 When I went to the Korea's office, I was 18 years of age, pretty much went in and said look I want to join the best Welsh regiment, who is it? And obviously this Welsh Guards crew and sergeant said it's the Welsh Guards son, you come with me. Off I went to training, first phase, bird ride, second phase was up in Catrick. You're sort of there on PT, which is what you call sort of the most senior rank really because when you're on PT, you know what rank you are, you're in charge of that. Fall unconscious and just fall 30 feet on their head. So we said what do you want to do? And I was on the spot and I went, so I'll do the, I'll do the P company. I'll do the P company parade. He said Molino, I suggest you're about to march out the office, come back in and give me the right answer. Hello legends. I'm absolutely delighted to be joined by Sean Molino, who founded the UK Veterans Awards. And is this the time where I get my, I get my award outlook? I'm the current English veteran of the year for inspiration. And thank you ever so much for that, Sean. I have to say, mate, that was one hell of a good weekend. And I was just, I was walking on air, I have to say, coming back from those awards. It was a good show. So thank you, mate. No, very, very, very well deserved. And I think that from the feeling, the room, I know we're all in the veteran community, and we all sort of support each other as well, which is what I like. You know, when it is, obviously everyone wants to win. We do want to win in life. That's a life thing. I mean, majority of people out there want to win. They want to be up there. But I think for everyone that was just in the room as well, Chris, just to get through and have that experience and have this sort of promotion of being a finalist and being out there as well. I think that's, that's something to cherish for you. And that's something to pride ourselves on. Trying to promote the community as a whole. Obviously, there can only be a, there can only be one winner, like they can if they're a race, there's only one winner. But ultimately, I think that the community as a whole, it just spreads so much positive light on the people that were doing great things. Obviously, including yourself. And we had some great, we had some great stories on the back of that night. And I think there's a favorite of maybe alcohol drunk as well and a few good stories and fantastic evening. Yes. And I must say, you know, a big, big up to all our fellow veterans there. Some people doing some great stuff. Sean, let's come on and talk about that. But I just want to talk about your earlier career, which is Welsh Guards, PTI in the Welsh Guards and one hell of a famous regimen. Is it not? Yeah, you didn't call it the Queen's Finest back then. Obviously, the King's Finest, I've got a rest or so. But I think, yeah, for me, I went to the Korea's office, I was 18 years of age, pretty much went in and said, look, I want to join the best Welsh regimen. Who is it? And obviously, this Welsh Guards crew, recruiting sergeant, said it's the Welsh Guards and you come with me. I often went to training first phase to go to the right, second phase was up in Catrick. So plenty of hills, passed out with training, obviously, very proud. And I remember getting off the train station in St James's Park, which is, I don't know if you know London very well, everyone, but it's near enough to sort of Buckingham Palace and Wellington Barracks. And so I remember getting off there and obviously guarding the Queen then for the first sort of year of my military career in Wellington Barracks, living literally a stone so away from Buckingham Palace. So it was a bit of an eye opener for a young Welsh lad who comes from a small town, obviously living in London at the age of 18. It was plenty of nights out and good fun stories. But yeah, that was the first part. And they're very proud really. And within a year, I was always very fixed on a lot of martial arts and a bit of rugby in school. And to be honest with the age of 19, I was put on for my PTI course, which was very, very fast. It's very fast to be loaded on that. It's usually about a year and a half, two years before anyone would be sort of loaded onto one of those courses. But I think it's because I was always, always at the front, always, you know, pushing, trying to better myself. I was at the front with the PTIs running all the time. So that's when I went across the Army School of Physical Training. It was actually a bookmark, war marine instructor. So a guy called Tony Hans. I don't know if you've come across him, Chris at any point, but Staff Hans, Tony Hans, he was my... I tried to avoid him, mate. We're called nods in training, right? When you're a nod, you kind of need a PTIs a bit older than you because you're... I mean, all your training teams are a bit battle-hardened and a bit older than you. And at 19, I bet you had recruits that were older than you, Shaun, didn't you? Well, it was. I think that was a bit of a sort of for a while. It was weird because I was in, I think after about a year and a half as well, I went to quite a senior platoon, so it was I was in guns and snipers. So it wasn't just a sort of rifle platoon. I started off a fight, too. And then went across the big machine guns, those were not in the military, the GPMGs and things. And obviously the snipers, we were a separate platoon attached to number two company. You have to sort of earn the respect of it as well, then. I can actually remember it because it was not senior, senior boards, you know, being in, you know, eight years, eight years, sort of guardsmen, and then your sort of hair on PT, which were you called sort of the most senior rank, really, because when you're on PT, you know, well, what rank you are, you're in charge of that session, you're in charge of that training program. So it was a bit. And I think, you know, for the first sort of six months, it took me a bit of time to find my feet. But what it did hold me in good stead for was when I went for my promotion carder then with the household division and parachute regiment, those who don't know that that's the sort of guards and the parrots, they come together for their sort of junior NCO carder. And they do it in a place called HDRPCC, household division and parachute regiment, etc. courses in Purbrite. So we do it together. And it helped me in great good stead doing that PTI course earlier. I came off that course with a distinction. So it was one of the top, top grades on that. But I think that was very much because I done my PTI course and I was in a leadership role slightly before going on to my junior NCO carder, if that makes sense, Chris, but I really, really appreciate that. At the time I didn't, I don't think because I was a young lad, I was probably interested in things that most squaddies and soldiers are interested in going out drinking and doing the usual jazz. But when I look back on this self-reflect, they do a lot of that no longer, but that was the first sort of good management course that I ever done. And I really hold that now, you know, quite sort of dear to my heart that that sort of put me on my track of being management and when we come to transition, you know, very good points that you can pick from as well. But now some of your great times, great times. Not so much during training, but on the potential recruits course. So the course, the three day course you have to do to get into the Marines, you'd get like lads, they climb the top of the 30 foot rope, fall unconscious and just like fall 30 feet on their head. And it's like, fuck off, son, get on the train. And it is, it really is like that. It's, there's no, the Marines are really nice people. They just generally tend to be really good lads, but they've got this thing where they don't, there's no love loss for fools. Probably I'm sure it's the same in the guards. It's not like they're uncaring. It's just, when I was in training, I went up to the hot plate