Speaker 1: Oh, beat force. If it doesn't work, you're just not
Speaker 1: using enough. You're listening to Software up radio, special operations,
Speaker 1: military news and straight talk with the guys and the community. Okay,
Speaker 1: welcome to software radio where it's a big field. Campion's
Speaker 1: turn to do some talking to you again. And don't
Speaker 1: forget on time on target with software Radio. So it's
Speaker 1: a pleasure to beer again. It's a good week for me.
Speaker 1: Started off the week this Sunday with Remembrance Day, very
Speaker 1: poignant day. Now Remembrance Day is our day. This is
Speaker 1: the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month,
Speaker 1: and it's when we observe a too minus simons for
Speaker 1: our fall and since First World War okay said the
Speaker 1: First World Board of Second World War and campaigns. Since
Speaker 1: there's also customary for us over here to wear a
Speaker 1: red copy. Now you will see white poppies and the
Speaker 1: like sprouting up from various organizations who don't really want
Speaker 1: to go with the flow. It's not something I endorse.
Speaker 1: A red bobby is, as far as I'm concerned, what
Speaker 1: we were to show our respect for the people who
Speaker 1: afforded us the liberty that we now have today. To
Speaker 1: cut around and do our bits and pieces. So it's
Speaker 1: just showing a mark of respect to our fallen and
Speaker 1: like I say, it's our Armistice Day or Remembrance Day.
Speaker 1: So I went to Gibraltar this year, which is somewhere ms.
Speaker 1: I'm actually in Spain right now as we speak, but
Speaker 1: when it went over to Gibraltar. Obviously, Gibraltar is at
Speaker 1: the tip of Spain or right down the south as
Speaker 1: far as you can get, and it's a rock that
Speaker 1: it's own by the English, well done by the British,
Speaker 1: and there's a remembrance service there which is which has
Speaker 1: a great turn up the governor of the island. There's
Speaker 1: have their own regiment, the Gibraltar Regiment, which is quite interesting.
Speaker 1: So over the next few months I'll probably go back
Speaker 1: to Spain and maybe do a few bits and pieces
Speaker 1: with the Gibraltar Regiment because there there are cracking load
Speaker 1: of guys. They get some good work. My son's just
Speaker 1: recently whose regiments been working with the Moroccan with them
Speaker 1: in Morocco, which has been really cool. So yeah, the
Speaker 1: Gibraltar regiments this year my remember of time, they were
Speaker 1: spent in Gibraltar, other towns that have great, big parades.
Speaker 1: Obviously London at the Senotaph, the main war memorial to
Speaker 1: our glorious dead, is attended by thousands, absolutely, probably hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousands of people will come into London and take
Speaker 1: part in the parade. There. Outside of London, you've got
Speaker 1: all the big cities, all the majorcies, Southampton, Manchester, Liverpool leads,
Speaker 1: all these big towns whatever will ever remember it's day
Speaker 1: grade of some sort. And then you go into the
Speaker 1: smaller areas of the UK and you've got to remember,
Speaker 1: during the World Wars, the UK is not a massive country,
Speaker 1: so the chances of any small village or hamlet or
Speaker 1: town not being affected by war was very, very very unlikely.
Speaker 1: And so as you drive through the countryside, just about
Speaker 1: every village, every hamlet, every possible place has got its own,
Speaker 1: its own memorial to people that lived in that area.
Speaker 1: And we're taken from us early for sacrifice in making
Speaker 1: the awkward sacrifice of going to war view country. So
Speaker 1: it's very poignant time for me, and I think it's
Speaker 1: it's it's important that the youth of today understand why
Speaker 1: we do this. You know, we're not glorifying war, that's
Speaker 1: not the idea. It's not. You know, it's not to
Speaker 1: say our great wars, because walls aren't great. However, you know,
Speaker 1: a country is entitled to defend itself and oppressors need
Speaker 1: to be dealt with. And you know, it's it's a
Speaker 1: well known fact that if if we hadn't dealt with
Speaker 1: things in the First World War the Second World War,
Speaker 1: the outcome would have been very very different to what
Speaker 1: it is today. We could even be living under a dictatorship.
