 Tom, how are you, mate? Yeah, all good. Thank you, you. Yes, yes. That's quite a nifty little shoot you got there, is it not? Yeah. What's the colour? Is that any special colours? I've just briefly glimpsed it then. Was it red, white and blue or something? Yeah, that's right, yeah. And you had a cutaway yesterday? Yeah, I did. I was doing some canopy formations with the team I jumped with. And yeah, my canopy got torn on the front and had to cut away, yeah. Not ideal, but part of the job, I suppose. Bloody hell. How many cutaways have you had in your skydiving career? Or your jumping career? Probably about six or seven now or something like that. That's a lot. Yeah, none of that's due to packing either. That's mainly canopy formations stuff, because you end up crashing into each other and all that good stuff. Yeah, so you're on your old nine lives then, mate? Yeah, I'm using them up pretty rapid. And do you worry when you cut away that maybe the reserve, that's buggered too? Generally, you don't really have time to think about that. But I did once on my first reserve ride, actually, cut away, pulled the reserve and had a pilot shoot in tow. I literally had to reach over my shoulder and yank the bridle to get it out, so that wasn't ideal. But yeah, I think I'm past thinking about that now. It's just automatic reactions when you've been doing it for a while. And sorry, how many jumps did you say you've done? I'm on about four and a half thousand now. Bloody hell, that's a lot, isn't it? It's not in comparison to a lot of people out there, but I'm not a full-time skydiver, so it's not too bad. I've heard full-time guys with about 12,000. Is that about right? I get a lot more than that too. Yeah, my brother's on about 10 or so. He was a full-time tandem instructor for about 10 years. Yeah, you rack him up if you're doing it all the time as a job solver. I only ever tried to do group work once, and I partnered up with this lad. He was a Swedish lad. And we jumped out the Cessna, like you do. Off we went, and he just went... And I went... And I watched him go down, and I didn't even have anywhere near the skill. Even to Delta Track, there's no way I could have caught up with him. Yeah, it takes a little while to build up to that sometimes, especially if you're not compatible on your full race and weights and stuff. Yeah, but my bloody instructor, when we were doing the AFF course, I'll be there doing all the drills that he asked me to do, and I'd look down and he's there lying underneath me like that. Watching me from about ten foot underneath. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a mental world, isn't it? It's an insanely fun sport. Yeah, it's expensive as well, but it is good fun. Yeah, expensive, and also in this country, the weather can be an issue. Yeah, you're better off doing it overseas, but then again that's more expensive, isn't it? But yeah, it is an issue in this country, because even in the summer you can be blown out by the winds and stuff. Yeah, I did mine in Florida. It's funny actually, I took my pilot licence in a place called Fort Pierce, and then they gave me an aeroplane to fly up to a place called Sebastian that you may have heard of. Yeah, you're up in there, yeah. Yeah, to do my skydiving course, and I remember flying up there thinking, they've trusted me with a whole aeroplane. I wouldn't even trust myself with a skateboard. Yeah, I love skydiving the States as well, North Carolina. Oh, there you go, so you can get loads, you literally get down, pack your shoot, get straight back up again. Yeah, exactly, yeah. Yeah, I love it. And so, you've had an illustrious career, mate, haven't you? I had your email up on the screen a minute ago with the notes you sent me. Bum, bum, bum. I might as well just put it here. So, 25 years in the parachute regiment. Yeah. In one para, the par finders and the Red Devils. Yeah. And then another eight years in the reserves, seven operational tours. So, I'm guessing you're a glutton for punishment. Yeah, I suppose so, yeah, yeah, yeah. Apparently 25 years wasn't long enough, so I had to keep cracking on. I've literally just left the reserves in February, actually. Yeah, so what are you looking for? Like the reserve reserves now. So I'm doing some work with cadets now, but also doing other bits and pieces, projects and stuff. Yeah, we'll come on to all that. And I mean, to serve in the illustrious Red Devils, that's one for the bloody tell the grandkids. Yeah, had a fantastic time there. So I was in the Red Devils back in 2003 years. Had an absolute fantastic time, but I decided to get back in the green kit because the rack was coming up. So I'll get back in the green kit and actually do the job for real again. Yeah, that's where a jolly can go seriously wrong, can't it? If you're stuck on sports and all your mates go off to war. Exactly, yeah. Just talking about that, I did a podcast this morning with an oppo of mine, Jeff Williams. Hello, Jeff, if you ever get to see this. And he was for two commander in the Falklands and they didn't want to let him go because he was on a senior command course. Oh, man. And I think like a lot of people, we went, no, I'm not. Yeah, yeah. You don't let me go with an arm leaving and... Yes, especially the Falklands. Falklands was a one-off, wasn't it? You know, it wasn't like Iraq and Afghanistan where it was rolling