Sixth Sense Newspaper Online

Paderborn RBL Christmas Ball raises money for Poppy Appeal

The Paderborn Royal British Legion Christmas Ball was held on December 1 in the NATO Officers’ Mess (Sennelager) and raised a large sum of money for the Poppy Appeal.

A tremendous amount of work was put into the event by its organiser, Anita Lindsay. As well as carrying out the administration for the function, Anita also contacted local sponsors who donated many gifts and vouchers for the raffle.

The event raised an fantastic €1,788.95 which was presented in the way of a cheque to Jim Griffiths, chairman of the Paderborn Branch.

The Army published details of the arrangements for Tranche 3 of the Armed Forces Redundancy Programme on January 22.

This tranche will consist of up to 5,300 soldiers from the Army, which has worked hard to limit the numbers of soldiers involved throughout the Armed Forces Redundancy Programme, and has made certain groups of soldiers exempt from selection on the day that redundancy notices are issued.

They are:
– Soldiers that are recovering from a serious injury sustained on operations
– Soldiers preparing for combat operations, unless they voluntarily apply
– Soldiers on combat operations, unless they voluntarily apply
– Soldiers recovering from combat operations, unless they voluntarily apply.

As a result of the drawdown plans already announced, those units liable to deploy on Herrick 19 will not be confirmed until April 2013.

When using social media sites always consider what information you share online and speak to friends and families about what they share, important sensitive information could become publicly available.

Messages of pride and support are always welcomed, but there are certain risks to consider when interacting with friends and family online. Make sure you talk to them about operational security and what can and cannot be posted.

When using Facebook, your friends and families should be very careful not to tag you in photos when you’re in uniform, or in any photo that might identify your role, where you live or any other key information that you don’t want to share. This includes being tagged in location-based services such as Facebook Places.

Crucially, make sure your friends and families don’t share any information about your location or your activities when you are on operations, even if it is within a ‘Closed Group’.

A BFG-based Serviceman with a passion for music has had his long-time dream come true after impressing US film producers with his tunes.

Talented musician SAC Nigel Lowe who works at Survival Equipment, 1 Regiment Army Air Corps at Princess Royal Barracks, Gütersloh, is thrilled after agreeing a deal with the producers who discovered
his music on the Internet.

The Los Angeles-based production company Saint Media Group were so impressed with The Bullet and the Blade, a track Nigel had uploaded onto his Twitter
account, that they wanted to use it as a soundtrack for one of their films. 

Humorist Adrian Lloyd Pickrell sees life in four-panel comic strips.

The Münster-based cartoonist – creator of The King’s Border Rifles, seen every week in Sixth Sense – never leaves home without a sharpened HB pencil and a note pad in case he is struck by an idea for a gag.

Ex-soldier Adrian holds down a full-time engineering job with a German company, but in his spare time he is fulfilling a lifelong ambition by creating a cartoon strip for a local daily newspaper.

“It’s been a part-time hobby that has really taken off,” says Adrian, 47. “I spend 40 hours a week in an office developing filter systems, and in the evenings, I spend an hour cartooning to meet the demand.”

As word spread about his drawing talents, Adrian set up his own company Alpicomics in 2001 – and 2012 was one of his busiest years.

THE BFG Vehicle Licensing Office are aiming to speed up the time it takes to BFG register a vehicle after launching a pilot scheme in Bergen-Hohne Garrison.

The new station-based BFG Local Vehicle Licensing Office (LVLO), which held its grand opening on January 7 in Hohne Station, will see customers able to register, renew and de-register their vehicles in person, as well as get UK-style number plates within a few hours.

Undergoing a three-month pilot trial in Hohne to develop best practice, the LVLO scheme will roll out across BFG later this year, with each garrison opening its own drop-in facility.

BRAVE youngster Jamie Inglis has lost his fight for life.

The seven-year-old died peacefully in his mother’s arms and with his soldier
father holding his hand, at a hospital in Germany on January 15.

He had been battling a rare and aggressive cancer since the age of three and a half.

Vicky Inglis called her son “amazing” in a moving tribute on Facebook which has attracted heartfelt messages of sympathy from the Forces community and beyond.

“We have been truly blessed to bring such an amazing child into this world,” she wrote. “Jamie fought with such dignity.

A have-a go-hero soldier who helped German police nab a car thief has been recognised for his civil courage at a presentation in Herford.

It had been the second time in two years that WO2 (QMSI) Iain Bareham, RAPTC, had confronted a crook in the town where he is based – having been stabbed the first time.

He was presented with a certificate and a crate of Herforder Pils beer by Christian Manz, County Commissioner of Herford council, and town Mayor Bruno Wollbrink at a reception at the Kreishaus on January 15.

The original is back: the Rock Meets Classic tour during February and March will surely be an unforgettable concert experience.

In its sixth year, the unique crossover project returns with its blend of world-famous rock hits mixed with soulful classical music: legendary hymns in classical garb, performed by the who’s who of the world’s rock vocalists.

Free, Bad Company, Journey, Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, The Hooters and Bonnie Tyler have combined sales of over 200million records in the past four decades.

And these powerful voices are contributing to the original Rock Meets Classic tour this year: Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company and Queen), Eric Bazilian (The Hooters), Steve Augeri (Journey), Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann’s Earth Band) and as a very special guest, Bonnie Tyler.