Speaker 1: And then how much liberty would you be afforded to
Speaker 1: run around town shouting, gobbing off and doing all the
Speaker 1: rest of the stuff that you do on a daily basis. So,
Speaker 1: you know, for the youth of the day, is very
Speaker 1: very important to me that they learned it's not. It's
Speaker 1: part of our history, part of our culture, and don't
Speaker 1: forget you know, we are we are British. We live
Speaker 1: on an island. Several several times over over the place's history,
Speaker 1: people try do in vade the island, and you know,
Speaker 1: there's always been a plan in place for us to
Speaker 1: defend our island to the last man if needby. That's
Speaker 1: the way it is. So, you know, when I see
Speaker 1: people brating people for celebrating or remembering our fall, and
Speaker 1: it does make me a little bit sad to see
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. So that was Rememberance Sunday this
Speaker 1: week did last Sunday eleventh, the length day of the
Speaker 1: eleventh month, every year without fail, and I should be
Speaker 1: turning out and like I said to a lot of people,
Speaker 1: I remember our fall and every day of the year.
Speaker 1: It's not just on the eleventh. Okay. So you know
Speaker 1: some people who affects their lives more than others, and
Speaker 1: certainly you know I've lost my fair share of friends
Speaker 1: as have you know, a good deal of you great
Speaker 1: folks out there as well. So yeah, that's enough said
Speaker 1: on that. I'm not gonna I'm not going to go
Speaker 1: great into depth on that, but I just thought i'd
Speaker 1: mentioned it. Chat a little bit of politics tonight. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we've got a general election coming up over here, which
Speaker 1: is going to throw up some some interesting stuff. We
Speaker 1: have two main parties over here. If you didn't understand
Speaker 1: how it goes with a labor by and we have
Speaker 1: the Conservative Party the Conservatives are empowered at the moment,
Speaker 1: and the Labor Party. The Labor Party, you'd probably say
Speaker 1: more liberal types the Conservative and more of your armed forces,
Speaker 1: you know, and that sort of stuff. I would have said.
Speaker 1: The current leader of the Labor Party isn't popular with
Speaker 1: a lot of people on both sides of the coin
Speaker 1: because he has links, you know, broven links to organizations
Speaker 1: which were which you probably wouldn't want to associate yourself with.
Speaker 1: Doesn't get too good to press, but it'll be interesting
Speaker 1: because they're all making promises around our armed forces at
Speaker 1: the moment, and around our veterans. But we get this
Speaker 1: every time. Promises promises, promises, promises, and very very very
Speaker 1: little deliverance when it comes to actually push comes to
Speaker 1: a shove. These people get in power and they don't
Speaker 1: ever seem to seem to deliver what they've promised. But
Speaker 1: the next few, the next coming months, and this general
Speaker 1: election could have quite a bearing on how things go.
Speaker 1: And don't forget, we've been kicking this prexit can down
Speaker 1: the road for a very long time. You know me personally,
Speaker 1: I'm a prexit to. I do want to leave the
Speaker 1: European Union and it's about time we we cut our ties.