deployments, it was a one-off. And the guys that missed out must have been pretty sore, I reckon. Must have been traumatising in itself to miss it. Yeah. You know? Just the whole... I mean, we were... God, it was quite an emotional podcast because I was actually... I was 12 years old, but for some reason we were driving back from a holiday somewhere and we were going through Portsmouth or coming back down south at least. Yeah. And all the cars were packed with service the moment their families had, you know, come to collect them and we were just waving out the windows and they were saluting. It was just a monumental time in British history. A very historical, big moment in time, yeah? Gosh. And it inspired people like me and you, didn't it? Yeah, well, massively. The chap I joined up with, my neighbour, his dad was the Sergeant Major of Lima Company. So he was well, you know, well in the thick of it. Some, yeah, full on. It was... Kind of they picked the wrong theatre of war there for us, didn't they? Because it's what we train in. Yeah. It's like identical to Brecken, isn't it? Yeah. I remember watching one documentary, it might have been a lecture we had in the Marines and the chap said that they were on a fighting patrol one night and they came across an Argentinian patrol and they spotted each other and the Marines went to ground in a stream. So up to their necks in water, in a Falklands winter and the patrol leader for the Argentine said, you know, come out, British soldiers, you will not be harmed. And he just said, we ain't getting... You know, this is... We're in our element, mate. We ain't going nowhere. And then he tapped his GPMG gunner and they just, you know, killed them all. Yeah, mecca. Yeah. Just unreal stories. Yeah. All my instructors in depo were Falklands veterans so, yeah, they had some good dits, as you'd say in the Marines. So what was all your P company in your jumps course like, Tom? So I joined the Army at 16. I joined up with Junior Para when it used to be just Junior Para as opposed to Harrogate that it is now and that was tough. That was hard, really harsh, really controlled. I actually had to go through P company twice. I got injured on the first one. Went over an ankle, wrecked my ankle. So I got back squaded, had to do it again. But to be honest, you know, I didn't have any problems as fit as you like at the time. Flew through it other than getting the injury and then flew through it the second time, no problem. Jumps course. Yeah. Again, I got injured. I broke my leg on the jumps course on my seventh jump. And this was when you had to do eight jumps to pass the course. So, yeah, not ideal. Broke my leg, six months later, got tabbed again and then passed out of training. So I had a couple of hiccups, a couple of injuries, but absolutely, you know, wouldn't change anything. Absolutely. I wanted to be a power trooper since I was about seven years old. And I joined up the minute I could when I was 16 and I left the minute I was told I could stand any longer because I've been in all the time. Mate, you broke the golden rule of jumps training. Is land on a gerker? No. We had gerkers on our course and they were around, yeah. I'm not joking. Interesting. Oh, my God, we come so close. Yeah. I love it. You nearly take them out and then they stand up and say, I'm sorry, sir. You haven't done nothing wrong. Yeah. Oh, I had him steering towards me in all sorts. I went straight into the rig in lines of one of them because he was steering at me as my canopy was opening. Did you still have the balloon when you did it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I did my wings course in, sorry, 18.9. And they didn't get me the balloon until 94. So, and I did a handful of balloon jumps after my course as well when I was in battalion. Mate, how old are you now if we're allowed to ask? 50. God, you don't look it. Cheers. That power stuff must have been bloody lot easier than in the Marines. That's all I can say. That's not about me. The balloon, that was a test and a half that because you haven't got the noise, the movement of the aircraft. And you basically just, it's all down to you. It's perfectly still. It's quiet. You stand on the edge of the cradle and they just say go. There's no pushing. And it's all down to you. It's cold, quiet and calculated. And you just drop for about 300 feet, or a couple of hundred feet at least. Your stomach rises up and you're shitting yourself. But it was mega. I think it'd make a great, I come stag weekend thing, you know. Yeah. You and your mates go and do the balloon jump after 12 points. I've since went over to Belgium and done their balloon a few years ago when I was in for power. Actually went over to Belgium and did the balloon over there. And it's the same balloons we used to use. So that was a bit of a blast from the past. That's a pretty cool thing to do. Got the Belgian wings out of it as well. Wow. Yes. Yes. I remember they drum it into you, don't they? 1000, 2000, 3000. You're not allowed to deviate from that. The PGI come running over to us when we're on a deck and he said, Throw. Where's fucking through? So I'm here corporate. What do you fucking mean? Geronimo. I'll tell you what though. It was because I could feel the shoot coming out and I knew I was all right. Do you not mean I could feel how safe it was and I could feel that it grabbed the air and I was just like, I'm all right now. So. I was just having confidence in the kit and just getting out going for it. So, gosh mate, so much to talk about. I don't know what to talk about first. Oh, I'll tell you what we can do. We can say hello to Steve Brown, can't we? Yeah, Steve, how you doing, Mucka? Yeah, hello Steve. Steve, you're being your fellow power finder who very kindly came on the podcast and we talked a lot about scrapping and writing books. I think Steve didn't we? