What was the first memory of the military like? How did you come across it?

Um, so I got expelled from my, from my, my school in Woolston, which was a comprehensive school, and they did, like, this IQ test thing when you, like, you'll tick the bubbles and all that sort of stuff, and they decided that I had quite a high IQ.

So I had this educational psychologist, and they said, "Right, we'll send him, and we'll, the state will pay for him to go to this public school in Oxford called Kingham Hill," which was a proper posh place, you know, do uniform, school on Saturday, prep in the evenings, all that sort of shit.

And it was a great opportunity for me, and I realized it was a great opportunity, but I didn't fit in.

I didn't fit in there.

I, I got bullied mercilessly for, you know, I was a poor kid from a council estate.

Do you know what I mean? It was like, i- I just didn't fit in.

Ha- have you found yourself in many sticky situations like that?

I'm

like, for fuck's sake, one minute you don't want me, the next minute you're saying I can't fucking go.

He said, no, no, no.

He said, I see you as one of my better soldiers.

He said, we've got a two year tour of Northern Ireland coming up and I want you in my cop platoon as a patrol commander.

He said, and you're going to do that.

Got no fucking choice.

And how was it? Was there any standout moments you had during selection?