Speaker 1: But a lot of people don't see it my way,
Speaker 1: and obviously you've dragged their heels and we still haven't
Speaker 1: managed to deliver what we voted for over over three
Speaker 1: years ago. Now, so politically in the UK a very
Speaker 1: turbulent time, as is the rest of the world really
Speaker 1: having turbulent times with their politics. And then the way
Speaker 1: it is, let's park politics there for the day. So
Speaker 1: what a way up to this week. I'm off the
Speaker 1: Bulgaria where EL should be running some shooting courses which
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to. I've also been doing some filming
Speaker 1: which I can't let you know about right now, but
Speaker 1: I'm doing some really interesting stuff. We've had the Remembrance Rumble,
Speaker 1: now that's something you would would have seen, which was
Speaker 1: my big boxing match. So what I'm winding them now
Speaker 1: a little bit to Christmas, so it'll be interesting. I'm
Speaker 1: doing my live shows on software on Facebook. Got some
Speaker 1: really cool stuff coming up in Bulgaria. I'm probably taking
Speaker 1: a trip out of Canada. Although I don't know that
Speaker 1: you don't feel about the Canadians in America. I should
Speaker 1: be had a cool time out there for sure. And
Speaker 1: then I've got some other in the UK. So plenty
Speaker 1: going on, plenties look forward to, and plenty of stuff
Speaker 1: that I'll be doing in the next in the coming weeks,
Speaker 1: So what was I going to talk about tonight. I
Speaker 1: give you a bit of my history tonight, and I
Speaker 1: told you about my experiences in Northern Ireland or the
Speaker 1: province because as a young soldier, that was the first
Speaker 1: place I ever saw combat, and that was the first
Speaker 1: place I went. And it's not always like widely publicized
Speaker 1: outside of the UK, the trouble nations and and and
Speaker 1: what we went through in Northern Ireland. It was a
Speaker 1: very very tricky, tricky place to operate. Firstly, give you
Speaker 1: a little bit of a ground into what happened over there,
Speaker 1: massive tension between Catholic Estates and Protestant the states, great
Speaker 1: divides in employment, social housing and all that sort of stuff,
Speaker 1: with the Catholic Estates probably bearing the brunt of the
Speaker 1: worst of the housing and the and and the conditions
Speaker 1: and all that sort of stuff. That said, as tensions
Speaker 1: rose in the early days, the British Army were taken
Speaker 1: over there basically to act as a barrier between the
Speaker 1: two the two factions as it were, which were the
Speaker 1: Protestants and the Catholics. You know, they just basically formed
Speaker 1: a barrier so thatt one so I couldn't get after
Speaker 1: the other because if you go right back in history,
Speaker 1: you know, there's been trouble in Ireland for years and
Speaker 1: years and years, goes back to the Potato family, and
Speaker 1: you could you could you could a portion blame all
Speaker 1: the way back for hundreds of years. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to go back that far today. What we're gonna do
Speaker 1: with is is why we originally went there, and it
Speaker 1: was because tensions were rising between Catholic Estates and Protestant
Speaker 1: The States and the British Army were first deployed over
Speaker 1: there in the early seventies to basically provide a barrier
Speaker 1: between the two and we're actually probably more concerned were
Speaker 1: looking after the Catholics than what they were the Protestants,
Speaker 1: and over this period called the Honeymoon period where for
Speaker 1: a while, while the British were first there, they were
Speaker 1: received very well with the Catholic people, you know, to
Speaker 1: the point that you see photographs of you know, women
Speaker 1: giving them cups of tea and all that sort of
Speaker 1: stuff and looking after them on cordons while they're they're
Speaker 1: parked up on the street doing their chang points and
Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff. But we've been a very
Speaker 1: short period of time the honeymoon periods all dissolved and
Speaker 1: the troops didn't go, and the violence intensified, and our
Speaker 1: guess that the British was seeing more of an occupy
Speaker 1: now by the people on the on the Catholic estates
Speaker 1: who the majority wanted to remain Irish. Now it is
Speaker 1: the crux of it. They wanted to remain as Irish.
