D(DLOY) Years 2007 - 2008(a) Squadron Life
12 March 2008
GREEN DEAN FIGHTING MACHINE HEADS TO AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan is the last place you would expect to find a couple of landscape gardeners.
But for Wigan-based Troopers John Green and Paul Dean they are about to swap shovels for rifles to go on operations in Helmand Province attached to The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 5th Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (5 SCOTS).
John Green, 39, is a TA trooper with D Squadron, The Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry (RMLY), which is based in Canal Street, Wigan. This unit has just been awarded the Freedom of Wigan. In civilian life, Trooper Green runs Greenforce, a garden and sports-field maintenance business. Paul Dean, 19, a student from Winstanley College, signed up with John at Wigan TA Centre on the same day in October 2006. The two Troopers both describe D Squadron as a ‘tight knit’ local unit which has been supporting operations in Afghanistan for many months already.
“We have put the business on hold,” says John, who has employed Paul Dean at Greenforce ever since the teenager finished college. John originally served for five years in the TA with 4 PARA in the anti-tank platoon and does not regret coming back to serve for a second time: “I rejoined the TA because I want to go on operations and the stripped down Land Rovers used by the RMLY attracted me to my local unit.”
Trooper Dean joined the TA after serving as a cadet with the Wigan Grenadier Guards. He is looking forward to the imminent tour of duty. He said: “It is going to be hard work but a real experience to build a career from.” Paul studied maths, information technology and photography at Winstanley College and is hoping to put his photography skills to the test. His ultimate aim is to be a war photographer.
Trooper Green is a father-of-two (Aimee, 11, and Ryan, 16) and lives in Hindley. Trooper Dean, the son of Alan and Jill Dean, lives in Ashton. The pair are due to fly out within days to begin their tour of duty, which is expected to last six months.
ENDS
Photographs of Troopers Green and Dean are available.
Notes to newsdesks
The Territorial Army is an integral part of the British Army, representing a quarter of its total manpower. More than 1,300 TA soldiers from the North West region alone have served operational tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan or the Balkans since 2003.
TA soldiers serve the Army in their spare time, juggling the demands of everyday civilian life and their ‘day jobs’ with a commitment to training as soldiers on a paid, part-time basis. Most of their training takes place at evenings and weekends.
The TA celebrates is 100th anniversary year during 2008.
For more information on D (DLOY) Squadron RMLY, see
www.army.mod.uk/rac/ta_yeomanry/rmly/index.htm
For more information on 5 SCOTS, see
http://www.army.mod.uk/infantry/regts/ash/index.htm
Media contact for further information
KEVIN HEGARTY, Army Press Officer – North West and the Isle of Man
01772 703000 or 07971 114029 or kevin.hegarty580@land.mod.uk