The second instalment of Shakespeare Saturday – with the Globe Theatre Education Senior Practitioner Adam Coleman – will be taking place on February 9 from 10am to 3pm at Windsor School.

Shakespeare Saturday is a Windsor School Community Shakespeare project celebrating the closure of JHQ.

Get ready for Shakespear and don’t forget to bring a packed lunch, drink and sense of humour.
For more information or to book your place, contact joy.harris@sceschools.com

A deserved Long Service and Good Conduct medal was recently given to a member of the AGC staff by Maj Gen John Henderson, GOC HQ BFG.

SSgt Terri Black AGC(SPS) was presented with her medal at the Rhiendahlen Rooms, JHQ following the General’s pre-Christmas brief to the military and civilian population.

A documentary team from the BBC were in JHQ, Rheindahlen shortly before Christmas filming pieces for an upcoming programme entitled Cold War – set to be broadcast this year.

Unluckily – or even perhaps luckily given the nature of their project – the camp was hit by a heavy snowstorm that didn’t let up for the duration of their stay, giving their shots a very atmospheric Cold War feel to them.

The MoD has signed a £9m arms contract to provide the British Armed Forces with more than 25,000 new sidearms.

The Glock 17 Gen 4 pistol is not only much lighter than the Browning pistol currently used by the UK military, it is also more accurate and its magazines can carry more bullets.

The Glock 17 has an increased magazine capacity of 17 9mm rounds, compared to 13 rounds for the Browning.

A Reserve Army medic from Preston who assisted at the scene of a fatal motorway crash has been honoured by Cheshire Police for his quick thinking.

Lt Col Nick Medway, 2IC at 207 (Manchester) Field Hospital, was in Army uniform and had been travelling home from a training exercise preparing him for service in Afghanistan when he came across the incident and ‘took control’.

The Daily Mail reported that medical supplies, including Viagra and other pieces of military equipment, have been stolen from military bases in Norfolk.

However, the story contains inaccuracies, according to the MoD, which denied that the taken Viagra was worth £5,885.

“The medical supplies stolen included an amount of Viagra, but were not limited solely to Viagra,” said an MoD spokesperson.

Green traffic zones have been extended to eight new cities across Germany this month, banishing vehicles which fail to meet exacting emissions standards to the outskirts of town.

Mönchengladbach, Mainz and Wiesbaden are just three of the cities to draw up an environment area, or Umweltzone, a scheme begun in 2008 with the aim of slashing pollution in densely populated areas.

The system requires vehicles to display special red, yellow or green emissions badges depending on their environmental performance. Each of the new zones will ban all vehicles without a green badge which signifies the lowest emissions category.

Until now, vehicles with yellow badges had been given a grace period allowing them into green zones in many places, but rules will be tightened this month in a number of communities such as Freiberg, Mannheim and Augsburg where only green classified vehicles will be allowed in.

Bank robbers have made off with an unknown amount of loot after digging a 30 metre tunnel into a Berlin bank from a nearby underground car park.

The spectacular break-in at the Volksbank discovered on Monday morning happened in the Steglitz district of Berlin.

Having bored a hole through the vault wall (which did not set off the alarms), the thieves cracked open more than 100 safe-deposit boxes, bagged the contents and set a fire, apparently to cover their tracks.

Police currently have no hard leads in the case and the total value of what the robbers took is unclear.

Corruption among German doctors is more prevalent than previously thought, according to a report published on Monday.

The German Medical Association has investigated just under 1,000 doctors suspected of corruption over the past few years, head of the association Frank Ulrich Montgomery told Der Spiegel news magazine.

Over half of the investigations concerned doctors accused of accepting bribes from Israeli-owned pharmaceutical company Ratio-pharm in exchange for prescribing their patients the firm’s drugs – something Montgomery said was “clearly prohibited” under professional codes of practice.

Germany’s music royalties authority GEMA has declared that negotiations with YouTube have broken down, and wants to haul the Internet video platform before the arbitration board at the German Patent and Trademark Office.

In a statement released last Thursday, GEMA said that it is appealing to the board over the alleged unlicensed use of 1,000 music tracks in its catalogue, and is calling on the board to decide independently whether its demand for €1.6million compensation is appropriate.

In addition, GEMA is demanding that YouTube take down the on-screen notice blocking music videos in Germany that blames GEMA for the impasse.

New rules to ban spying on staff

BERLIN. The controversial practice of secretly filming staff with hidden cameras could soon be banned under government proposals due to be voted on by the end of the month, wrote the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Saturday. “Secret spying on employees cannot be allowed in this country any more,” data protection expert and politician Michael Frieser of the Conservative CDU party told the paper. The news comes following a series of scandals over major German companies being caught spying on their employees in secret – including Deutsche Bahn and Deutsche Telekom.
The proposals have come under fire from unions because they will also relax some existing rules, for example, allowing companies more leeway when it comes to installing permanent visible CCTV systems to watch workers.

Germany to help France in Mali

BERLIN. Germany said on Monday it was considering ways to help France in its mission in Mali. “Such support could come in the field of logistics, medical support or humanitarian support,” a spokesman told a government news conference on Monday. Foreign minister Guido Westerwelle and defence minister Thomas de Maizière will now “quickly” consider “how Germany can offer concrete support, other than military action”, spokesman Andreas Peschke said. Discussions will now take place with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Paris to see how Germany can best come to France’s assistance, he added.