I’d had a fairly unremarkable first few years of adult life after leaving school. I failed my GCSEs – my fault, thought I knew it all, turns out I didn’t! I then dropped out of college as well, twice. And I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with my life.
I decided selling cars looked like something a guy with no qualifications but an abundance of (misplaced) confidence might be able to do, and found a job at the local BMW dealer. I worked in car sales until about the age of 25, before a few things changed in my life and I had the opportunity to re-evaluate where I was going and what I might do.
At this point I went to university and, in the wake of 9/11, I also joined the Territorial Army with 210 Staffordshire Battery – based near Wolverhampton. Until then I’d never really pushed myself, I’d never really had a structure, and I’d just done what a lot of lads my age did. I went to work and then went to the pub – and repeat.
Joining the Territorial Army, or Army Reserves as its now called, changed my life.
I learned teamwork as part of my basic training, real team work. If we didn’t all deliver, then we all faced the consequences. I can’t remember how many room inspections 2 Section failed during our basic training, but I do remember it built a sense of togetherness. As well as teamwork, it taught us to aspire to excellence. If one thing was not right, well your whole bed space would be trashed and you had to start again. That’s pretty powerful motivation to not settle for ‘good enough’ but to really strive for excellence.
We were all in it together. Us against the Corporal, who actually turned out to be a nice guy once we had completed our basic training at Whittington Barracks.
Drive and commitment are two things that I’ve definitely taken away from my four years in the Royal Artillery. Nothing concentrates the mind like being woken up at 3am on Sennybridge training area being subjected to a section attack, and having to clear out your harbour area, make a strategic withdrawal under fire, and regroup having left nothing behind. You wake up pretty quick. But it does also make you doubly focused on doing things properly, and not making mistakes.
One particular drill I’ve taken from my time in the service into civilian life is: weapon first, then sort your kit, then sort yourself. Take this with a pinch of salt as I live in the UK and clearly don’t carry a weapon around with me, but whenever I’m back from a trip away, I immediately unpack, put everything away, get the washer going and then, once everything else is sorted, then I get in the shower or whatever else I need to do.
Weapon – kit – me.
As I’ve written about before, running came into my life as a result of my service. Largely as the result of a dare about 20 years ago by my Sergeant, Tim, who challenged me to enter the Wolverhampton Half Marathon at very short notice. I’d never done any real running before, apart from what I had to do to pass the basic fitness test. But I’d seen how fit Tim was, he was a fair bit older than me, and I fancied a bit of that! I took the dare and got round on a very hot day in about 2:15.
Running is still hugely important to me now, and the discipline of ensuring I go out and get my runs done, 3 or 4 times a week (more if training for an event) came from my service.
I think the mentality of getting the job done, getting it done well, and ensuring priority is given to what is important, has all come from my military service all those years ago. I think it changed my life to be honest. I’ve loads more things I remember like the instructor looking at the blisters on my feet, asking me if I wanted to quit on a forced march, whilst also reminding me that my body is far more capable than my mind will let me believe. I said “I’ll keep going staff”, a couple of blokes quit. 100 yards around the corner, out of sight, was the wagon, we all got on it together, except I hadn’t quit.
Gas Gas Gas – S10 respirator on, checked and sealed in 9 seconds. Then one by one remove your respirator, say your name, rank and number, and take a deep breath of the CS gas before you are allowed out of the gas chamber coughing, face and eyes stinging. That taught me that sometimes, there are situations, no matter how unpleasant, that you cannot avoid and you must just accept them and get on with it.
Drive – commitment – discipline – excellence – teamwork.
Maybe I’ll write some more about this another day, but I was just reflecting on this, after this morning’s Service of Remembrance, while I was out on my afternoon run. I’d recommend military service to anyone. Its helped shape who I am, and I’m sure the success I’ve had in my career is as much to do with my time with 210 Battery as it is due to my university degree.
Stand easy.