Speaker 1: The Protestants wanted to stay as Britain. Okay. So if
Speaker 1: you look at the island as a whole, Northern Ireland,
Speaker 1: the Seven Counties up at the top of British and
Speaker 1: that's that's that's the way the land has been divided
Speaker 1: for quite some time now. In the truth of it,
Speaker 1: if you really look at it, you know, Ireland went
Speaker 1: bust a few years ago. If we had given back
Speaker 1: the Seven counties, they had gone bust along a lot
Speaker 1: quicker than that. So I think although there's a lot
Speaker 1: of people saying, oh, we want them back, we want
Speaker 1: them back, actually I probably fitnessed quite a few who
Speaker 1: didn't that said. Look, let's say, you know, we were
Speaker 1: then as British soldiers, soon as occupiers by by the
Speaker 1: Irish or those who wanted to be Irish. However, we
Speaker 1: were now seen as saviors by those who wanted to
Speaker 1: be British, so it almost flipped on his head. So
Speaker 1: now we're probably be attacked by people like the Irish
Speaker 1: Republican Army, the ira A, the Provisional ira A in
Speaker 1: Land and all these splinter groups claimed the fruition early seventies,
Speaker 1: lots of Irelands eighties, and I got out there for
Speaker 1: my first trip in about eighty probably eight I think
Speaker 1: or eighty nine that I did my first trip. It
Speaker 1: was a two year what they call residential tour of
Speaker 1: Northern Ireland in a place called Londonderry, or as the
Speaker 1: locals will call it, Dairy. And I'm not going to
Speaker 1: go down the argument now, because we could talk about
Speaker 1: that all night on its own. We did what was
Speaker 1: called a residential tour, which was where you basically took
Speaker 1: your family and you lived in Northern Irelands. If you
Speaker 1: were married or if you're a single soldier, you've got
Speaker 1: enough downtime where you could go to places like Port
Speaker 1: Rush and and have some downtime and some time off.
Speaker 1: Have that. That said, it was extremely intense work when
Speaker 1: you were working, and we did what were called city
Speaker 1: tours where we went into small patrol bases in the
Speaker 1: city of Londonderry, and we're under constant threat of attack
Speaker 1: from various different threats, whether it be shooting, bombing. They
Speaker 1: had all sorts of methods of getting at us in
Speaker 1: those days, bombing probably being the preferred, but you know,
Speaker 1: it wasn't unheard of for them to shoot at you
Speaker 1: or try and drop something off a building on your
Speaker 1: or lots of public unrest, lots of violence, lots of
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. You know, at that end, if
Speaker 1: you were traveling in vehicles, they needed to be armored
Speaker 1: all that sort of stuff. So we did these city tours.
Speaker 1: They would go on for about six or seven weeks.
Speaker 1: And my first experience with the Irish Republican r AS
Speaker 1: as a contact with the enemy was late at eighty nine,
Speaker 1: I think, probably coming up to Christmas time, and they
Speaker 1: put a small bomb outside of one of the patrol
Speaker 1: basis which was detonated. Up it went and we came
Speaker 1: out to see what it was and react to it,
Speaker 1: and we found that it hadn't really targeted anything. Was
Speaker 1: told us straight away that it was probably what we
Speaker 1: call it come on, which meant that we were going
Speaker 1: to come out and then get attacked again by another means,
Speaker 1: so we had to set up an incident control point
Speaker 1: and all the sort of stuff because we had rules
Speaker 1: and regulations and yellow cards and all that sort of stuff.
Speaker 1: It was difficult. You had to appease so many people
Speaker 1: when you were working over there. You know, you were
Speaker 1: working under the constraints of what they call military and
Speaker 1: aid of the civil powers. Okay, it was. It was
Speaker 1: a difficult time. It was an emergency situation, and look,
Speaker 1: I say, you had to do things properly. So the
Speaker 1: ira knew this, And as we came out on this
Speaker 1: particular time, they had placed another bomb in a pub
Speaker 1: which was right by our patrol base. So as we
Speaker 1: got ready in the patrol base, sure enough boom when
Speaker 1: the second one, and I was stood right next to
Speaker 1: it when it went. Luckily enough, I'll still be on
Speaker 1: an armored vehicle and most of the last one over
Speaker 1: the top of the vehicle because I put the They
Speaker 1: put the bomb in the second floor of this pub,
Speaker 1: and it blew the blew the rubble up instead of out.
