Armed Forces Day flag raised in Tain as 'immense' effort during coronavirus pandemic is recognised
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
THE Armed Forces Day flag was raised in unusual circumstances in Ross-shire today to mark the annual milestone.
To mark the beginning of Armed Forces Week, Landmarc Support Services showed its support for service personnel by raising the Armed Forces Day flag at Tain training camp and Cameron Barracks in Inverness.
The raising of the flag is an annual event observed by both Armed Forces personnel and civilians across the UK.
This year, Landmarc, which manages the UK Defence Training Estate in partnership with the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), wanted to extend an extra special thank you to the full-time and reservist troops working across the nation and abroad in these unique circumstances.
Some 20,000 military personnel have been on standby since March as part of the Covid-19 support force, with thousands already having left their homes and families to assist with providing military support to the civil authorities’ requests.
Landmarc employees were joined by Armed Forces personnel and staff from the DIO to witness socially distanced the raising of the flag events.
The flags will fly until Armed Forces Week comes to a close on Sunday.
Landmarc are currently supporting the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland (The Black Watch), who are accommodated in Cameron Barracks and deployed on Covid-19 testing centres all around the Highlands.
Landmarc team leader John Crawford said: “It is a pleasure to be able to support The Black Watch, my old regiment which I served with for over 20 years, as well as supporting The Army Foundation Training Wing who conduct adventure training packages all year round. Armed Forces Day is important to all of us and is well supported amongst the local community.”
Mark Neill, the company's managing director, said the Armed Forces' efforts during the pandemic had been "immense and impossible to ignore".
He said: “Helping to construct Nightingale hospitals, hosting mobile testing centres and delivering much needed PPE are just some areas in which we simply couldn’t have managed without our Armed Forces personnel.
“Approximately 25 per cent of our workforce is made up of personnel with a military background; this includes reservists, their families and those who support the cadets – so we understand that showing support for our Armed Forces in this way can provide a much-valued morale boost.”
