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Colin Kirkwood Boy Soldier to Captain
I
left the Bonnet Toun in 1998 aged 16 , to join the Scots Guards not realising I would still be serving 22 years later . I never performed well at school and for those that know me remember me constantly trying to be the class clown . This of course ensured I would have very poor exam results and not a lot of job prospects when I left school . As I boarded the bus in Edinburgh to start training for the Army , I did so with the words of Mr McMahon ( Geography teacher and scary bloke ) ringing in my ears – “ Kirkwood , you will amount to nothing ”.
As a Junior Soldier ( ages 16 / 17 ) I did one year of training in Edinburgh and the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick , North Yorkshire . It was hard to be away from home at first but the training took your mind off of it and developed self confidence , discipline , mental robustness and physical fitness . The other bonus to training which I did not expect was a driving license and a chance to gain my education qualifications in maths and English .
After training I was posted to London and for the first couple of years I conducted Public Duties , guarding the Queen and taking part in Trooping the Colour . It takes a lot of personal discipline to stand still for two hours at a time , especially when a tourist is standing there trying to make you laugh ! Enjoyable as London was , it was time for a move and we had been warned off to move to Germany and this would be our home for five years .
The one thing I wanted when I joined the Scots Guards was the chance to travel and
see the world and I saw a lot of it during my time in Germany . One of my first operational tours was to Iraq as a young Lance Sergeant in charge of eight men . This was a daunting country filled with the remnants of war , religious divide , political instability and a suspicion of any outside forces . It was a great experience and I learned so much during this tour that would help me in the future . One funny moment during the tour happened as the camp was getting hit with rockets and we were laying face down trying to protect ourselves , I heard laughing and recognised a boy from Stewarton , serving in a different Regiment . We looked at each other during the chaos and started catching up on what had been happening back home , the two Estonian soldiers with us thought we were mad , just chatting away as rockets struck the camp .
Al-Amarrah Football Stadium , Iraq 2004
Over the coming years I got promoted again and deployed twice to Afghanistan , although the first tour was a tough experience it was the second tour in 2010 that really tested my ability and the ability of my mates . My Company deployed a month earlier than had been planned as we were to take part in a large helicopter assault operation against the Taliban . The Company deployed on three helicopters in the dead of night into a heavily defended Taliban area , our mission was to distract them as the main force came from somewhere else , hopefully not taking any casualties . The first week we were under constant siege from the Taliban and constantly fighting , it was tough on all the men . The end of the first week we moved out in the darkness so we could be extracted by helicopter back to our base when suddenly a burst of machine gun rounds flew across out Helicopter Landing Site . The rounds hit my Platoon Commander and after the fire died down he was given first aid and put on the medical evacuation helicopter , it was at this point that I was told I was now in command of the Platoon . As a Sergeant you are the second in command of a Platoon of thirty men , the Officer is the commander and when he gets injured or killed then the Sergeant steps up .
I never let it phase me , I couldn ’ t as I had thirty men looking at me to tell them what to do and plan the next operation which was similar to the last one we had conducted . I planned the next helicopter operation and we made it onto the ground , after a few days fighting , one of my friends in my Platoon was killed . This was a hard day , one of the hardest I have ever experienced in the Army . The operation still had to continue and we had no time to grieve , only when we were back in Camp Bastion , would we be able
Sentry duty , Afghanistan 2007