to get, you know, to get me scran the food, what you call scoff, right? Yeah, the set scoff. The chap in front of me was a potential recruit. So he's, and they just, you could spot them a mile away. They look like they just come out of, I don't know, off the dole queue or something. And this chap had a lot, long hair. So he, he's there in a, in a dining room with, I don't know, 300 blokes, all with their air, not just short, but like as short as we were allowed to, you know, short back and side sort of thing. All these chefs looking smart and Royal Marine chefs don't really have that money now, but back then they were the best in the world, you know, this last hot plate. And, and the chef just looked to me and he went, did you want some chicken, my darling? Like just, just purposely making wine dinners. Little lad's look. Sorry, Sean, going off on one. But I think that that sort of separates the banter. And I think wherever forces you're in there, you know, the wind up the banter and that sort of sort of, and I think that's something that people miss when they leave at some point, you know, because I don't think you'll ever get what we add. Whatever you're in, you know, the Marines, I've got great, great Marines, really good friends. Some of your great, great mates that are obviously in the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, but that banter side of it. I think it's brilliant. Class. So did you get, what I was getting at is, do you get a, you know, you must have seen some things as a PTI. You must have seen people crash out on runs and stuff. Oh, you know, we were very, we were very, very fit. When we moved from Wellington Barracks, Commonwealth Ceremony, he moved to all the shops. And we were, we were super fit at that point. It's two company. We had a major general Stanford, just finished his major general Stanford. And we had a company sell major Bowen. So they were my sort of company commander, company sell major, but they, they, they drilled us a bit, a bit. So on, on, on, on a Friday, he was in charge of CEO's PT, we'd be doing the eight miles. So his eight mile CFT is slightly probably changed now. I think some of it's changed, you know, the last couple of years, but we'd always do an eight mile CFT. Our aim would be to do it in one hour, 45 with full kit on. So it was a bit of a skip, you know, and if people weren't, you know, putting their weight on that, they'd pretty much find themselves on barricade or I'd get you over the weekend. So it was quite, you know, it was tough, but that would be every sort of Friday before we knock off. We'd have a usual fit session super week, you know, Jack Bruns and circuit trainer, but we'd always do a heavy load of carry every Friday before we knocked off on the weekend sort of CEO's, CEO's PT. And but yeah, we've seen a lot. There's a lot of lads that that did cream in, but it's tough, you know, and Fizz was tough. And then the idea was to be to get everyone to the stage that they're not dropping back, if that makes sense. So if they were dropping back, we then look at things to try and put that in place because ultimately, as a PTI, we do want them dropping back, do we? We want everybody to be at the front and everybody to be able to do it in a 145 comfortable pace, even though we're sort of CFT officially on the box was between 155 and two hours. We'd like the sort of aim to be coming in 10, 15 minutes before that, because we've seen ourselves as, you know, we want to be the best if that makes sense, what you're the best regiments out there, both fighting wise and also fit us wise as well. We'll give the Falklands a mention because that's one of the reasons that the guards were sent sent down south, wasn't it? It was their, um, their, their ability to march. I get lads message me, Chris, I want to join the Marines. What should I, you know, should I be running with boots? And when I'm like, no, said, first off, I didn't do no training before I joined up. Don't think a lot of this, I think quite a lot of blokes are like me. I did a few, like four milers, but nothing, you know, I was always kind of good at the ropes and stuff and the climbing and the, and we call it USMC, the, the, like the press press ups and all that sort of stuff. But I say to these lads, no, you, what you want to do is enjoy, enjoy it, enjoy running, get your Walkman on, go out, you know, get good at running four milers. You don't want to, you don't need to be doing like marathons, boots and kit. That's just, just, just, just get all around general fitness. And then the Marines will take you from there. That's what, that's what training is for. And then the other thing, because there's a lot of rope work in the Marines is I say, learn to climb a rope that will save you, especially if you're a tall person carrying a bit of weight. That, that will just save you in training. You watch lads, Sean, and they'd be, they'd be in torture because they fall behind. They just can't get up that rope, you know. So I'll tell the lads, look, get the B and Q, buy 30 foot of rope and go, go out the forest and tie it up to a tree, just practice climbing it. What, what, what would you say to, to youngsters who wanted to join your guards? Yeah, well, I mean, I had a chat with a young lad yesterday who was actually speaking at Andarcy Academy of Sport where he offspring's training and there was a young general of sports course. I do a little bit of talking about entrepreneurship and setting up business to do with forces fitness and the company setup. But so he wants to join the Welsh guards, actually, and he's going through the process now. So I popped in my car and said, look, send me a send me a sort of email, I'll put a little program together for him. So this is what I would do. But running is fundamentally key. It is key. It works your heart and lungs. I think the old press ups, sit ups, again, does not break away from the traditional exercises, which are basic, which you would do on your potential war Marines course, you press ups, you do your heaves, and you do your run, don't you? I think those, those tests on that now, which again, I'm taking some recruits to that tomorrow in another college and put them through that potential test to see how they come out on it. So yeah, running definitely, I would like to put in, if they could, because the runs have changed slightly now in the entrance. I think it's it's like a two K run, but runoff a mile and a half, it doesn't hurt. Far-Elec training is always good. A bit of intel type training, you know, work on a 400 meter sprint, walk 400, 400 meter sprint, walk 400, steady state 2K, steady state to tune up to a mile and a half. And again, going up to 5K, I think maybe you're right in what you're saying, you don't need to be running any longer than that. At tops, I'd say, you know, 5K probably before you get into training, and if you do a good 5K time somewhere between sort of 20 minutes and 24 minutes, you know, I think that would be all right because they'll take you through it. They do take you through it. They don't just do when you go into training, it's not just use a 55 pound burger and get your books on and we go for 20 miles. That doesn't happen. As you know, they do take you through the stage and the course is built for that. But having a basic oral fitness level of making sure that you do decent amount of press-ups. And if you can, obviously you can get the Royal Marines sort of assessment test, the deep test, that's a good one because it's a good gauge you can do from home. You can set up a 20 meter cones, you can do it yourself, you know, so I give it a go and use that as a gauge. I think you want to be somewhere, I think, in the army before they go into training, level nine above before you sort of go into training. I think when you get in there, it used to be sort of level 10. I'm pretty sure the Royal Marines is at sort of level 11, I think, is what they're aiming for. But they give you some sort of guidance