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Steve's a top bloke. Served in the same times as Steve. He joined a couple of years after me. But yeah, top bloke, Steve is. How have you dealt with the old fight anybody mentality now that you're civilianized? Yeah, I'm pretty all right with it until somebody kind of gets me rubbed up the wrong way. But yeah, I'm pretty good with it to be honest. I've managed to adjust pretty well. So far so good anyway. Yeah, Steve and I were saying it, it borders on criminal the aggression that you have when you're a young soldier. Oh, yeah, yeah, when you're younger for sure. I mean, the people that must have got a smack in the mouth probably didn't even say anything wrong. Probably misheard them in the pub or something. Yeah, shouldn't laugh. But again, it's all part of the role, isn't it? It's all part of the conditioning. It is. Yeah. It's the mindset, isn't it? To breed that sort of aggressive young soldier. Yeah. So what's it like then as a young para when you rock up at your first unit? It's quite intimidating, obviously, because you're the newbie, you're the newbie. Again, after being the sort of like getting towards the old sweater depot, you're then suddenly the newbie. And yeah, I mean, I was only just 18 when I passed out of training. You've got all these guys that are, you know, in your eyes, mega old sweats, they're probably 24, 25, ripping you all the time, getting the bruise. I don't know this, but I think I was a little bit what would they call a chopsy crow at the time. I wasn't kind of going to back down on anything. I kind of think got a bit of a reputation for being a bit chopsy at the time. Within six months of being in one para, I was in front of the CO on the CO's orders, believe it or not, for the destruction of Airborne Forces Day. Oh dear. How did that come about? Airborne Forces Day is a massive, massive piss-up in all the shop. Thousands of people, well it used to be, thousands and thousands of people, beer tents, Red Devils jumping, you know, military displays and all that sort of stuff. People come from all around the world. When I first joined up, there's loads of veterans coming in. People from Germany, America, and it's just one big massive party. Well, there's a friend of mine whose dad had served for 22 years. He said to me in the evening, come on Tom, let's do this, it's what you do on Airborne Forces Day. We climbed up the side of these tents, ran along the top beam, and on the way back, I mean these are massive big beer tents, you know, and on the way back I fell through because we've been drinking all day and just about managed to grab just as I fell through, and it ripped the whole tent open. And I've got literally hundreds and hundreds of people looking up at me going, ooh, ooh, it's going to die, but I climbed down the rope and it all split, fell on a table, and then everyone else copied what me and my mate had done, and the whole place just got decimated. Absolutely and utterly destroyed and decimated. There was people falling, there was a band playing, people fell on the band, smashed up people with broken limbs and all sorts of stuff. It was mental. The other guy didn't come back off leave, we went on leave shortly after, and he actually banged his head by climbing on top of his roof doing so. He obviously had a thing for heights, and I basically took the brunt of it and I got put in front of the CO and luckily for me, I got what's called a regimental entry. So I didn't get fined and I didn't even know what that meant at the time. And when I got out, I said, well, what does that even mean? He goes, you know, you're on a promotion ban. Well, let me just join with Tanya, and he gives it down. So that was a bit of a scary moment being in front of the CO, 18 years old, six month in battalion. Yeah, like your career is almost over before it begun. Yeah. I'm just going to pop my headphones on. We've got some, in fact, we've got some, apparently our live stream is buffering. Friends, how is it doing now? Can you let me know in the chat? Apologies. Perhaps, Greg, you could give us a running commentary on how we're doing. It's not an issue, Tom, because I'm recording this anyway, so we can always upload it again. So, yes, and what was your first deployment? Right, so we, at the end of my first year, we were actually getting ready to go to the Gulf, 1991 Gulf War. We've done loads of NBC training, as it was called then, loads of AFV recognition. We got issued extra weapons. So we had two GPMGs per section, and we had two M79 grenade launchers issued. And we've thought, I thought my Christmas had come early. We thought we were going to war. And then all of a sudden we revert back to plan A, which was meant to be doing, because someone decided they weren't going to send power edge anymore. And we went to Northern Ireland, January 1991, as the Gulf War was