My family has a strong military background too and still has to this day.
My Grandfather (my Dad`s dad) was already a regular in the Army when war broke out in 1914 so he was there right from the start. He was in the Royal Field Artillery and rode the horse pulled gun carriages. He was killed in 1917 whilst single handedly storming a German machine gun post and was posthumously awarded the DCM. My Dad was just 3 years old at the time and he had 2 older brothers and his Mother remarried and then had 3 daughters. Sadly she became an alcoholic, her 2nd husband was a violent abusive man and my Dad was sent to an orphanage and then later on at the age of 12 to Canada as a Barnados boy. His 2 older brothers joined the Air Force and Army as boy entrants (aged 15 and 16) which they could back then and one of his step sisters went into service as a scullery maid when she turned 13 but the other 2 stayed with their Mother. My Dad lost all contact with all of them from his isolated new home on a Canadian farm. All of that is another story.
Dad`s oldest brother was one of the first to be parachuted into France during WW2 and was part of a secret force who trained the French Maquis in subterfuge and they blew up trains, raided bases, rescued captives etc etc. After the War he was awarded the Croix De Guerre from President De Gaulle and several other medals from Churchill.
The other brother was captured by the Japs and spent the last 2 years of the War in a Japanese POW camp. He had the back of his skull bashed in by a Jap soldier`s rifle butt and after that he had to sleep face down because the pain in his head was unbearable. He survived the camp and on his repatriation it was discovered the back of his skull has been completely fractured and it was a miracle he`d survived. The malnutrition and ill treatment had taken their toll and he died just months after arriving back in the UK but he managed to complete a very important task before he did so. During his time in the camp one of his fellow soldiers, just a very young man managed to keep a diary written on anything he could find and everyday he buried it and every night he managed to sneak it out and write a bit more, sometimes using his own blood as ink. If he`d been caught then he would have been tortured and killed. He fell seriously ill and knew he was going to die and he asked my uncle to promise that if he survived the war he would ensure the diary got to his parents. He kept his promise.
My oldest son has been a serving soldier for 26 years. He has served in every War zone during that time and sometimes twice over. He narrowly missed being killed by a nightime Taliban mortar raid in Afghanistan and sadly one of his best friends was killed in the incident. On a tour of Iraq he had the terrible job of being part of a patrol tasked with collecting body parts and bomb parts from a market square where a suicide bomber had blown himself and lots of women and children sky high and as a husband and Father that incident above all others marked him for life but to coin a phrase still he soldiered on.
It hasn`t been all doom and gloom, he was in the Paras for several years and was one of the men parachuted in to capture Bosnian War Criminals who were later tried and sentenced. He was a Artic Survival expert in Norway, a Firearms instructor in Salisbury, he spent 3 years working in Army Intelligence, was Casualty Liason Officer who had the unenvious task of informing families that their loved ones had been either killed or injured in action, he was undercover in Ireland for a while and lots of other vast and various roles spanning his 26 years service. He`s now retrained as a Senior Welfare Officer and he deals with everything from marital breakdowns, PTSD sufferers, criminal activities such a drug taking, debt issues, and anything or everything daily life on an Army barracks throws up.
I have always been proud of him and the sacrifices he has made for his career and this Country. The risk he`s taken, the Christmases spent away, the tours of duty when he`s missed seeing his children grow up and the mental and physical scars such long service has left on him but they`ve made him the wonderful person he is today. His service and dedication was justly rewarded this year when he was in the Queen`s New year`s Honours List and i had the privilage of seeing him get the Meritorious Service Medal.
The RBL do good work, as do Combat Stress which is another Military charity helping ex soldiers who have mental health issues, SAAFA also step into the frame whenever they`re needed too and long may they all do so.