on that. But yeah, definitely, there's tools out there. Press-ups, basic core exercises and concentrate on your running with those heart and lungs. Did you mention a paracourse there or do I miss hear you? So what happens with the guards and paras, they do their course together. So it's called the Household Division, which is the foot guard regiments. It comes through in grounds and then you've got the parachute regiment which is going through the three paras. We come together to do our corpus course. So I had two power of DS on my course, Badger Bailey. Can't remember the gentleman's name, sorry if you're listening. But anyway, I was on that course. I came off the distinction on the course. So he was one of the top students on it, which was great. And at that point, the commandant officer was guards, power Irish guards, but power Badged. He asked me to do a selection of that point. But I think I walked in the office and sort of banged at the salute. He said, you know, guards and Malino, fantastic, well done. I think you should think about those selection. I think he said, selection of those who don't know is going for some of the SAS or the SPS, Special Air Service, Special Forces. So at that point, I was like, I'll have a think about it soon. But I remember walking outside, back then I smoked. I don't know how to do you have it. I think it sparked in the cigarette and I was thinking like, guys, man, there's no chance ever that I'm ever going to do that. They were far too keen. That was too keen for me. I was a squaddie. I loved sort of a bit of the soldier when I was doing it. But I also loved my weekends, going out partying and going out clubbing and getting chasing them women or whatever we were doing. It was just that was my sort of, I was a young lad, you know, is it age 20? Or was I 21? 21 on my corpus course and 19 doing my PGA course. So still pretty young, really, with all of that in that age, but I was far too interested in that side of it. Did you get many, did many chaps in your regiment get their wings? Did you, did you get like allocated a certain number? Did you need it for like Recky Troop and this sort of stuff? So what happens with the guards? The guards are one of the only sort of battalions that have a presence within Three Parer. So they've actually got a guard's parachute platoon. So the people have got the opportunity to go and do their wins, then they'll get attached to 16 Aerosol Brigade and the Three Parer, but they're actually badged up guards, guards sort of flashed with the parachute regiment, the signature on there. So there is the opportunity to do that if you wish, if you wanted to do that. There was an opportunity for me to do it at the same time as doing my PGI course. And the company, this was when I was getting 19. And the company saw a major bow when I could remember it to this day. I'm glad he actually said no when I ended the PGI course when I marched in. And he said, Malino, you've got a choice to make. You can go on your parachute regiment course and, you know, attempt to go for that off the Three Parer, or you can do a PGI course with a battalion. So he said, what do you want to do? And I was on the spot and I went, so I'll do the, I'll do, I'll do the P company. I'll do the P company. Parer said, Malino, I suggest you go back to and march out the office, come back in and give me the right answer. So, so I marched out there and I did the PGI course to it. He said, well done. But just because of that, and I know this sounds so crazy, my whole business was built around that PGI course. So that one moment in my life where I was thinking, well, I fancy doing that, but didn't want to rock the boat because I was pretty much a young sort of crow. That, you know, that moment really, and me setting up a business in physical training that runs across the whole of Wales and multiple places within England, was maybe because of that moment as well. Does that make sense to me again? If I'd done my, if I'd done P company, I might have gone off the P company, not being one of the fittest in that, in that, in that tune, because it would have been a lot, you know, a lot fit and Three Parer, I don't think we're all going to have some fit lads in there. It may not have been a PGI, and I may not have ended up doing what I'm doing now. So I'm a big believer, pressing things out for a reason in life. And I do believe, I do believe that. Yeah, I think the secret in life, Sean, is A, try and get as much done as you can. So you, you know, I've done enough now that if I literally didn't do anything again for the next, I don't know how many years I've got, you know, sat in a Jack chair on a bit, I'm happy, you know, I genuinely, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to do a little bit of this, a little bit, but so that's what I'd say to anyone, you know, get out there, smash as much as you can. But the secret in life is knowing when to, if you fail or something doesn't work out, or it's not for you, or you don't get picked, you got to let that go, leave. That's, you know, and veterans have a real cause veterans tend to live in their egos, or their identity, I should say, as I'm, I'm, it's not even so much veterans, actually, it's more, I get a lot, Sean, of people that tried to get in the forces, but didn't get in. It's sad, mate, that people will carry that their whole life. And, and into adulthood, they're still broken by it. And I'm like, dude, let what's meant to be let you get one life, one life and you're, you're carrying this millstone about a job. If you did it, you probably know most of it was shit. There's good times and bad times, Chris, I think that's all we have in there. But most people don't even remember the good when they get out. But there's a reason a lot of people get out. I believe in what you're saying, I think two things that make you smile is massive for me, because that has a positive effect. But don't, don't be afraid of failure and don't linger on it either. I think you've got to give yourself another clear vision and set course for another target, something that's going to make you feel happy. I think that's, and that's I think about having a positive mindset. I think that's something that I really thrive and, you know, try and instill in any of my learners or talks that I give is keeping that positive mindset, keeping that good vision of where you want to get to. You can't blame people, Sean, because it's like you say as vet, as veterans, especially when you get together, or you do podcasts like this, you know, you do chat about the good times, don't you? You remember the good, you remember the funny. And to outsiders, it must just sound like being in the military is brilliant. They don't know that no, 85% of the time you're bored off your ass, you want to go home for the weekend, you're sat in an office waiting for some sergeant, you ain't got the guts to go, all right, lads, you know, because he's worried about what the troop boss will say if he get and it's quite funny, I hold a reunion every year. My my Ed come down, we were on ship together, me and Ed, a great bloke. And we, we met at this reunion, we sat having a party, he just looked, we went in it. I said, what's that? He said, the Marines, do you remember the hours we spent saying how shit it was? And yet we'll all meet up to remember it. Yes, quite, quite funny, quite funny. Did you mention Sniper, Sean? So I was in Gunners and Sniper, so I wasn't a sniper myself, I was a machine gunner, but the Gunners and Sniper's back then, I know the roles and the tunes of change we used to have in sort of Prince of Wales company, but to all the tall lads, because in the guards you've got with height order, tall lads have used to be Prince of Wales company. I was two companies, sorry, six foot, so the middle lads, and then you had that sort of little Iron Man, the small ones, and three company, but in Prince of Wales and two companies, we had a platoon, which was made up