kicking off, and I was gutted. Not that I was going to Northern Ireland, but because I wasn't going to a conventional, proper war sort of thing. And yeah, we did two and a half years in Belfast, basically. I've literally just turned 19, two and a half years over there, back when it was quite a dangerous time, when it was trying to blow you up and shoot you for most days, and people hated you, you know, spitting at you in the streets and all that good stuff. Quite a quick way for growing up, I think. Yeah. Our tour was 89, but I wouldn't have wanted to do two and a half years of it. Yeah. So that was a residential tour of Palace Barracks, just outside Belfast. But when they say residential tour, it's meant to sound like it's nice, it wasn't. It was, we was either deployed on the streets, we was training or we was on stag. It was pretty much that. We was very, very busy. If we weren't in Belfast, we were deployed in other regions and stuff. So yeah, very sort of busy tour, stagging on off looking, you know, patrolling basically. Yes. Friends at home, if you pull your bar back a bit, your progress bar, it'll buffer better apparently. Thank you, Greg. And did you do any more deployments Tom active service before you volunteer for the Powerfinders? Yeah, we went back to Northern Ireland the following year for another six months. So within five years of being in one part, I spent three years in Northern Ireland. So we did another six months of back in the Belfast as well. And that was it. So my next one was with Powerfinders after that. Where were you on the second tour of Ireland? Back in the Belfast. Oh, back there again. Yeah. So back in Belfast, I know Belfast quite well, especially the sort of Western areas of it. Yes. The Ardoin and the like. Leonard Doome and all that good stuff. So from my chat with Steve, we ascertained that the Powerfinders is bloody hard to get into. I mean, I don't know if you class it as a special force, but it's on that. Yeah. It's not classified as special forces, but you work along with special forces quite a lot. And on special forces lines as well. Had you managed to get many jumps in before you went for your selection? Well, I did my AFF course the year before I went to Powerfinders because I was gagging to learn the skydive anyway. I've done a basic course, Cyprus, where you do the static line, you know, three second delay, five second delays and all that sort of stuff. And I loved that. And I didn't really get the opportunity to go back again because of Northern Ireland until 94. And then myself and a bunch of the guys, basically we didn't do an army expert. We went and paid to do it for our own backs in North Carolina. Loved it. Probably done about 55 skydives before I went to Powerfinders within a year. And I don't know, probably 30, 20, 30 static line round canopy jumps as well. But I could have saved myself a whole lot of money. I'd just wait until I went on pier selection, but I wasn't waiting. I couldn't wait to do it, to be honest. I think you probably did the right thing. When we went to Norway, me and my mates, we took ourself off down a dry ski slope and we learned to ski. It's a completely different type of skiing, as you know. But I mean, at least we could do one kind of skiing. So when I got out there, it wasn't all so alien. In fact, I came, I think I came eighth in our first company ski race. So all these old sweats and people that have done like nine winters. And I'm... Drag! Which basically means get out of my fucking way. I'm coming through. And yeah, I came eighth for that one. So I was quite pleased. Where it did benefit us is at the weekends, we went down to the actual proper ski slope. I think we went to Lillihama. And I'll tell you what, if you've learnt downhill skiing on a dry slope and then you go on the real stuff, you're like Franz Friggin Klammerman, you know. Yeah, yeah. You're almost like doing 360s on your first day. It's... If it's easier, it's not proper slope. Yeah, incredible. Incredible. But anyway, skiing's for sissies anyway. Real men snowboard, everybody knows that. But we all make mistakes. Yeah. Yes. So when you did your AFF, how nervous were you on your first jump? I don't think I was too bad, to be honest. I was kind of mad for it. I was quite young anyway. I was only 22. And I'd already done that Cyprus basic course. Done my military jumps. And I was gagging to do it. So, yeah, nervous, but not, like, terrified nervous. Like I see some of them, you know, these heads. Yeah, I was pretty... I was really up for it. I was first out on mine. Everyone behind me were doing tandems. Yeah. I actually did the very first jump in New Zealand. And I just remember thinking, fuck me, should you get up there? It's a very different thing to jumping up. Was he? We jump out in the military? It's quite low, isn't it? It's 800 feet statically round. And for train troops, they go down to 600 now. Yeah, which is a big difference from, like, 10,000. Of course it is, yeah. Massive. Yeah. I remember looking around at all these tandems, you know, doing their birthday jump or whatever, and they're just shitting themselves. And I thought, I am not going to let them see my fear. Yeah. So I was a tandem instructor as well for quite a while. And yeah, it's amazing to see people's raw, sort of emotions, raw reactions, because you can't cover that stuff up. It just, it's