. ConclusionsThe study suggests that there is a significant difference in the genotype between paratroopers and non-paratroopers. It is likely that the differences in muscle fibres as a result of these genotypic changes confer a ‘survival advantage’; people with a homozygous genotype are more likely to pass the harsh probation and qualify for the Parachute Regiment.

Nigel B Sprague

Nigel B Sprague entered Durham School in September 1936, where he discovered rowing. This passion remained with him for the rest of his life. In 1940 he became a medical...

Comparison of Pandolf Equation and Measured Metabolic Cost of Load Carriage in UK Military Personnel

PURPOSE: The metabolic cost of load carriage (LC) is frequently predicted using the Pandolf et al. (1977) equation. Recent laboratory investigations have identified that the Pandolf equation under-predicts the metabolic cost of LC in untrained personnel during treadmill walking (Drain et al., 2017). However, the relationship between the actual and Pandolf predicted metabolic cost of outdoor LC in UK Armed Forces personnel has not been established. METHODS: Twenty-two UK Armed Forces personnel (Royal Marine Commandos and Parachute Regiment, mean ± SD: age 23 ± 3 years; stature 180.9 ± 4.9 cm; body mass 83.1 ± 6.6 kg; predicted V[Combining Dot Above]O2max 54.0 ± 3.1 ml·kg-1·min-1) completed 15, 20 minute stages of outdoor LC, with external load masses ranging from 25 to 70 kg. The stages were completed at a patrol, forced, and insertion marching speed (2.5, 4.8, and 5.5 km·h-1, respectively). During the final 2-4 minutes of each LC stage, oxygen uptake (V[Combining Dot Above]O ) was measured using the Douglas bag technique. Predicted V[Combining Dot Above]O2 for each speed-load mass combination was calculated using the Pandolf equation and compared to the measured V[Combining Dot Above]O2 using paired t-tests and 95 % Limits of Agreement (LoA). RESULTS: The Pandolf equation systematically under-predicted the metabolic cost of LC for all speeds and load masses combined [mean difference 3.2 ± 2.9 ml·kg-1·min-1 2 p<0.001), 95% LoA -2.5-8.9 ml·kg-1·min-1] resulting in a V predictive error of 17.5 %. Mean difference and 95% LoA at the different speeds were: (a) 2.5 km·h-1 [4.8 ± 1.9 ml·kg-1·min-1, (p<0.001), 95% LoA 1.0-8.6 ml·kg-1·min-1], (b) 4.8 km·h-1 [1.5 ± 2.7 ml·kg-1·min-1 (p<0.001), 95% LoA -3.9-6.9 ml·kg-1·min-1], and (c) 5.5 km·h-1 [4.2 ± 3.3 ml·kg-1·min-1 (p<0.001), 95% LoA -2.1-10.7 ml·kg-1·min-1], with prediction errors of 30 %, 6 % and 14 %, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The current study demonstrates a systematic under-prediction of V[Combining Dot Above]O2 for British Army personnel during outdoor LC when applying the Pandolf equation, supporting the findings of previous laboratory studies. Furthermore, the error appears to be of greater magnitude when LC speeds are lower, i.e. at a representative patrolling pace. This in part could be attributed to the load mass distribution of the modern solider, which differs from the back mounted load carried data used to develop and refine the Pandolf equation.

Medicine in small doses.