of guns and snipers. So we tend, it was called manoeuvre support platoon, so we tended to do a lot of work together, basically, almost away from the rifle company. We had our own sort of classroom, we'd done our own fairs, and it was, it was quite nice. It was, it was a nice platoon being, you know, a lot more potentially the sort of the senior sort of soldiers were in there, we've been round a little bit, but I'm going to treat a little bit more, a little bit more, I'd say, like adults, so we give a little bit more responsibility and stuff, but it was, it was good. I really enjoyed that. The Gunners MS2, I speak for a lot of the lads, we're still in now, a lot of them are commissioned, but they'll say, look, you know, that was the best sign, being back then, manoeuvre support platoon, going on up tag up to Canada, then deploying the Bosnia and stuff, but that was the sort of nice, a nice period, if that makes sense. Was that GPMG or was that? Yeah, GPMG I was on, yeah, GPMG, I was a GPMG gunner, so obviously number one and two in sustained fire role, which is sort of like a tripod, one of the number two gunner. Friends, you fire the GPMG and it's just got a general purpose tripod on the front. Well, I think it's a bipod, Shaun, isn't it? Yeah, it is, it's a bipod. So two legs swing down and you can lay it on the ground in front of you, and off you go. And it's wonderful to fire in that role because you can feel the whole weapon gun. It's, I don't know, I'm a bit funny about it. I like that, Shaun, I used to like the submachine gun because again, you could feel the mechanism in it. It's like the old spring gun. I think the smell of the brass as well when you're firing it in sort of sustained fire, which is when it's on the big tripod, when that's going down the range in 20, 30 rounds with it, it's just like that. You do some damage with that, especially in a night shoot. You watch them sort of lit up tracer rounds hitting the target and bouncing off the target. That's when you've got a full gunline going as well, maybe five or six guns, and they're all just smashing the firing. That's brilliant. So you said it, so SF sustained fire role, folks. You take the butt off, you've just got the shorter weapon, and it sits on this real solid tripod that's not going anywhere, right? And then you dial it in, Shaun, don't you? It's got the tripod, it's got dials on, so you can dial the weapon around. And we saw it in training for the first time, Shaun. And the training team, the tracer, were pinging off this rock about, it's about two miles away. And they could just pick out this tiny little rock, and it was hitting it, and the tracer was just going straight up in the air. It was insane. What, did you ever have a runaway gun? That has happened before. Yeah, people have had a runaway gun with the belt, that has happened. Not personally to me, but I've seen it happen on the range, but not personally, that's happened. So yeah, obviously barrel changes need to be quite frequent, otherwise you could end up with a bendy barrel, which I guess, if you fired too many rounds to it. Again, forgive me, it was a long time ago, I want to say it's like a 400 round change, maybe, but someone may be on it, they can say slightly, but you've got to change the barrel frequently, otherwise they glow luminous, then they end up being white, bright red, white, and then they can all go a bit floppy, which isn't good though. And you've got to be careful when you put it down with the grass, because that's happened before, they've said a barrel change, put it on the grass, the next thing you know, a fire's happened because the dead grass is gone next to it. Yes, yes, we did a section attack in training, it was all exciting, it was in the summer, so it was good weather. I think it was a moonless night, it might have been a little bit of moon, but it was, you know, that feeling where it feels like you're doing it for real, and literally just as our enemy spotted us and their machine guns kicked into life, so the umpire's like, right, stop! Because one of the schmooly's had come down and caught fire to the bloody Woodbury Common, I think it was a schmooly, it might have been and we had to then put this fire out. With your paddles, was it with the Peter paddles? And there was something called cooking off, wasn't there, where the barrel got so hot? A round would go off. That you didn't even have to pull the trigger, it could initiate itself, was it? Or just a round? Could be a round off, yeah, again, that hasn't happened to me, thankfully, but we've seen it sort of happen, we've heard it happen, we've cooked off, yeah, the sort of round just swells and then obviously you just get the top covered down quickly, if you see that happening underneath and then off it goes. Could be also, some people may see it as an ND as well, so it's quite close borderline really to be in cook off, I mean, you're like, oh no, it was definitely a cook off, but in touch with the trigger, but I think that's understandable with the guns that that does happen as well. Did you deploy on, did you mention Bosnia then? A few different ops, so I think when we went to Bosnia, went out to Bosnia, done some operations out with Bosnia before Yugoslavia, that was in, there was a summer tour, so it was quite hot out there, I know, I think a few of us have been in the Balkans, it's usually quite hot in the summer and it can be quite tastingly cold with a lot of snow in the winter out there. So again, when we were out there, more or less sort of how, sort of heart and minds a bit really doing a lot of house searches for illegal store weapons, just patrol in the general area and that was with NATO. Did you see any, I mean, there was a lot of atrocities in that part of the world, wasn't it? Not so much when I was there, I think that the biggest thing there was, that would have been a couple of years previous, we were sort of stabilization forces there, rather the initial forces that went in that would have picked up on a lot of that. Loads of minefields still out there, loads of that, I think that the worst thing I think that had happened was we had a grenade throw over the Rebro Centre at one point, one of the Rebros who we were in, no contact though, no contact in relation to sort of, you know, getting shot at if that makes sense directly. It was more, we were in a role where we were sort of, sort of piecing the area, it was in the north in Bani Lukas, it was the sub control part of Bosnia because it sort of split into two, I think, I still think it is, but you'd have the sub control top half and then you have the sort of, the sort of Croatian sort of controlled, sort of bottom half still where they were sort of living in separate areas. So we were up in the sub area, so it was mainly house searches for weapons and the boys got loads of weapons to be fair. I think they went into one barn, there was like a big anti-aircraft gun in a barn, in a farmer's barn, so there was loads of weapons getting confiscated off some little old lady answered the door and said, oh no, there's nothing here, we're out of the barn, there's a big anti-aircraft gun in there, but there's some good stories and it was, it was a nice, it was quite a nice tour, I know that might sound like a bad hand, but it was, it wasn't an overly bad tour when I looked at some of the sort of uptellic which is the Iraq's and definitely the later Herat tours which are very, very heavy on all my friends who I spoke to. It was, it was, it was, it was not a bad tour, does that make sense? It was, it was, it was, it was a tour that they did. Could you imagine if they, if they sent the boys and girls into bloody Ukraine, the bloodbath that we're going to, it is a different, you know, the technology Sean has moved on so much. They can see you when you can't even see anything in the sky, they're watching you, they know exactly what, you know, your enemy knows exactly where you are, they can just bring in the, I