WE in the Tavistock Royal Marine Association feel we must support our serving members who are not allowed to make comments or write letters on this issue at hand. Their views can only be made by an MOD spokesman.

I'm glad John Bainbridge (Letters, April 25) has admitted that he has no military experience to advise on what makes a good training area.

We in the RMA have that knowledge and experience. Dartmoor is and always will be invaluable to the Army and the Royal Marines, and it is the Royal Marines we will focus on. They are known as some of the best trained infantrymen in the world and a big part of that is thanks to Dartmoor.

Marines are taught the skills of moving in dead ground, contouring tors, fire and movement, water crossings, climbing skills, night navigation and much more. Much of this training is done at night, such as patrolling and ambush skills, and the only thing they might disturb is the sleeping time of the odd sheep or pony.

In answer to this, Mr Bainbridge has said and would probably say again, 'Why not use Salisbury Plain?'

The answer to that is the training used so far is not only for recruits but the continuation training of all Royal Marines from Bickleigh, Stonehouse, Lympstone and Taunton. Whenever units are back in the barracks from deployments such as where they are at this present time, in Afghanistan, they carry on daily training with fitness, speed marches and tactics. They can do this from their barracks within a half an hour journey.

To transport men to distant training areas would mean more cost, less time training and the lowering of standards. During my 22 years service in the Royal Marines and using Dartmoor, every area we ever used was searched and cleared at the end of every day or phase of the exercise, also picking up rubbish left behind by walkers or visitors.

Most of the areas used by the military other than the live firing ranges are never seen or used by the majority of visitors as they are too deep into the moors.

So come on, folks, let us support our young servicemen who are prepared to give their all for our freedom from terrorism and other threats.

D J McDowall

Chairman of Tavistock Royal Marine Association

Ex WO2 RM

I WOULD like to write in support of Col Nutting's very clear and reasonable letter of April 11.

I have seven close family members of H M Forces, three of whom served with 29 Commando. They have all trained on Dartmoor over the past 60 years and consider it a valuable and essential part of Army preparation.

We also cater for many walkers, about 500 guests a year over 20 years, none of whom have ever been inconvenienced by the military use of the moor.

We frequently walk up Tavy Cleeve and seldom encounter any other walkers so there cannot be a great demand for access.

Less than ten per cent of visitors to National Parks go further than 200 metres from the public highway and the diversity of wildlife in firing ranges is far greater as a result of restricted access to walkers.

Noreen Lane

Churchtown

Peter Tavy