… military occasions. For example Beating Retreat by ten infantry battalions in Nicosia in 1960, marking the end of British rule in Cyprus. (I was in Army PR, doling out brandy sours to Fleet Street – one reason why their reports were so emotional.)
There was the Trooping the Colour when I almost dropped a telephoto lens on HM’s charger from a Horseguards office window. (I know they train police horses to ignore gunshots, but would it have been impassive to heavy Zeiss hardware hitting its flank? We nearly found out.)
There was the Queen’s Own Highlanders’ mess dinner on trestle tables in a damaged Port Stanley school-house when, after dining on compo-rations, the pipe-major marched in and played for us. As the candles flickered on the 1875 silver figure of a kilted soldier I remember wondering how many hot-spots that centrepiece had seen.
And other memories, some tense, some funny. Standing (armed) with the Irish Guards in a moonlit jungle clearing on the Mozambique border when ZANU fighters suddenly and silently emerged as the Rhodesian War officially ended.
Filming HMS Ark Royal’s wardroom piano (captured from the RAF) being catapulted off for burial at sea during her final voyage.
And midnight in Boogis Street in Singapore with some Commando officers when we… but enough reminiscing.
What prompted this was stewarding at the cathedral service celebrating the safe return from Iraq of 1 Mechanised Brigade. There were about a thousand soldiers present in desert kit. Most of these youngsters now have that indefinable edge that comes with combat.
For me the highlight was the address given by the senior chaplain, the Rev. Angus MacLeod. He drew a word-picture of torch-lit farewells to comrades in body-bags at the Basra Palace, and reminded those who’d survived constant attack to remember how they’d prayed under fire, and what they’d promised to do if and when they got home.
“You’ve been to a place of extremes,” he told them, “now is the time to do some living.” And he quoted their Iraq motto: “Don’t count the days; make the days count.”
Something else I shall remember.
