So .............when we went down south, we were a bit of a celebrity item as the only brothers allowed to serve in the same unit in a war situation.  We were of course asked if we would like to go outside the exclusion zone, but Steve said that he was there first and was staying put, whilst my response was “foxtrot oscar – you’re not sending me to the Hermes!!” as I recall quite clearly as it happens – the skipper then decided if we both wanted to stay, then he wasn’t going to stop us.  Steve who was on the seacat launcher above the hanger was always back aft anyway so I got sent fo’rd to the 4.5 gunbay as a loader, then spotter in the bins on the bridge wings, then on GPMG and LMG on the bridge roof, then generally swanning about with a SMG on the upper deck as long as I stayed up front.  I got to loose off hundreds of rounds whenever the bells went off – great fun…. for a chef!  The photo you have selected, is indeed me, celebrating my 20^th birthday down the mess, with a cake baked by Alan ‘Danny Boy’ Kay (he’s the guy taking the bangers out of the oven and the guy stood next to me in the South Georgia photo with the cup of tea…. and the gay stance (Danny now runs a pub in Chester called the Bears Paw (that sounds like a gay bar if ever I heard of one!).  The helo photo is of an SAS guy called Dave (if I tell you his other name I will have to blow up your web site) that came on board and asked me to take a load of plastic mines to the galley to dry out which he casually tossed to me – I thought he was serious till I caught a grin between him and the nameless guy standing behind him – b’stard!  I shat myself!!!!

More of this to come if you like…