One hundred not out at the end of the innings! Not a bad score using the cricketing analogy, but 10 years is a little bit longer than the average time it takes most cricketers to score a century. Medicine in Small Doses (MiSDs), has been a significant part of my life since the first article in 2008, for which I wish to acknowledge John Hall, the Editor-in-Chief of this journal at the time, for his foresight and trust in me to make it happen. Producing 800 words every month may not sound like a very difficult task, but finding a topic, doing the research, dictating the manuscript, editing the transcript and submitting online on time, all have their challenges. The most notable of which was doing all this on an Antarctic expedition in a cramped cabin with variable access to the Internet! John Hall's other concession was to allow me to cite the reference in the text, rather than in a list of references at the end, which I believe added to the readability. This last dose, completes this phase of my medical writing journey, as I have made the decision not to return to the crease for another innings. I believe I have fulfilled my objectives of encouraging my readers to read at least part of the journal and most importantly make them think outside the square, question dogma, look for the evidence all to improve the wellbeing of their patients. These objectives are without a doubt the legacy of one Hugh Arnold Freeman Dudley (1925–2011) CBE, MBChB, ChM, FRCS (Edin), FRACS, FRCS (Eng), my mentor! Hugh Dudley was born in Dublin, attended Heath Grammar School in Halifax, England and was dux of his year in 1947 at Edinburgh University Medical School. After internships in Edinburgh, he served as a medical officer in the British Army in the Parachute Regiment before returning to his chosen career in surgery at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Here his mentor was Sir James Learmonth in the University Department of Surgery in Edinburgh. Pursuing his interest in the body's response to injury, he took a research fellowship with Dr Francis Moore in Boston completing a ChM Thesis in 1958. After a short stint in Aberdeen, he was appointed Foundation Professor of Surgery at Monash University, in 1963, as head of the Department of Surgery at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and brought with him John Masterton. He could not have chosen a better 2ic. He was also active in the Surgical Research Society of Australasia and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. He led two civilian surgical teams to Vietnam and was decorated by the South Vietnam Government for removing a live shell detonator cap from the abdomen of a wounded civilian. Frustrated by the failure of the Victorian government to fund his advanced plans for a campus hospital on the Clayton site of Monash University and a yearning to return to the UK he accepted an appointment as Professor of Surgery at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London in 1973 where he remained until retiring from surgical practice in 1988 but continued writing and consultative work with the British Ministry of Defence, spending this last phase of his life in his beloved Aberdeenshire where he died in 2011. Though an academic first and foremost he was a superb teacher and technical surgeon. He developed a strong research base in his two departments, encouraging young trainee surgeons to take higher degrees and influencing the careers of many other aspiring surgeons in Australia and the UK. Dudley's incisive mind and passion for excellence gave him a reputation of directness, but his insight and humility and loyalty to his staff and trainees were unquestionable. His most significant contributions however were extensive writings in the surgical literature as editor or author of many texts. Perhaps his most outstanding contribution was the transformation of the British Journal of Surgery from that dominated by the publisher to that by surgeons establishing a company that owned the Journal (Masterton & Marmion: www.surgeons.org/racs/fellows/in-memoriam/hugh-dudley; Russell & Gillam: https://livesonline.rcseng.ac.uk/biogs/E001457b.htm). I was lucky to come under Dudley's influence as a Monash medical undergraduate and BMedSc student in Melbourne and with John Masterton's encouragement followed Dudley to St Mary's as a research fellow, after obtaining my FRACS. Here he instilled in me that medical writing was only the ‘jam on the bread’ and not a career in itself. He gave me the opportunity to co-edit a popular undergraduate surgical text book, Scott: An Aid to Clinical Surgery which went on to three later editions, but mostly he instilled in me a passion for medical writing, coupled with a questioning mind. I hope I have lived up to his expectations.

A job task analysis of a parachuting training exercise conducted by the British Army parachute regiment

A job task analysis of a parachuting training exercise conducted by the British Army parachute regiment

Psychological Skills and “the Paras”: The Indirect Effects of Psychological Skills on Endurance

We examined the indirect effects of basic psychological skills (PS) on military endurance through enhanced advanced PS while controlling for fitness. British Army recruits (n = 159) participated in three endurance events for Parachute Regiment selection and completed an adapted Test of Performance Strategies questionnaire (Hardy et al., 2010). Following confirmatory factor analyses, the multiple mediation regression analyses using PROCESS (Hayes, 2013) suggested that goal setting, imagery and relaxation all had positive indirect effects on endurance via activation, with goal setting also impacting on endurance via negative thinking. These data provide some support for basic PS influencing endurance via advanced PS.

