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At this moment in time we are fighting a war in Afghanistan its a bitter conflict against a foe that shows no mercy at all, not only that the conditions that both the British and American soldiers are fighting must be the worst in living history. so what makes a soldier do what he does, why does he volunteer to put himself or indeed in these days why does she put herself in this sort of danger.

I was intrigued by this question up to that point I had not even given a thought to why they did the job that they do. Not being in the military, I could not give an answer to the question. So what does any writer do in those situations? They ask the question to someone who would know the answer, and the only person that I know who could answer it truthfully was my dad.

I only found out that my dad had been a soldier by accident, I was 14 years of age when I found out, up to then he had kept it a secret from both my brother and me. Nothing not inkling was said in our house, and I can tell you it was shock of our lives when we found out.

Why dad why did you not tell us we asked him. The answer to that was a little bit more complex than the answer he gave to me this year.

This year I sat down with him and asked him the question. Dad why did you put yourself in that position when you were a young lad I asked, and why when you had joined did you push yourself into more danger. He went into is loft and came back with medals and is two Mention in Dispatches, I must point out at this point in time that we are British. He looked at them and said I have not looked at them in a long time, so dad I said did you join to win those, no he said these are just trinkets something they gave to me for things that I did.

I joined the British army for a number of reasons. The first reason was that I thought that it was expected of me your grandfather and his father and is father had always been in the military so I thought wrongly, as it turned out that your granddad would be pleased. The second reason was the travel; I went all over the world with them. The third reason was the excitement. In addition, the fourth reason was the good that I did for my country but that only came later far later when I started to find out that being a soldier was not just about the uniform and the comradeship that we had, but that I could really make a difference in the world. And I did make a difference, there are people in the world that are still alive because of what I and my comrades did, they went on to live normal lives father children, give birth to children and to live out there lives peacefully. I can still see there grateful faces looking at me and my comrades as we rescued them all though years ago, he pulled two of his medals out and fingered them gently in his hand. She gave these to me you know he said, how many people in this country can say that they have met and talked to our Queen. he gently put them back. suppose he said, that a person joins the army to win these sort of things.

However, why did you push yourself further? I wanted to prove to myself that I could do what I eventually went on to do he said, and I did I proved that when the going got tough I would never runaway and that the bad guys would not getaway with what they were doing in the world. That's what most of those trinkets are for doing something in the world that if I had remained at home I would have not been able to do.

He put those medals away those medals he calls trinkets although he calls them trinkets he is immensely proud of them and I saw an old man of sixty become just for a few seconds a soldier again, a steel glint in his eyes a look of determination and a look that said I wish that I was twenty again.

Learn more about this author, Catherine Lear.
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