don't know, 500 pounders on your pos, it's, it's, yeah, it's a changing theatre, isn't it? Well, I think that's why the Army's changed and if you look at the sort of these new-bringed regiments or whatever they're bringing in, and it's operated very much in a sort of special forces type role, smaller teams, I think the days of getting up and doing large, massive-scale company, company attacks, you know, and they're sort of digging in, I think that, I think that I can't see that happening that much. I know it's happening a little bit in Ukraine with front-line the trenches, but generally I think warfare's changed so much now, and that's why the Army and the Armed Forces have mobilised sort of smaller in-and-out teams, they're training with drones now to work alongside drones, guide them into positions, and I think that, that's the future. I think that is the future of technology, because you've got so much now, we've got the large-scale drones about December's Campingio, there's so many weapons systems that can drop these missiles, you know, from miles and miles and miles away, you would, again, you won't see them come in. So, yeah, the old-school traditional warfare, and it's moved on over the years, doesn't it? You look at it, you look back to the old wars, it was just marching forward and just getting shot at World War I and World War II, so it's generally progressing more towards wars that are going to be one with technology, although you will need manpower on the ground at some point, of course. If you think about it, the commandos that, say, went behind the lines in the Second World War, were the original commandos, they didn't have to worry about a drone with an infrared camera on it above their head, they didn't have to worry about even a starlight scope, which is probably, that's like old, that's like night, night, that was the original night vision sight, folks. We have one in, we have one with us in Belfast and it was funny, I remember my mate just tapped me on the shoulder, went, look at this, and he handed me his rifle. There was a couple folks outside of pub, I think you can guess what they were doing, thinking that they was in the dark, not knowing they had a whole multiple marines in the same alleyway, but we could be really roughy-toughy back then, with a dagger in the teeth sneaking around and camouflage, it's not like that now. You physically cannot do that, I mean you can do that kind of warfare, but you've always got to be prepared, if a drone goes over, you're pinged, and then some spotty teenager in a bloody porter cabin in bloody Idaho or somewhere just goes, oh, goodnight, it's crazy, Sean, how much, and I think youngsters still live under the delusion that's what soldiering is, you know, they think the second world war stuff. Yeah, well, I think there's elements to it as well. I think maybe you might get away with the old traditional stuff in a country that's very poor and hasn't got technology, definitely, but if you look in it, majority there, the western eyes, all the big countries in Russia, China, all have got fantastic technology, maybe far more advanced than that, so I don't know, not as techy, but some of the smaller countries, you may well get away with it in a country that hasn't got that sort of technical advance, but you're right, it's very rare, and I think it's changing, it's a shame to see everything shrink so much, I think when I joined the Army there was 125,000 British Army troops, I think we're down to 70,000 now, 73,000, I'm sure the Marines are shrunk a bit as well, Chris, is it? I'll be honest, mate, I actually don't know, it used to be, all the time I was in, I think we used to have about 8,000 in total, actually sounds like a lot now, but in total, they used to say the size of a football stadium, we're talking like Plymouth football stadium, not like Liverpool or somewhere, did you see active service anywhere else? So my service with the Welsh Guards was Bosnia, and then when we come back from Bosnia, we went straight off to Fresco, which is the fire strike, so that was interesting because all our lead got cancelled, so I found for the guys who were coming back off operations recently, the same, that was hard work, covering the strikes, so we covered them, and then we went rapid response from Northern Ireland. Did you have to put any fires out? Yeah, yeah, we did a few fires, not loads, we did a few fires. Did you start them? Yeah, we did a few fires, we did a few fires, there was a few, there was a couple of fires in our area, we were basically carpentry, so up in the midlands, and it was all right, it was not a bad job, but it was just the time and if you want, if you've done a six month thought, we wanted to go on leave to us, see our family and our kids and everything coming back, and they were like, all leaves cancelled, we were going at the carpentry, so I think you were a little bit peed off, I probably used the word really. That is literally sent to carpentry? Yeah, it was, I remember Radford Road, we were at the Radford Road TA Centre, that's where we were based. Did you have like, was it the Green Goddesses that you used to have in the 70s? I was the only one that had a red engine, so I was a red engine commander, but everyone else had Green Goddesses, so I felt like a privilege for that, which was quite nice. So yeah, I had one red engine, which I don't know where they got that from, it was probably from some Army Barracks or RAF station that we managed to get hold of, but everyone else had the Green Goddesses, which did break down, you know, at max they'd sort of go with 50 miles per hour top end, but if with your foot down sort of job. But I think they still got that in some way, more fall, just in case something happens again. When I went on ship, we had to do the C5 heighting course, all the, like I'm sure that you probably did the breathing apparatus and stuff, right? Yeah, the bar treatment, yeah. We had to put, I don't know, it was a lot of big, almost like an asbestos suit on or something, and the hoodie, and then your respirator or your breathing apparatus, and they send you into this part of an old ship, it's just black chalk, you know, filled with smoke, and you've got to obviously stay down and creep up on a fire and put it in. I just remember that was really fascinating to do that course, you know. I think from my perspective, again, looking back, it was pretty much every who was purging the moment. But then looking back, I think, well, you know, it's been a, right, we've sort of been a fireman for a little bit. It's another thing that you sort of done in life, because you look back then, and again, like we said earlier, you look back at the positive, I tend to anyway, I tend to look back at the thought, that's me. But, you know, I do also remember the time that, and the feeling, the effect that I had on a lot of people. You know, I was fairly young, you know, I had a young child myself, but there's like some of the lads there who obviously got three or four children and want to get up to their wives, and then all of a a sudden stuck up there for a couple of weeks or so, again, before we can get back home. But again, I look back and it was nice. It was nice to have done that. I think after Radford Road, then after we finished the fire strikes, we moved to St Athens, which was lovely, because obviously you can tell from my accent at Welsh. And St Athens camp is 10, 15 minutes away from my house. So that was our last post. And we were rapid response then for Northern Ireland. So we were based in London Dairy, and literally that was a, again, that was an interesting tour, because on that tour, I think it was number three company intercepted a bomb on the River Foil that was three times bigger than the Omar bomb. And then it got, it got a flash in the pan news. But if you go on to Google search, Google search, I think it was the biggest bomb ever to have been found on me in mainland Europe, three times bigger than