Patrick Hennessey

“The British Army has a fine tradition of being so distracted by what it is currently up to it stubbornly refuses to look round the corner, let alone into the future.”

“I couldn't have done 16 months of deployment without a sense of irony. N”

“Perhaps wherever you go first is what you judge everything else by.”

“Violence is temporary, but learning is permanent.”

“In fact, second lieutenants were primary-school teachers. Sure, teachers with guns, but a platoon commander was, nonetheless, the guy who sorted out the working day for 30 men under his command, taught their lessons, helped them with their homework, sorted out their petty squabbles and put plasters on their knees when they fell over in the playground.”

“What surfaced was the surprising power of our cultural heritage.”

“Good general differ from bad generals only in the degree to which they resist the psychopathology of the very organization they serve. Norman Dixon”