just automatic reactions. And yeah, it was a great thing, though. Have any mishaps to people really screw it up for you? Yeah, it's a few. I had a couple of people pass out on me, and I managed to just about wake them up before we landed. I had a couple of people puke on me. Nothing worse than that bodily function wise, but I had a couple of people puke on me. I had a couple of people just going crazy as you leave and kicking around their legs, which obviously sends you unstable, which means you've got to flip and wait until you see the ground pool and pitch the drone. Yeah, the only actual proper malfunction I've had, where it was something to do with the parachute that wasn't packed properly, was on a tandem as well, actually. So it wasn't my packed job. Someone else had packed me a dodgy pack. I had a line over on the canopy, which means it's rotating. It rotates, pump the brakes. Nah, I'm still there. I just assisted a passenger. Right, you ready to go again? And they're like, what? I'm like, head back, legs back. Pull the reserve. Yeah, that's the only actual malfunction I've had. I've had six or seven actual reserve rides, but that's due to doing canopy formations where things go wrong once the canopies are actually open. Did they have to pay twice? No, but somebody had to pay for a reserve pack job. Obviously it wasn't there, though. Gosh. And tell us a bit about the path finders then. What's the, well, to tell us anything, Tom, I'm sure everyone will be fascinated. So once I've been in the Italian a few years, I wanted to kind of look to the next level and do something a bit more challenging. And also I was getting sick of going to Northern Ireland, as I mentioned earlier. So I looked at the path finders. I knew a couple of people that had gone there that I really sort of looked up to that were really, really good soldiers. I knew from the Italian give it a go. And yeah, the selection, as Steve Brown mentioned, was incredibly, incredibly hard. It's only six weeks, but it's tough as nails. It's straight in as well. It's not like, I say, a selection where it kind of builds up. It's day one. It's like a brick wall smash. And it stays at that level for the whole time. And because it's so compact, you don't have time to really recover from anything the whole way through it. So it is a very, very tough course. And the instructors, you know, they're perfectionists. They're watching it every move again, because it's smaller course and selection as well. Then they can concentrate more on individuals. And they know you pretty much from day one, as opposed to selection where they've got hundreds of guys. I'm not saying it's easier. I'm saying it's different. And then once you get there, though, it really is a fantastic place to be. Because everyone's super motivated. They want to be their professional soldiers. And the job is just fantastic. You know, working in small teams, big boys rules and all that. I just loved it. And how long's the course, Tom? So the course was six weeks. I think they've extended it now to seven. And then you do see it after that as well. So you don't do it as part of the selection course. But when the courses are available, they load everyone on the next available course. And if you fail it, you obviously get RTU'd anyway. And I did that three times here as well. Just for a treat. And see what's that? Survival, escape? Survival, evasion, resistance and extraction. OK. Where do you do that? So it's R.E.F. St. Morgan down in Cornwall. Hey, I'll tell you what. Is there ever a fucking place you want to escape from, man? It's fucking Cornwall. Mate, it's just it's over. It's literally five minutes over there. I should know. So what? And how many blokes started and how many blokes finished? On my course. I think it was something in a region of 30, 30 something, 35 or something. And we actually had a very, very high pass rate. We had 10 guys pass the course, which is very unusual. I mean, normally for that amount of starting, you probably get five or so pass. But we had a very strong course. We had a lot of guys that were incredibly fit, very strong soldiers. And to be honest, a lot of them went on to SF as well later on. And the jumps bit, was that included in that six weeks? No, no, no. So later on, basically, again, when the course becomes available once you've passed, you go on to your Halo course, what's used to be known as Military Freefall. It's now known as HAPSI, high altitude parachute course. And it's a week at Bryce Norton, followed by three or four weeks in the States over in California. So that was amazing. Obviously, getting to go to California, you go skydiving, jumping at night, Halo oxygen, 25,000 feet. Fantastic. You're carrying a lot more kit though, right? The parachute alone weighs up to around about 50 pounds. Then you've got a weapon. Then you've got oxygen kit. Then you've got a Bergen. And your Bergen is going to be weighing 100 pounds plus. So anything up to 120 pounds or so, you know. So you're carrying your own body weight at least. And I guess you're carrying a lot more. I mean, the history of the Pathfinders, by definition, they lead the way, don't they? So you've got all your advanced technological equipment, I'm guessing. Yeah. So, you know, a lot of it's to do with comms, isn't it? The old saying, no comms, no bombs. And your job is to find out the