the Omar, but it got literally. And in other news, where was it, mate? Do you know in London Dairy, you've got the River Foil? Oh, it was over the war? Yeah. So up in Northern Ireland, Dairy, across the bridge, the intercepted a bomb on there, it was three times bigger than the Omar bomb, crazy. Insane. But if there's nothing going off, you know, but that was good. And that was in, I'm going to say 2003, that was. So coming towards sort of, it's always been quite volatile there. I think you, you know, you flip the news now, the terrorists got up, but it's always got that potential to go off. I think most people in now, most of you speak to, because they've got family from Northern Ireland, you know, just one in all to end. But like everything in this, and everything in the world, there's going to be extremists somewhere for whatever side you're looking at. There's always going to be those people that want to keep it going for whatever reason that may be. But I think people, they were just fed up in Northern Ireland, to be honest with you, what was happening. I mean, you served there, Chris as well. So. Yeah. Yeah. I had a chat with Kenny last night. Kenny was King's own border regiment. And he later joined veterans for peace. And he's a great, we've had some great chats, me and Ken. And I was saying to him last night, because they're saying it's flaring up over there. But, but they're also trying to push the Good Friday Agreement forward. So, you know, there's a, there was a film show called 50 Dead Men Walking, all about the, the agents that were controlled over there, like civilian, you know, people that were informing and people that were being controlled by the British government. And right at the end of that film, if I remember rightly, they kind of hint that the IRA was being controlled by London. I don't think it can flare up again, Sean, simply because we live in a different society now. You know, what you're going to do, text Seamus on Facebook and tell him to like bring over the set. I just think there's too much surveillance now. And, you know, again, even an eye in the sky just, just, just, we didn't have all that back in the 80s. You had to physically rely on seeing someone. If it was dark, that was it. You couldn't see him unless, unless you had the starlights go. Sean, have you met Simon Weston? Yes, I met Simon. So I met Simon at, we spoke at the military conference together. So Simon, I think spoke first. And then I think I was on the same, Colin McLaughlin, I spoke then and then Colin McLaughlin spoke last. So yeah, so I met Simon before, and I know he's, he's heavily involved in a number of veterans causes around Wales as well. So he's doing a good job to be fair to him. Yes, he's a lovely bloke. He came on a podcast. Colin's come on a podcast. Yeah, Colin, very popular chap, you know, he told us some other funny stories. He said, when he, oh, what was it? He, he left, he left the SAS and then he tried to join the reserves and they said, no, we're not having you. You've got flat feet. That's mine. This is after a glowing career in the SAS. They wouldn't let, let him in the reserves. And we both had someone in common and a lot of, a lot of squaddies and marines, I think, would say the same as we both didn't get any RAF. They wouldn't have us. Falklands, like mythology, Sean, is that, was that still a big thing when you were in? Did you take a lot of lessons from it? Well, there was a lot of, there was a lot of instructors that would have come off the back of Falklands. So when I joined, so I joined in 1999 for everybody to get a bit of an idea of when I joined, the Falklands was 82. So a lot of, there were some Falklands soldiers coming towards the tail end. So I, as you know, Martin Miles came there for the 2A Davis and fridge cooling. So they were all sort of coming to the end of their careers, if that would make sense. But through training, it was talked about a lot, especially the Scots guard, about tumble down, going on to bayonet training, you know, fixed bayonets and charged the positions. I mean, that was, you know, that was massive for the Scots guards. But yeah, no, it is, it is a, it was, it was a talking point through training, whereas now, I don't think going through training, they probably would be talking more so about Afghanistan and Iraq. You think those would be the focal points that they would be put into for people who would understand. Yes, yeah, definitely so. And, you know, at home, like, you know, great respect for all those, those Falkland veterans, especially obviously what happened on the Sagana had, you know, we lost a lot of men on there, which is, which is a great shame, really. And, you know, they've had to go through some difficult situations. And I think at a time in life where PTSD and mental health definitely wasn't talked about, I don't, it wasn't even talked about in the Northeast, it was, you know, come on, you're the guards, keep the stiff upper lip, stop, you know, stop goofing around, stop being a girl, get on with it. And that was pretty much the mentality, you know. And I think that it's only recently in the last, I probably would say five, maybe 10 years out of push, that things have started to come out, five years more so definitely with the sort of training around mental health, it being put into their sort of regular maths and training, the sort of training, they learn about how to deal with mental health, they've got hot lines, they've got procedures in place to talk, which I think is good. And don't get me wrong, not everybody likes to talk, but the option is there to talk, because we all do process things differently. Some people would want to talk, some people have got the ability sometimes to deal with it and think, right, okay, I'm going to get on with it and crack on, but it's nice to have those options there, Chris. But yeah, it was a tough time, I think. I think in the 80s, you know, it was a tough time. I think the things have slightly changed lately, which is a good thing as well. Yes, tough time as shit boots. Yeah, yeah, true. We had that, what do you call, 58-pound webinar or something, the Second World War shit. It literally took you half a day to try and put it together, because it was so stubborn. And then even on your first exercise, and let's be honest, on your first exercise as a recruit, you don't exactly need a lot of gear, do you? We didn't even have a weapon, so we didn't even have any ammunition, right? And yet and yet it took about two hours cramming everything inside of everything else to try to get it in these pooches. Do you say that in the Army pooches or is that Marines thing? Pouches, probably. Pouches, yeah, we said pooches. I don't know why we said that, but we did. And you had to have your socks in your mess tin and something rolled up and it just didn't fit in. It was ridiculous how the hell some of them got on down in the foot. I know a lot of them are Bergens, but I think some of them had the old large packs in the Folklands. Yes, yes, I mean, that's the segala had must be just Welsh God's legend, isn't it? You know. Yeah, I think there is. There's always been, there's a lot of books written about, and I haven't gone into Ristita reading it all. And, you know, I just think that, but I guess it probably could have been learned from it in some shapes or forms, because, you know, shouldn't have, I couldn't and how did it happen? There's always the house and sometimes these things do happen. I think that what could have been better is probably, and what definitely could have been better is the aftercare. And if you speak to Simon Weston, the people who were seriously injured on there, and not just the physical scars, you know, there's obviously, as we all know as well, there's the effects of that on people that maybe didn't have the physical injuries, but had the mental injuries from seeing what happened on that ship. It must have been terrible to go through. And, you know, it stays