I joined the Territorial Army in 1987 as Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps (v) attached to 205 Scottish General Hospital RAMC (v) which had headquarters in Glasgow and bases in Edinburgh, Dunoon and Inverness. I spent two years training for an invasion by the Russians and then, in 1991, we were sent to Saudi Arabia to support the US led coalition forces in the expulsion of Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
I received a phone call in December from our administrative officer telling me that we were to be mobilised and as only the first part of the Queen's Orders for mobilisation had been signed that individual participation was voluntary. I volunteered - someting my dear wife only discovered on my return. We don't talk much about the period I was in Saudi, but I kept a daily diary which forms the basis of this blog.
Clearly I have edited the entries consderably as there are a great many personal reflections I would not wish others to read, in my lifetime. They will be available in the hand-written copy of my diary to my family on my departure from this world. I have also edited slightly to protect some individuals.
It has taken me over 20 years to transcribe the diary. Why? you may ask on reading it - it is not long. The reasons include that I did not want to look at it for many years until, encouaged to do so by Dr Jeremy Crang, an eminent military historian at The University of Edinbugh - once a close colleague as a univeristy warden and a real source of support before, during and after my time in Saudi. Jeremy said that these diaries, no matter what the contents, were always of interest and could be lodged in some way with the war records. I have not taken that step yet; on the whole I did not find them all that interesing or informative to re-visit. Nevertheless, there was the occasional gem of a memory that I had forgotten. The other reason it took so long will be apparent to anyone who has ever transcribed; it is very tedious work.
What surprises me most is not the contents, but what I did not include. For example, while it happened prior to my departure, the Roman Catholic Priest who had brought my wife and me into The Church drove from Glasgow to Edinburgh (I was employed at The University of Edinburgh) to plead with me not to go. I was very angry and my defiance permanently affected our relationship. We maintained contact for many years but, thereafter, his modus operandi was to undermine me regarding every aspect of my professional life. At that time I was a neophyte Catholic and, while defiant, I continued to respect him. I consider that respect was misplaced and betrayed.
As you can imagine, my wife was not happy about my departure. I would have been concerned if she were not. We had four young children and she was expecting again. My stance was then - and now - that we had happily taken considerable amounts of money in pay from the Territorial Army (TA) for a few years, without which my Staff Nurse salary in the early TA days would not have covered our mortgage. I also maintain that an army staffed only by the unmarried and childless would be an even more unbalanced and socially strained place than it already is. The Gulf War left a scar on our marriage that took years to heal - and it has healed. But one tragic casualty of that period was the copious letters - probably in the hundreds - that we exchanged on 'blueys' (British Forces Post Office free airmail letter cards). These recorded far more of mine and her daily routine during the war, in addition to some exchanges of a very private and personal nature, than any of the pages of my diary. In a fit of temper following one of our almost continual marital post-war disputes, I binned the lot.
This diary is dedicated to my dear wife Debbie and to all of my children, especially those with her in my absence and to those of my children who have had and continue to have military careers. God bless them all.
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