23 Parachute Field Ambulance
"AIRBORNE MEDICS"
WHO ARE WE?
We are a husband and wife team and Ex serving members of the both the Royal Army Medical Corp (RAMC) and the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corp (QARANC). I served with 23 Parachute Field Ambulance as a Combat Medical Technician and an Operating Department Practitioner from 1994 until 1999 when the unit was disbanded in Aldershot and we where moved to Colchester to become a new unit with the new name of "16 Close Support Medical Regiment". This new formation of the old 23 PFA would then come under the new "AIR ASSAULT BANNER" of "16 Air Assault Brigade" which has become Britain's new rapid deployment brigade.
Before
serving with 23 PFA I had previously served with the 1st Battalion of the Black
Watch (RHR) and the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment. Indeed when I
transferred over to 23 PFA I found to my surprise that there where 17 other
members of the Parachute regiment who like me had decided that they needed to
leave the army with a worthwhile trade and as a result of this forethought they
all found themselves drawn to the medical side of life in the hope of better
future employment within the civilian medical sector when they finally left the
army with there families.
My wife was a member of the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army nursing Corp and is currently an Accident & Emergency nurse practitioner with 28 years experience under her belt.
Between
us we both have an enormous amount of medical and tactical medical experience,
with operational tours all over the world, from Northern Ireland to Sierra
Leone, and lots of other locations in-between.
WHY DO
WE DO WHAT WE DO?
We initially became involved with the living history side of things after meeting some former Paratroopers and soldiers at the War and Peace show in Kent in 2001. After our initial meet we all decided to get together each year for a kind of “AIRBORNE REUNION” at the same show. Now 7 years later the reunion we have been doing has taken on a mind of its own almost and now forms one of the biggest military displays at the War and Peace show, thanks mainly to the efforts of a lot of former Paratroopers would decided to “DO IT RIGHT” lol. In fact each year we seem to adopt another Ex Airborne soldier and we have yet another place set at the BBQ table for beer and waffle, swinging the lamp as he pulls up his sand bag to join the rest of us in trying to out do each other in our exaggerations of our past military careers lol. See link for 5 AIRBORNE BRIGADE.
My wife and I enjoy the environment and the atmosphere of the military shows that run during the summer months both in the UK and Europe. In fact at these shows we often meet old friends or make new ones. Indeed we tend to draw the attention of the “OLD & BOLD” from both the RAMC & the QARANC which is always a bonus. So to that end we have decided to present ourselves to the public at these military shows in the form of a living history display. Hopefully presenting exactly what we have done in our military careers in a true and professional manner simply because we are proud of what we have both achieved and would like to pass that information on to others. Who knows it may lead to the next young medic or nurse joining the army. But also it has to be remembered that all too often the Military Medical Services are forgotten about in lieu if more romantic and dramatic teeth arms units and to date we haven’t found anyone out there that gives a true or even close representation of the role of army medics and nurses of the British Armed Forces.
It
is our hope that in doing what we do that perhaps the public will give a second thought to the medical services of the
British Armed Forces in the future? After all we are not a bad lot!
You can contact us by clicking here, or if you need to copy and paste this is the email address hq23PFA@hotmail.co.uk.
This page was last updated on 11/16/07.
