Life in the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (PWRR) - Army Regiments

The Princess of Wales is Royal Regiment, the Tigers is our nickname. When we do something we put 110% into everything that we're going to do, no matter what it is. Everyone works together, everyone's friendly, very proud of our history and we're very proud of the history that we're making at the moment as well. I was 16 years old, just finished school, got my GCSEs, sat down and spoke to my parents about joining the Army like my father was in. He said if I wanted to do it, just go Junior Entry and I'd spend a year at Harrogate. My first concern with going to Harrogate was, oh, here we go, it's going to be another year at school, but no, it was completely different. I found it brilliant. You spend most of the time doing your core military skills. Teachers treat you like adults. I got some more civilian qualifications out of it then, for my maths and my English, in IT itself as well. I was 20 years old when I joined. I had good times and bad times when I was a civvy, but now the good times are so much better. I got to be there for the Royal Wedding and the Jubilee, helped out with the Olympics. I've done some really good stuff. Parachuting, skiing, all paid for by the Army. Going to different countries, seeing how different people live their life, especially Kenya. Our regiment's moving to Cyprus for three years. I'm married, I've got a kid. My wife and kid are coming with me to Cyprus. That's being paid for by the Army. And to live somewhere like that for three years, as your job, seems to be quite good to me. When we were off the Reserve Battalion, we were on a readiness state and I was living in Cyprus. We had our own private beach. We had water sports. Then I started getting my Living Overseas Allowance. Back then it was about £600 extra a month. Having that money in my pocket, for an 18-year-old, I felt like a millionaire. There was a need for us to be deployed to Afghanistan and we built up a massive rapport with the locals. They're basically badgered by the insurgents 24-7 and us moving into that area enabled them to get running water, electricity just before we left. As soon as your adrenaline kicks in, that's it. You just end up going and you go with whatever you've been taught. The sort of fierce pride factor is the, let's get up, let's go, let's do this for each other. The bit of fire in your belly that keeps you moving through. I wouldn't be here if I didn't love my job. It's something to be proud of. Your battalion holds the most VCs. The latest VC winner was Bahari, out in Iraq, and he's the only living soldier to hold a VC, which is the highest battle honour you can have. If you're looking at joining the Army and doing what the infantry does for a job, in Cyprus we're a key place to be able to go anywhere around getting ready for future deployments and stuff like that. That's when all the new kit comes in, anti-tanks, mortars and machine guns. It's like a ladder like any other job. You never want to be at the bottom for the whole of your career. You always want to be able to achieve the best that you can. So I looked into different aspects of the Army and then found that I didn't even need to leave the regiment that I was in. That's where I decided to do the signal side of things. If you're sat on the fence and you're thinking, it looks like something for me, I want to get away, I want to travel, then definitely give it a go. You'll be surprised the opportunities you get. You'll meet friends for life. Even if you do your four years and then you decide you've had enough, always give it a try because the Army will surprise you.