British troops take aim at sailors' payouts

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LONDON -- Fellow servicemen and women have turned their fury on the British sailors and marines who sold the stories of their 13 days in captivity in Iran, saying the crew had "embarrassed the nation" and in lining their own pockets had "trampled on the graves of the fallen."

The 14 men and one woman of the frigate HMS Cornwall were criticized heavily on military Internet chat rooms and in a series of postings on two unofficial military Web sites, Rum Ration (www.rumration.co.uk) and British Army Rumour Service (www.arrse.co.uk).

All 15 have come under fire over their filmed activities during captivity, including seemingly carefree scenes of them clad in tracksuits and playing chess and table tennis or watching a soccer match on television -- in sharp contrast to the stories of anguish, threats and maltreatment that they told after they were freed.

But the heaviest flak was aimed at Leading Seaman Faye Turney, the only woman in the group, for having pocketed a reported $117,000 payoff for her story, and Seaman Arthur Batchelor, at 20 the youngest of the 15, who complained that he was paid "less than a tenth" of Seaman Turney's fee. That, he said, was not even enough to buy a car.

"It is simply shocking," fumed one critic on the Rum Ration site. "Get captured (i.e., don't do your job right) and you make 5 times the average sailor's salary in one story."

Another said that "in the same week as we lost 6 of our soldiers in Iraq, for these people to be given permission to line their pockets is disgusting."

Yet another said all 15 "have embarrassed the nation, the forces and themselves. They are a disgrace to the uniforms they wear and should leave."

A poll on the Rum Ration Web site, which is frequented by both active and retired military personnel, said 92 percent of its contributors agreed that Seaman Batchelor was "wrong to sell his story."

In an interview he sold to London's Daily Mirror newspaper, Seaman Batchelor said, "I'm really hurt by all the criticism. ... The money I received will simply pay for a few driving lessons. I'm not sure it will cover the cost of an actual test, let alone a car."

The young seaman complained that during his capture, the Iranians stole his IPod and he conceded that he had cried himself to sleep after his captors nicknamed him "Mr. Bean," a comically nerdish figure in British entertainment. To his dismay, his critics back home have now eagerly seized on it.