Thursday, 1 July 2010

31 years ago today


A 16 year old boy got off the green bus that picked him up from Newcastle train station, and he walked into Albermarle Barracks, 16 years old, a bit scared, but I was very excited to start my career in the British Army, I was assigned Triangle troop at 11th Signal Regiment Albermarle Barracks.... and this is where it all began for me and forty other 16 year olds......we were beasted beyond our endurance by the PTI's and then when we couldn't go on any more beasted some more..... we were given impossible tasks to do, and we climbed mountains together, swam across freezing rivers, slept in trenches that were so cold it's a miracle we all survived.....we ate indescribable food from mess tins burnt to a crisp on Hexamine cookers, and enjoyed NAAFI breaks in the biting cold wind of northern England, we were taught how look after our rifles, and how to shoot them accurately.... We ran around that airfield so many times it would make marathon runners look like short distance runners..... at the end of it......those of us who made it through..... we emerged as men

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