information, reconnaissance, sand information, back hundreds of miles sometimes. So you've got HF radios, the HF radios, your HF radios to talk to aircraft, all the batteries to go with all that kit. Then you're carrying a minimum of seven days rations plus all your water plus your OP kit. And then your actual personal kit plus weapons ammunition. So yeah, it's a hell of a lot of weight, an awful lot of weight, a lot more than I carried in one power. And there's Hey Ho and Hey Low. Yep. Do you do both of those techniques? Yeah. So Hey Low is your freefall, high altitude low opening and Hey Ho is high altitude high opening where you exit the plane. It's on a static line. So the canopy opens straight away. So you're opening up to 25,000 feet and you're basically gliding for miles and miles and miles at night navigating using GPS compass and sometimes above the clouds. So that was a pretty amazing experience as well. A bit bloody frightening as well though, hey? Yeah, it's pretty cool though. It's pretty cool experience. If you're in a parachuting, you know, you can't pay to do that. You can only, if you pass a selection course, basically SF or PF, that's the only place in the UK you get to do that kind of parachuting. And it's fantastic, really is. I mean, you're jumping out from such a height in the dark, can't see anything below. If you don't get it right, even if the battery in your GPS go, you could be coming into water, trees, mountains. Yeah. You could lose all your bodies, especially in a real life scenario. Yeah. We did one that springs to mind. We did one in the States once. We was on a training trip over there. Once we qualified, we used to go over there once a couple of times a year and that. We did an night jump from 25 grand, hey ho. And the REF had got the calculations wrong. So basically what they do is they calculate the wind and the speed of the canopy, the distance and stuff. And the idea is to get your target, they drop you off a certain distance. And that can be 30 miles or more, you know. Anyway, they got it wrong on this particular one. And it's a night jump and coming in and we've seen a couple of lights in the distance and we thought, all right, that must be it then. They put normally just a couple of little minimal lights to mark the TZ. And as we're getting closer, it turns out it's a wagon trail thing, you know, like the circle of wagons, vehicles. And these Americans are sat there having a barbecue out in the Ulu in the desert on their own. And we landed just outside of their circle of vehicles and they hadn't even seen or heard us. And basically we had our weapons with us and stuff. So we were carrying them, you know, non-threateningly, walked over to them. And they didn't even see us coming because they're sat there having a barbecue with their flames so they're blinded by the light. And we literally walked up with a couple of feet of them and had to say hello before they could restart with them. And they were like, shit, man, you guys are on our side, right? We thought they thought we'd been invaded by the flipping Russians or something. Oh, it's looking hilarious. But you've got to be careful because they're all carrying weapons over there, aren't they? So you don't want to turn around and flip a slot here. Well, yeah, there's always that. That's why it's always surprised me some of these videos you see on YouTube where someone's fucking with a complete stranger in your life. It's not the right country to do that. Everyone's talked about it over there. You've got to be careful. Yeah, and they're all egomaniacs as well. And people who are egomaniacs don't like being made to feel small. Tom, I've just flashed up there your online moniker logo prepared power finder. Yeah, yeah. There's that thing there on the head. Yeah, folks at home, Tom's got a Blossom in. Hey, do you see the parachute reference there? Blossom in. Blossom in YouTube channel. And also on Instagram. I was just going to flash it up again. Prepared power finder. Just have a look at some of your photo series. Is that you all... You're all kitted up for a halo. You're all pointing. Yeah, that is you. You told me that, didn't you? Yeah, that's the exit shot. Yeah, that's the most walk with picture ever. So because you can't see the face, because of the oxygen mask and stuff, you get a lot of water, and you're saying, oh yeah, this is me doing a halo jump. But genuinely, that is me. Yeah, that's how we got in contact. Because my producer used that picture for one of our clips of Steve. Steve. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we didn't want to put Steve's face on a video, do you know what I'm saying? If you want to scare the kids away, mate. Yes, mate. While we're here, tell us a bit about your bushcraft training. All right, yeah. Yeah, so separate from this here, really, I've also got a company called First in Events. And the idea is, well, first in was the motto of the Pathfinders. So the idea is to base things on military-themed stuff, particularly about what we do in Pathfinders. And as I said, I did the seer course three times over, just for a treat. And I run, actually, I'm actually running one this weekend, the survival weekend, down in Evesham, near Worcester. And we also run the fan dance. We've got that in May. And tandem skydive days as well. Again, you know, like the halo type, it's that kind of thing for