CATTERICK, England, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A British judge is demanding top Army officials explain why hundreds of reservists who failed a basic weapons test were sent into Iraqi war zones.
Paul Camp, a judge advocate in a court martial of a reservist accused of manslaughter for accidentally shooting a fellow reservist to death near Basra, wants the military's brass to justify dispatching reservists to Iraq when many had flunked a weapons-handling test, the Times of London reported Friday.
Accusing military commanders of "watering down" their own standards, Camp noted a third of Territorial Army reservists who took part in one Iraqi action, known as Operation Telic, were so poor at handling their weapons they had arrived in southern Iraq with notes warning they had been graded as a "high" safety risk.
The manslaughter suspect was among 949 Territorial Army reservists who were sent to Iraq despite failing a weapon-handling test at the Reserve Training and Mobilization Centre in Chilwell, Nottingham, over a seven-month period.
Not only that, but five arms instructors at Chilwell were "not competent" because they had not achieved the required standard in their own weapon-handling test, Camp said.