with them. The horror, mate. But again, from my side, I'm just glad that things have got better. And those veterans now, you know, there is, you know, obviously late coming or whatever it has come, there is that option potentially of support now, whether it was too late for some, it would have been, I think. But hopefully, you know, we learn from things and we learn now from future conflicts that the kids better, and we know about the kids started to get better anyway, you don't have to buy your own kit anymore. But, you know, the support network's there. And I think that's a key in life, not just being a veteran. If you're anybody is having that good support network where you can speak to someone if you need to, could just be a wife. It could be one person. It doesn't have to be a massive hope. I mean, I know thousands of people from the veterans wars and force fitness and all that, but I probably got two people that I would open up to if I needed to open up to, you know. And I think that's key, maybe. Did you struggle at all when you left, Shaun? So, I'm going to say I'm quite latent. I mean, when I was in, I was a peerage of Mona, like you. Boom, crap, this is rubbish. Can't believe I'm on this, like Mona. No, we've done Bosnia, I didn't know the island a little bit. And I was quite lucky with my transition. I'm going to say I was lucky with my transition. I geared it towards management. I had my head on scene. I'm not going to be a personal trainer. I'm not going to be a physical training instructor. I've been running the gym. I mean, I'm a corporate and I've got a rank. I'm going to gear my transition to management. So, I transitioned and went into sort of leisure club management. And I did got a leg, I got off of a job, but I left it off of two jobs. When was the leisure club managing for 19 and a half grand a year? And when was it going to work for a company called Secure Reforce on 400-pound a day on circuit? And I thought, what do I want to do? And I thought, oh, I'm still young. And I thought, you know what, I'm going to do the 19 and a half grand a year. I just think it's going to give me a little bit taste of city life in management. And I can always apply for other jobs on there. And I'm glad I did, because yes, I know the circuit and, you know, it's great. But I think then some of the lads who've been on the sort of close protection circuit, you know, I'm talking about out in like Iraq and Afghanistan, they were running 400-pound a day sort of tax-free. But I just think going on that, how long would it last? And there were a few lads who lost their lives, you got injured on it as well. And I was just sort of had that job. And that one year of experience on that 19 and a half grand a year, sort of leisure management job, gave me a really good experience in profit and loss running the budget, which I didn't know much about. I knew how to run a gym. I knew how to do fit sessions. You know, I knew all outside of the operational health and safety, but I didn't know really how to run a budget or how to market the gym. So I learned that. And then within sort of a couple of years, we ended up setting up Forces Fitness then in 2007 off the back of it. And then that's how we set my weight. So it was two and a half years on Civvie Street before I set up the business. And could you just give us a synopsis of Forces Fitness, what the mandate is? Yeah, so Forces Fitness started off like boot camps. Everyone's seen them before, you know, I'm set to be running around boot camp in the field. That's how we started off two people in Swansea. But we've changed a lot. And I think if you want to be good at business, you've got to be niche and you've got to be different. We were the first boot camp company ever in Swansea to set up in 2007. We had seven venues across Wales at one point, Wales, but we don't do that now. We do more. We work in the education sector really, predominantly around health, well being team building, motivation, leadership skills. So we delivered over 650 places of education, over 45,000 learners in Wales and England could be delivered in both the languages of Welsh and English as well, which is another great thing. And it's just, it's good, you know, it's what we're doing. We're going to schools and colleges, talking to them about how we deliver happy healthy sort of life, you know, talking about getting outdoors three times a week, trying to embrace the outdoors, surrounding certain good people, talking about a good diet, but then taking them through military style fitness command task challenges. So 90% of our company are all military veterans as well. We've got a great team and they just, it's nice. It's a nice job. And if we speak to any of the staff or any of the guys who work for us, they'll all say, this is the best job I've ever had. It's just nice. You know, almost, they say it's like a glorified teacher probably gets paid more than a teacher to go into a school, but you're not dealing with any of the crap of the naughty kids. Does that make sense? Because you go in, and the naughty kids actually, or the simple naughty kids, sorry, they love, they love what we do. They get right stuck in, they get, they love it. And they're not a drama. No one's really ever a drama on it because of the type of training we do in, if that makes sense. Brilliant. Sean, I'm fascinated. How did the veterans awards come around? 35. I mean, point you back to when I was in the military and they asked me if I wanted to go on selection for the SES, special SES. So that's all what stayed in my mind. I'm a big believer like you leave life from the regrets. You know, I want to make sure when I tap out, which is similar to you now, I'm happy with what I've done. If it was tomorrow, I, you know, I really have done everything and I leave my life a positive way. So I just put it play in my mind. Could I have done it? So I looked into it and at the 36 years of age, you could go through the selection process for the special SES and with the reserves, which is called 2-1 SES. So I was 35, but I thought, look, it's now or never, I've got to do it because otherwise it would have played in my mind and I'd have gone and should have done it. And I don't, I'm not that guy. So at 35, I said to the wife, I was working for Lidl as a store manager and a training caddie manager working 50, 60 hours a week. Forces Fitness was set up as well. So he's running the company alongside Lidl being the store manager and training caddie manager for Lidl. So that was doing a fairly decent money. We had about five or six people working for us. And then I decided to join the reserves as well. Work didn't know about this at the time. I just sort of took leave when I needed to go and do my stuff. So 200 men start the course in Brecken. You know, we know what's on the hills in the Brecken Beacons in January loads of snow and sheep, of course, sheep everywhere loads of snow. So they give people a bit of an inkling. So we're carrying a backpack, which is about 55 pounds on your back. You sort of lined up in your drill square, 200 men started the course, women couldn't attempt the course then. And they just call you on the wagon. You jump on the wagon, they drop you off in the middle of nowhere. They'll say, right, next grid's here and off you go. So you go in anywhere between 35 to 65 kilometres a day across the Beacons, you know, smashing them out with this big pack on. And I got to the last week. So there's 50 people left on the hills now. We lost 150 people. We lost 150 people. And we're on the last week, which is test week, which is by that point now, you're sort of on your own devices, you've just got to make the times if that makes sense to come in. And my shins were starting to burn, I had terrible shin splints. You were starting to hurt a lot. So I was taking loads of codemoll, loads of my proofing just to sort of get me through the day. And I got to the last day. And the oldest guy in the course now, I was 35 