people. So we do military-type events. And again, yeah, I've got a website, FirstInVents.com. And basically, it's helping people get out of their sofas and go and do more interesting stuff rather than sitting there and watching telly all the time. Yes, got you. And bushcross become really popular, isn't it, in the last 10 years? Yeah, it has. It used to be one of those things that was seen to be a bit of a weirdo thing, a bit geeky. But actually, it's good life skills, actually, you know? Getting out there in the wilderness, apart from the fact that it's good for your mental health, isn't it, getting out of the woods and doing stuff, rather than, again, just being locked in and watching telly all the time. But it's good life skills, you know? Learning how to build a shelter, learning how to build a fire, how to purify water, all that good stuff. Yes, I'm just going to flash up your bushcraft knife here. I'll take it that's yours, is it? It's got a... Is that the logo on it? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I wasn't really intending on going down the route of selling things, but after being on YouTube for a little while, people were asking for merchandise, things like hats and stuff. And someone I know runs a company called Hangar 39 in Colchester, and he just suggested to me, I can make you up logo knives for your company if you want to, and they've become really popular, actually. So, you know, fair play. And it is a good knife, that M.O.D. survival knife, not just saying it, I've beasted the crap out of it, and it still looks virtually brand new. The one I've got is a hell of a sturdy knife. So, yeah, cracking bit of kit. Yeah, you can see that. I don't know if you're aware, but I've just made my first bushcraft knife. Have you really? Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, well, it's sort of a stroke between bushcraft and sheaf knife type... Yeah. ...type affair. Yeah, I went to a bush... Do you know the bushcraft weekend? It's held on a bison farm somewhere? Yeah, I've been to it before. I haven't been to it for a little while. It's been sharp because of COVID, hasn't it? For the last couple of years. I have been to it, yeah. Yeah, I went there, God, 15 years ago or something, and the buddy I was with, we stopped at one of the knife makers, and after, you know, watching his lecture and everything, I bought some antler horn. All right. And some kind of, I don't know what you call it, these phony fake material discs. You use a lot of... Yeah. I don't know what you call it, like these prefab sort of material you can use for knife making. Yeah. And my idea was right, I'd go home and make a knife, and of course it's not that simple. Yeah. But over the course of the next 15 years, I managed to get all the equipment together to actually be able to make it and to temper it in an oven that I built. Yeah. And that's how I managed my logo on. And it's amazing, it's pretty smart. People say it's actually... Is that sort of definition of a long-term project right now? Oh, well, yeah, it is. But I'm just one of those people I'll never say no to anything. You know, if I want to do something, I'll store it on the back burner in my mind and... Yeah. And funny enough, I seem to... It all seems to come... Yeah. To come good. Getting back to your military career then, Tom. Yeah. Did you... In terms of action, did you see much action? I mean, obviously you saw action in the Power Finders, but did you see active service type action? So the operational deployments I did with Power Finders was Kosovo, Estonia, Iraq during the invasion and then a couple to Afghanistan. And in particular, yeah, Afghanistan once, yeah, they were hectic. Both tours, very busy both times. I actually missed Sierra Leone. I was pretty good about that, to be honest. I went to the Red Devils in January 2000, I think it was. And literally a couple of months later, the guys got deployed to Sierra Leone, P.F. and Steve Brown was with those and I was chin. I was absolutely gutted. I actually tried going back, but the deployment was so rapid, I missed it. But yeah, Afghanistan in particular, it was hectic, really hectic. We was the first time, 2006, we were stuck in a place called Muzaqala for a couple of months and we was under siege there getting shot at, mortared, you know, and all that good stuff every day, bringing in airstrikes to right up to close by the edge of the compound. And it was one of those things where it was like the best time of your life, but the worst time at the same time, you know, because there was the opportunity to get wasted and badly injured every day and the living conditions were absolutely horrendous. But at the same time, you'd get to do the stuff you always wanted to do, you know, get the drop bombs off looking at aircraft, watching the A-10s doing strafing runs just outside, you know, bracing the enemy up, all the good stuff that you always wanted to do if you're really into soldiering, that's the stuff you want to do. And can you tell us about the firefights you've been involved in? Yeah. I think the first big one was the Taliban tried taking out the compound basically, that we were staying in, they kind of softened us up a little bit with bits and pieces. And the first big one was they tried to pull on a saw onto the compound and they'd overrun it before we got there, or partially overrun it before