Speaker 1: And if it would have been on the bottom floor
Speaker 1: of the pub, then I probably wouldn't be telling the
Speaker 1: story here to day without a doubt, boom off it went,
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, it was the first time I've ever
Speaker 1: been blown up. It's something went out with chest another lad.
Speaker 1: No one was killed on this one, but one that
Speaker 1: broke his leg quite bad in another one cracked a
Speaker 1: few ribs as he was blown across the street. And
Speaker 1: I was just from a broad a rubble coming down
Speaker 1: for ages and you couldn't see nothing. It was brick dust.
Speaker 1: As far as I could see was brick dust. It
Speaker 1: was insane. The smell of the of the explosions that
Speaker 1: had gone off, and the it's just the chaos of
Speaker 1: hearing the two guys that were injured screaming then he
Speaker 1: couldn't see them or get to them, and bricks coming
Speaker 1: out of the the sky for about it must have seemed
Speaker 1: like about five minutes afterwards, these things have been blown
Speaker 1: so I you know, they are boom bang stuff coming
Speaker 1: out of sky for ages. It was. It was quite comedy.
Speaker 1: It was like it's almost like being on the set
Speaker 1: of a Tom and Jerry film or something. You know,
Speaker 1: when something goes you know, when something blows up and
Speaker 1: it's pots some bounds falling well of the place. And
Speaker 1: I remember we had to to this straight away and
Speaker 1: we ran downtown and we we tried to find the perpetrator.
Speaker 1: There was no chances bump Up been putting about two
Speaker 1: days ago before and it was on a time or
Speaker 1: so we weren't going to get them. But that was
Speaker 1: my first experience of the enemy in Ireland, which was
Speaker 1: it was a bit of a wake up called we've
Speaker 1: been there for a few few months not had anything happened.
Speaker 1: You get a bit lax in your drills and stuff,
Speaker 1: but you know, straight after something like that, everybody's banging
Speaker 1: out of the gate again, everybody's on top of it,
Speaker 1: and that you have por trovel. It happens, and we
Speaker 1: went a bit hard on the town for a bit
Speaker 1: after that. But that was that was in eighty nine.
Speaker 1: Quite incredible. The next to the next, the next few
Speaker 1: years I did. I spent nearly five years in Northern Ireland,
Speaker 1: in and out of there on different operations and stuff.
Speaker 1: I did London dairy, I've been to done some short
Speaker 1: tours in Belfast, I went to Omar and in that time,
Speaker 1: you know, I saw I still a fair few incidents,
Speaker 1: although it wasn't as probably full on as say Iraq
Speaker 1: or Afghanistan or somewhat like that. You had to be careful.
Speaker 1: You couldn't take it for granted. You couldn't. It was
Speaker 1: very tense when you were actually working. You couldn't just
Speaker 1: take it for granted that you were going to get
Speaker 1: through to the end of the day, because it wasn't
Speaker 1: you know, I think because the ira A once said,
Speaker 1: you know, they've only got to be lucky once, We've
Speaker 1: got to be lucky all the time, and that was
Speaker 1: quite true. You know, you lived your life like that.
Speaker 1: You had to be lucky all the time, which was
Speaker 1: quite a stress on you if you if you are
Speaker 1: working a lot over it. But like I said, we
Speaker 1: got through those We've got through those days. And let's
Speaker 1: say compared with Afghanistan and are fairly fairly said. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I've often I've often been criticized for saying
Speaker 1: that as a terrorist organization, the ira actually weren't that good,
Speaker 1: which is people would say it's a bit harsh filled
Speaker 1: or you know, you're under restivating. But I don't underestimate them.