years of age, because I cut off 36. And I remember rolling out of bed, putting my feet down. And honestly, there was almost tears in my eyes. And there was a good lad who was opposite me, he's bad now. And he was laughing at me calling me grandad, 35, my grandad of 35, but he was like 23 or something. So we were having a bit of bad day. And I sort of hobbled down the scarf, have my codemoll and proofing, back in the block, a codemoll and proofing. And I had loads of codemoll. It wasn't recommended, obviously. They didn't know much I took. When I took about eight codemoll, I proofed in with a space of about two hours just to just get rid of the pain. I done my 385K on my last marks on tests, we got a tick in the box. And I thought, land it. There's one more test, one more test to go with this exercise endurance. An exercise endurance is 65 kilometers, you've got to do it in under 21 hours. So it's nonstop. So after the six hours sort of rest time, you start at midnight, tell about red, big head torch on and off we go. I got about 20K into it and I just did not feel right at all. I felt queasy. I felt a little bit sick and I knew what had happened. I'd taken too much codemoll and too much I proofed in. It's probably the codeine that was making me feel really, I just didn't, everything was slowing down. Whereas before it was masking the pain that I was going. And I had a bit of a decision to make. And I thought, do I keep sort of taking this? Because that was the only thing that was keeping me going was the codemoll that tried to confirm. But I thought I had to stop. And when I come into the checkpoint, the medic, they took my boot off, my foot was like swollen. They took my finger and put it sort of into my calf. And usually when it sort of comes back, the dent just stayed there. There was like no circulation from my calf. And it turns out that I had a stress factor on my right tibial. They failed my course. 40K, 40K from the end that I failed my course. And I remember being on the sort of ambulance then because they let you sort of get taken to a point, they checked you over. And there was two booknecks on there with me. And there's a young lad and he was like, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? I was a bit older. I said, look, mate, you're like 21 years of age. I said, give me another year or two and come back. Do you know what I mean? Don't worry about it. It's not going to go back to me because he was feeling a bit down. What's going to happen when I go back to my unit? And they said, look, don't worry about it. So he's picking him up a little bit, as the older pod would do. And there was another guy from 21 and 23 already branch going for 22 selection because it's slightly different than 22 selection to the reserve one. So there was five of us to come off that last day on the hills. And it was getting, but what I took from it was at least I give it a go. You know, and I'm proud to say that I left it all out there. It was a medical withdrawal. I didn't quit. You know, I didn't quit. It was a medical withdrawal. I pushed my absolute limits until my body couldn't go no further. And it's a 97% failure. It's a tough course. And I know you might have spoke to a lot of people who have come through the selection process and were bad special care service or SPS as well. And I take my heart off to anyone who has been through the process because it is such a hard course, but I take great pride in sort of getting that far and sticking my hand up and saying, you know what, I'm going to give it a go. You know, if I was younger, maybe in my twenties, could I have done it? Maybe think I probably could have. I was 35 and older, but they're all sort of, I still question things though, Chris. They still think, oh, if I want different boots, would that have been all right? And sometimes I think that thing pops in my head. It's only because I was passionate about it. But I also believe that things happen for a reason because off the back of that, I invested a lot of time into Forces Fitness. I left Liddles and just went for Forces Fitness. I left that 50, 60 gram a year job and put all my efforts into Forces Fitness to grow that. And that business grew 700% last year. Fantastic organization. We went a few awards through Forces Fitness and it was sat on an award ceremony in Central London. We've got to invite you to. It was a good award ceremony. Fantastic. Actually, I knew that was there speaking or not. It was a really lovely night, really good. But I just thought the ticket price is like 350 quid plus that for one ticket. And I just thought to myself, could we do something like this, community-based, whole-nation-based, because we have got big national awards, like soldier honor awards, hero produce. We're doing a good job to be fair. They do a great job. Wanted to do something different. I wanted to make it the Welsh Veterans Awards. I have that little Herb in Wales and then England and then Scotland and obviously Northern Ireland. But I wanted to do something that was all encompassing, covered the whole community. Covered people like yourself, you know, inspiration. You're covering people that are volunteering for places like, you know, Saffa and the War Marines Charity or the Air Guest Soldiers Charity. Even at 50 hours a week at a time, we go and help people. People who have set the breakfast hubs, you know, where veterans can come and have a bit of a chat and a brew and a bit of banter. You know, so those people, but also those companies that, you know, go above and beyond to employ and obviously those serving reservists that help and support. And the way we've set it up, I think from my perspective, it's something I'm really proud of because all our boards do in a voluntary capacity. Our Inspiration Panel do in a voluntary capacity. There's a very small amount of money that goes to an admin salary and anything above and beyond costs gets put back into our community through a small grants scheme. So if there's a charitable organisation with under £100,000 to go, are they going to apply for small grants which will help and support them? So very proud of the Veterans Awards. Obviously, I agree. It's very passionate about it, but it comes from Forces Fitness winning a few awards and thinking, how can we do it? But it's been so supportive, so very well supported. Royal Navy Royal Marines Charity, one of our Charity partners, EVF Soldiers Charity. Yes, they're just great. As you know, they're just very positive nights, people coming together to celebrate the positives. Sean, you're doing an amazing job, mate. It's been fascinating to hear about your experience and just to chat about the Welsh Guards and give them some airtime because it's all about Bloody Paras and SAS these days, isn't it? No disrespect. Great chats with everybody, but it's nice to spread the love around a bit. Now I've said that, Sean, is there anything else you wanted to add that I might have forgotten? We're going to put all your links below. No, I think so. Do you know what? Throughout the conversation, Chris, I think you covered everything. I think for everybody out there, surround yourself with those positive people, give back support to us if you can. And for me, do something in life that makes you smile because that's the most important thing, whether that's going out for a walk or swim, doing stuff with your family, don't follow the crowds. Do your own little thing and do something that makes you smile because we only live once, do we? Yes. And we want to be happy, healthy, so thank you very much for having me, Chris. I really appreciate that. Absolutely, mate. Listen, Sean, stay on the line so I can thank you properly when I push the button off, but massive thanks, mate. Really, really thoroughly enjoyed this chat. Thank you. Thank you. To all our friends out there, big love to you as well. If you can hit the like and subscribe button, we'd really appreciate it. And we'll see you next time. Thank you.