we got there and we went there to reinforce it. And yeah, there was one particular one that was just, it was bedlam. I mean, there was an RPG, we went through the top of a building where we were all stood firing and it smashed a bamboo cane, but carried on going with that exploding. If that had exploded, it probably would have took us all out, at least with shrapnel anyway. They just literally just missed the OC's head, because the OC was kind of walking from one point to another to give fire control orders or whatever. And that was pretty hectic. And you know, like that scene out of the full metal jacket where they're all firing onto a building and all buildings just like covered in dust and strikes. That was basically, it was like a remake of that in reality. Blocks on 50 cows, giving it big licks. You know, GPMGs, because they were basically coming out and just hitting with a wall of fire. It was flipping amazing. One of those things, it was just like shit, we should have a video camera to film this because it was fricking awesome. But obviously pretty scary, but awesome at the same time. Did you lose many colleagues? So during that deployment, we were quite lucky. So 2006, we got away with it. There was a couple of guys quite badly injured that were attached to us, that were engineers at the start of the tour. But we basically were very, very lucky not to lose anyone on that tour. 2010, we was on the BRF roll that time round. And my platoon actually got hosed down by an American F-18, obviously accidentally. And one of the guys in my platoon was shot straight from the chest, killed instantly and a couple of guys injured. His name was John Howard, nicknamed Jack Howard. And he was a Kiwi, a really good guy and really sad loss. And I was one of the people that kind of attacked him, well, took him to the vehicle. Just after that, and it was like something like the First World War, we were up for our knees in mud, carrying one of our dead mates. And it's not the sort of thing you expect to be doing in this, 21st century soldier. Everyone thinks it's all about digital stuff, not that crap, but it's still about that First World War, going through the mud, fighting the enemy at close quarters, as we know now in Ukraine. Nice. And when you're not teaching the bushcraft and throwing yourself out of planes still, what do you do with your days? Well, I'm pretty busy. So we've got those two things there. I'm also heading up the local parachute regiment association. So that's a veterans association. We represent the regiment at things like funerals and stuff. We've got a big thing organized for August, a big party as well. I've also got a full-time job. So I'm working as a school staff instructor at the Kamai Cadet Force now at school locally. And I'm in a parachute team, as you mentioned as well. So I'm doing parachute displays into events and stuff like that. So pretty busy. I don't know many minutes to spare in a day. I've got to say. Well, it sounds like from your history, mate, you're not a man that would want spare minutes in a day. Yeah. I tend to fill it up with busy stuff. And obviously the YouTube stuff, you know, that was just like a sideline really. That was just lockdown project because you couldn't get out of the house. And then that's got kind of grown arms and legs now. So that's become pretty successful. Never saw myself doing things like YouTube. You know, weird things happen during pandemics, I guess. Yes. Yes. Tom, if you could do me a favor, if you could email me just all the links to all the things we've discussed that you want to promote. Yes, yeah, we'll do it. I can give them to Luke then and we can get them promoted below the video. Roger. Anything big on the horizon you'd like to talk about? Well, the main one really is we've got, you know, the events going on with first and events. So this weekend is the bushcraft weekend, bushcraft and survival. And the next one's the May fan dance on the 15th of May. So going over the SS selection route that you do as part of selection, basically taking people through that, you know, and making a safe event. That's the next big thing on the horizon really. Incredible. Tom, I'm going to wish you all the best there and thank you massively for coming on the show. Cheers, mate. Second power finder we've had on the show now. It's like buses, isn't it? You wait four years for them and they all come along at the same time. Yeah, mega. But mate, I wish you all the best. Good luck with the jump in. Good luck with the bushcraft. Good luck with all the cadets. Let's chat again at some point. Cheers, Mucka. Appreciate it. Yeah, no worries. Just stay on the line, Tom. All our wonderful friends at home. I didn't see any. I'm just going to flash up the chat here just to say thank you to everyone who's who's who's bore with us. Sorry, it's been buffering folks. I think it's because I had stuff uploading to YouTube, which is silly me, but I can only remember so many things in this aging head of mine. Thinking about crayons, weren't you eating crayons at the time? That's it. Down slightly easier life, just eating crayons. But hello to Paul, Jed, Never, Darren, Greg, Diamond, Doug and Jane. Good old Jane's always support. Always supports the podcast. And, yes, and to everybody at home, much love to you all. Please look after yourselves and we will see you next time. Thank you.