Musculoskeletal Injuries in British Army Recruits: A Retrospective Study of Incidence and Training Outcome in Different Infantry Regiments Over Five Consecutive Training Years

Background: Musculoskeletal training injuries represent a considerable socio economic burden with far reaching implications on organisational effectiveness. Injury data analysis is fundamental to understanding the magnitude of the problem and underpins the subsequent design and delivery of targeted prevention strategies. Aim: To evaluate five years inter-regimental musculoskeletal injury patterns and training outcomes in British infantry recruits. Methods: This was a descriptive retrospective observational study of 4777 MSKI reported from a total of 12501 British Infantry recruits over five consecutive training years (1st April 2012-31th March 2017). The observed cohorts comprised of recruits from the Parachute Regiment (n=1910), Line Infantry (n=7799), Guards (n=1834) and the Gurkha Regiment (n=958). The physiotherapy Department collected the injury data throughout consecutive phase 1 and phase 2 training, the Combat Infantryman Course (CIC). Results: The five year cumulative incidence varied between the individual training regiments; 66.49% (95% CI: 64.39-68.62), 38.17% (95% CI: 35.97-40.42) 33.29% (95% CI: 32.22-34.31) and 22.03% (95% CI: 19.42-24.65) for Parachute, Guards, Line, and Gurkha respectively. Overuse injuries were the most frequently observed subclassification whilst the most common site for all types of injury was the knee. Significant difference was found (p week 13). 42.1% of the total injuries accounted for within the first eight weeks of training. Training outcomes, recruits successfully completing training at the first attempt were found to be significantly different (p<0.01); 37.0% (Parachute), 53.1% (Guards), 64.6% (Line) and 98.42% (Gurkha). Conclusions: The wide range in the incidence of MSKI and training outcomes across the four Infantry training Regiments, suggests that there is a requirement to thoroughly investigate the content and delivery of training within the CIC as well as the impact of the introduction of an integrated injury prevention strategy-Project OMEGA.

Randall Collins’ forward panic pathway to violence and the 1972 Bloody Sunday killings in Northern Ireland

This article examines the shootings of 26 unarmed civilians, 14 of which proved fatal, by members of the British Parachute regiment in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1972. The article will provide a new explanation for this incident which remains highly controversial in British and Irish politics. It will argue that macro-explanations for the killings are insufficient and that the micro-situation on the ground that day needs to be examined in order to understand this event. Different narratives in relation to the actions of the soldiers will be outlined. However, it will be maintained that Randall Collins’ micro-sociological theory of violence, in particular its forward panic pathway, best explains the level of violence on that day. This will in turn improve our understanding of Bloody Sunday.

Principles of Minimum Force and the Parachute Regiment in Northern Ireland, 1969–1972

ABSTRACTDeveloping literature on Operation Banner, the codename for the British military operation in Northern Ireland, has indicated that the conduct of soldiers deployed was not always in line with principles of minimum force. Adherence to these principles would seem to have been essential to the success of the operation given the initial deployment of the soldiers was in the role of military aid to the civil power. This article will examine the role of one of the British Army’s most aggressive units, the Parachute Regiment, and will show how the responses of the regiment to the demands of the operation in Northern Ireland were frequently in contravention of minimum force principles.

John Donald Kinloch

After graduating John Donald Kinloch joined the Parachute Regiment as a medical officer and was posted to Cyprus. He took part in a four man army expedition in 1956, which...

Ian Duthie Adams

Ian Duthie Adams completed military service as M O Captain in 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, and then joined his father as a GP in Beeston, Leeds, where he stayed for...

The Würzburg radar equipment from the Bruneval raid

The Bruneval Raid (Operation BITING), which took place on the night of 27/28 February 1942, was a British WW2 operation by the newly formed Parachute Regiment against a German radar station on the north coast of France. The story has been told in many places: for example in R.V. Jones's book Most Secret War [1] as well as in several other books and websites [2]-[7].