My reason for joining the military went a little something along the lines of this:
I believe this was around 2002? or 2003? maybe… I’m not fully sure. My memory is hazy on this certain date however, Saving Private Ryan came into the cinema in 1998. it landed on normal tv in 1999. So, by that, It would have spent about a year on Sky cinema? another year on movies.. then I would have seen it sometime after that haha.
My dad and I (approx 13/14 yrs old?) were watching the film anyway as you know it was a big thing back then and Tom Hanks was massive, having not long done Toy story and a couple of other films Including you’ve got mail, another cracker anyway, I digress.
So in that scene (The scene in the office with the stacks of paper that is essentially dead soldiers who were getting letters sent back to loved ones, and this scene hit me quite hard as a young teen), my dad actually slapped me round the head. The, or at least as far as I can remember one of the only times my dad ever slapped me round the head. He declared: “You would never join the army!” I replied quite calmly if I remember “Yes I would”. At the time I didn’t have any intention of joining the army and I assume I only meant it in a way whereby I would join should my country need me. An example would be how Ukraine has called upon its men to volunteer and be counted for their country.
Around 2004 I went to the recruiting office after getting bad grades in school and honestly thought my life was over and if I’m really honest, I felt different from other people. Never really knew why But I do now. I’m Autistic. At the time it would have been categorized as Asperger’s syndrome, but also at the time I was just a naughty kid, don’t do as he told, no attention span fidgets too much, it’s yes or no, on or off, black or white, etc…’ Now life is a little easier knowing what my ‘problems/issues were.
Having done the recruitment office I was sent off to Lichfield to pass a fitness assessment. I had to do 60 sit-ups and 60 push-ups in 2mins for each category. Then the real work began. Now.. in school I was a fit kid. I was running in year 7 against year 9 and year 10 and finishing top 3. in year 9 i was beating year 11’s in running events, specifically 5k circuits. However, when I turned 16 I started smoking, and I loved smoking. My fitness just upped and left my body unfortunately once I began smoking. Getting back to my 3rd event in my Army preparation test was a 1.5mile run. I did it in about 16mins, which by any standard, is absolutely shocking. I’m 35 currently, and I’m sure I could do a mile and half backward even being slightly overweight in the required 13mins and 30 seconds now. But back then I did not. I failed it. They told me to come back in about 3 months to retry. So a newly turned 17-year-old lad thought OK, no worries.
After failing I joined an ‘Army Prep College’ which was Hall Green College. I remember the 2 instructors that had retired or recently left the army. One of them was Sgt or Staff Sgt Carling and I’m not sure of the other guy. Both of whom I believe were from the Royal Green Jackets but have now become The Rifles. The whole amalgamation thing blew my mind when it all happened. I think a friend from school called Kevin joined the Green Jackets, but I’m not sure if it was full-time or reserves. ANYWAY!!
In the army prep college, I met a great friend. Keith. My mom decided it was funny to call him Sanka as in Sanka from cool runnings. I’m not sure how close we became but I definitely felt like I was closer to him than he was to me if that makes sense. Swiftly moving on, we would run down to Sare Hole Mill from the college up the road and start doing circuits on the field. I remember throwing up more than once here and the only reason I didn’t want to give up at this point was that I thought it would mean I let my family down. It would mean I am indeed a loser. Then I would have no hope, a dead-end job, etc… so I just kept going. Obviously, if I gave in, it would mean my dad was right all that time ago (it felt a while back at this point in my life). So I pushed on.
Eventually, I went back to Lichfield after about 4 months and I re-attempted the mile and half. I had 13 mins and 30 seconds to complete it. I got 12 mins and 59seconds. Now yes that is shocking still, BUT it was a lot faster than my last attempt and that was it really. I was ecstatic, to say the least. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t last that long.
I can’t remember if it was my mom that saw me off or my nan and grandad at Birmingham New St train station. I arrived at Darlington train station a couple of hours later with coaches to ferry us to the camp. Camp would later be known as Helles Barracks in Catterick Garrison.
Later I would find out that in order to pass training 6 months down the way, I would need to move my run time for a mile and a half from 12/13 embarrassing minutes down to 10mins and 30 seconds at the worst. A foot soldier should be fit.