Speaker 1: When I look at other terrorist organizations around the world
Speaker 1: and I look at, you know, the Khmer Rouge, or
Speaker 1: I look at you know, Al Qaede or I look at,
Speaker 1: you know, somebody, somebo the Islamic terrorist groups, you know,
Speaker 1: compared with the stuff that they're doing, the IRA were brutal. Yes,
Speaker 1: they came up. There was a lot of bungled operations
Speaker 1: by them, you know, there was a lot of It
Speaker 1: wasn't as hardcore perhaps as as some people make it out.
Speaker 1: The Beast certainly wasn't romantic as I've seen people make
Speaker 1: it out. You know, they had their point, and I
Speaker 1: think we get that. I don't have their point. But
Speaker 1: terrorism is never the answer for me, ever, And so
Speaker 1: you know, if you can indulge in that, you know,
Speaker 1: expect expect the form of the authorities to be coming
Speaker 1: down on your because you know, if you want to
Speaker 1: deal with terrorism, like I say, unfortunately the world has
Speaker 1: had a great big dose of terrorism over the last
Speaker 1: few years and it needs to be dealt with as
Speaker 1: as we've sayen So you know, Irish terrorism is no
Speaker 1: exception if you want to resort to terrorism, and you know,
Speaker 1: there are plenty of good men who were prepared to
Speaker 1: don uniforms and deal with you. And that's that's the
Speaker 1: way it is. And I take my hat off and
Speaker 1: salute every last one of those men prepared to do
Speaker 1: violence on my behalf or our behalf as it were.
Speaker 1: That was my first early days. And it was from
Speaker 1: there really that I got my first exposure to Special
Speaker 1: Forces because I started doing a topical close observation platoon.
Speaker 1: Now close observation patuons worked covertly. We worked in observation towers,
Speaker 1: but we also worked on the ground and observation no peace.
Speaker 1: We used to go into bushes or derelicts and that
Speaker 1: sort of stuff, and we would take photographs of suspects
Speaker 1: and that sort of thing. And you know, there was
Speaker 1: all sorts of different tasks for the close observation patuons
Speaker 1: and they were they came under the bracket of they
Speaker 1: weren't Special Forces, but they worked to the same to
Speaker 1: the same desk as some of the specop stuff that
Speaker 1: was going on. So I was a young man, it
Speaker 1: was a great thing to be involved with and it
Speaker 1: was my first exposure of actually seeing their CS in action.
Speaker 1: One of the courses that we had to do to
Speaker 1: become a member of the close observation but soon meant
Speaker 1: that you had to the instructors on there. There was
Speaker 1: always a Special Forces operator as an instructor on your course,
Speaker 1: So in terms of what I learned in those days
Speaker 1: on the close observation stuff, I learned. Note and like
Speaker 1: they're saying, my first exposure of seeing special forces. Yes,
Speaker 1: I've seen them in the jungles of Kenyare on exercise,
Speaker 1: but I've never seen them on operations proper. And although
Speaker 1: you weren't provely to everything you did, they did. You
Speaker 1: did come across them. You did, you know, see them
Speaker 1: now and again coming by, and it was something that
Speaker 1: I really aspire to do. We did some great jobs.
