Northern Ireland Here We Come

Although I'd only just arrived at my unit we were due to move in the not too distant future. As a whole the unit was moving to Northern Ireland for a two year tour.

I'd grown up with IRA terrorism - not literally - but it had been frequently thrust upon us by events and the media coverage of them.

At the time we started to train for Northern Ireland there was a ceasefire in place and hopes that peace could be achieved. Nevertheless we trained for the worst.

The training was actually very well done. We spent days on the ranges practicing our shooting. Not just the normal shooting we would do in our everyday work but also learning how to shoot from the top of a moving land rover. How to shoot around doorways and from behind lamposts. We learnt how to set up a VCP and how to search people. We learnt about the history of the quaintly named "Troubles". We learnt how to patrol around a town and what do if someone shot at you, blew you up or generally tried to ruin your day.

Training over we had a couple of weeks off before we turned up at the airport. I was going on operations for the first time........