Speaker 1: I mean, we got into a couple of dealects in
Speaker 1: the city and we took photographs of this player and
Speaker 1: that player, and it was a it was a cracking
Speaker 1: job imber meantimes you'd be moving around and covert vehicles
Speaker 1: and dropping people. Often. The work was specialist and took
Speaker 1: some great training and you learned some awesome skills, you know,
Speaker 1: car drills and all that sort of stuff should you
Speaker 1: get caught in illegal VCPs vehicle checkpoints and that sort
Speaker 1: of thing. So it really was a cool job to do.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say as a as a young man,
Speaker 1: it was my first exposure to doing something a little
Speaker 1: bit special, a little bit speck ups. For instance, in
Speaker 1: the early days you were allowed to grow your hair
Speaker 1: long so that you blended him if you were in
Speaker 1: the cars and driving around, so it was you know,
Speaker 1: you were different, you were doing something special. And I
Speaker 1: think it's important that young sports soldiers get exposure to
Speaker 1: other stuff up the ladder. Nowadays you can you know,
Speaker 1: as a British soldier you can do s f f
Speaker 1: G s Special Forces Support Group. You know, that's got
Speaker 1: a lot of ladds of doing that, getting some great
Speaker 1: exposure to see in the way of the world with
Speaker 1: special special operations and that sort of stuff. And it's
Speaker 1: a good foundation to get from something like that from
Speaker 1: a Pathfinder Matoon or sff G to then step up
Speaker 1: to Special Forces Selection proper. And what I'm saying in
Speaker 1: the UK we have uk SF which is our two
Speaker 1: one f S is the s S and the SPS
Speaker 1: who both do uk SF selection, a combined selection. And
Speaker 1: I know, you know young has asked me a lot. Now,
Speaker 1: you know what's it like, Phil, Well, you know I
Speaker 1: always tell them, you know, you've got to if that's
Speaker 1: what you're inclining to do, if you're your young lad
Speaker 1: and you're you know, you're wanting to go for Special Forces,
Speaker 1: do it sooner rather than later, because you won't look back.
Speaker 1: You know. It's a great place to be, it really is.
Speaker 1: And I think if you talk to any any speck
Speaker 1: ops operator, he will tell you, you know, that's if
Speaker 1: that's what you really want to do, then get there
Speaker 1: sooner rather than later, and grab onto it with both
Speaker 1: hands for the time that you're there, you know, and
Speaker 1: enjoy moreover you know. And remember when I first got
Speaker 1: the Hereford, one of my site made just said, you know,
Speaker 1: if you enjoy what you do, you don't work. And
Speaker 1: it was a very true thing of him to say,
Speaker 1: if you actually enjoy what you do, it's not work.
Speaker 1: So that was my early days. That was my first
Speaker 1: exposures as a young man to Special Forces and operations.
Speaker 1: It was all Northern Irelands in my early days. Like
Speaker 1: they say, I spent I spent over five years on
Speaker 1: operations in Northern Ireland, which is not a massive amount
Speaker 1: of time, but it's still, you know, five years of
Speaker 1: your life spent on operations. It's a long time when
Speaker 1: you think about it's the longest time, but it's still
Speaker 1: it's still a long enough time. And then like I
Speaker 1: say after that, it was just things like bossing a
Speaker 1: Kosovo and see earlier, and just little odds and sizes,
Speaker 1: which we'll talk about another day, I'm sure, but there
Speaker 1: you go. I'm waffling on now about bits and pieces.
Speaker 1: So let's now talk about something else which is absolute
Speaker 1: passion to me, which is a d C. And I've
Speaker 1: been looking at these bracelets, okay that have just been
Speaker 1: been to all that. They've been on the market for
Speaker 1: a long time. But there's some great of these parachorded
Speaker 1: bracelets on the market now, which is which is really cool.
Speaker 1: If you go on on my Facebook page, I'm going
Speaker 1: to profile a few of them in the next few weeks.
Speaker 1: But there's some really cool stuff and the complements your
Speaker 1: d C when it comes to things like tornicks or
Speaker 1: it comes to even splints and all that sort of
Speaker 1: stuff with the first oh side, a great length of
Speaker 1: parachord is a massive acit to you. So my e
Speaker 1: d C thing this week is He's bracelets and some
Speaker 1: of them have even got compasses and whistles, and I
Speaker 1: saw one the other day were small blade on it
Speaker 1: as well, actually, which was which was quite cool on us.
Speaker 1: I don't think you've managed to get onto the planes.
Speaker 1: But yeah, the bracelets that we've been looking at for
Speaker 1: the DC are really really cool, so have a look
Speaker 1: at that. I'm sure at some stage Great Club will
Speaker 1: bust out a parachord bracelet if they haven't done so already,
Speaker 1: and I haven't seen one yet, but I'm sure they
Speaker 1: will do, or some stage one will come out a
Speaker 1: great piece of kit. And like I say, the connotations
Speaker 1: of what you can do with that piece of kit.
Speaker 1: You know, even if you just strip it down as
Speaker 1: a spare bootleage one day, or tie your kit onto
Speaker 1: your back, or secure something to the top of your car,
Speaker 1: you can see where we're going when it can't you
Speaker 1: the parrot. Having a great length of parachord on you
Speaker 1: is a super bonus. And been able to keep it
Speaker 1: on your risk. Forget about it. It's there, okay. So
Speaker 1: I've been wearing these bracelets now for for the last
Speaker 1: couple of weeks to trial them out, and I'm having
Speaker 1: a I'm having a good time with them. I think
Speaker 1: they're cool, they look they look all right. You can
Speaker 1: get them in various different colors. I've got them in black,
Speaker 1: I've got them in olive, I've got them in green,
Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean you have to have them in
Speaker 1: those kinds. I mean we're using this as a first
Speaker 1: aid piece of it. I could have it in red,
Speaker 1: I could have it in yellow, I could have it
Speaker 1: in blue if I've got a yellow and blue one,
Speaker 1: because a lot of these guys now are doing regimental
Speaker 1: colors with them as well. So the point being at
Speaker 1: our stress this again, the point being that we have
Speaker 1: a large amount of parachord on my person at any
Speaker 1: one time, which I can do hundreds and hundreds of
Speaker 1: cool things with. I mean this is extreme, but with
Speaker 1: the belts that I wear, the five eleven belts with
Speaker 1: the loops on the front of them, I can even
Speaker 1: prusse it. So I can strip this down. I can
Speaker 1: make what's called a prussic and I can climb robe.
Speaker 1: I can climb robe, I can climb poles. I can
Speaker 1: make the connotations with this. And I think as we
Speaker 1: get into these bracelets, I think I'm going to actually
Speaker 1: showcase some of this stuff on my live show of
Speaker 1: what we can do when we strip these bracelets down
Speaker 1: and how we can get this stuff out and going.
Speaker 1: It's going to be really cool. So look forward to
Speaker 1: that and soft rap, because that will be something to
Speaker 1: look forward to. It will be really cool. A d
Speaker 1: C with myself showing you some of the cool tricks
Speaker 1: you can do. We've really inexpensive kid that doesn't cost
Speaker 1: a lot of all these bracelets. I mean, jeez, if
Speaker 1: you pay more than two or three dollars for him,
Speaker 1: you'd be you'd be you'd be paying too much, you
Speaker 1: really would. And of course if you've got really cute
Speaker 1: I know some guys that tie their own and make
Speaker 1: their own out of these tell you a series of
Speaker 1: retaining type knots, which which which are quite cool when
Speaker 1: they look at you seriously, have a look at them.
Speaker 1: I have a look at the paracole bracelets. They're a
Speaker 1: great bit of kit. They've covered a DC. We've looked
Speaker 1: at me in Northern Ireland, and we've talked remembrance, which
Speaker 1: is always always close to my heart. Let's see if
Speaker 1: I can play the last post. The last post is
Speaker 1: always played on Remembrance Day. That's what starts. I don't
Speaker 1: have too many sorts. Was always done still bothered m
Speaker 1: m I see, I see, I see sister m h
Speaker 1: m hm hm ah ah. There we go, don't forget
Speaker 1: to check things out on Create Club and to check
Speaker 1: everything out on soft rep dot com hopefully next time
Speaker 1: without a soft right. As you can tell our come today,
Speaker 1: I was seeing all very shown where else. You'll clover
Speaker 1: some more topics for you until then over James Winds
Speaker 1: as ours and I'll see you all later. You've been
Speaker 1: listening to self rep Radio. New episodes up every Wednesday
Speaker 1: and Friday. Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter at
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