Rachel Webster served all over the world with the RMP (Royal Military Police), including deployments in Northern Ireland during The Conflicts and in Afghanistan during the 2001 allied invasion. After completing an apprenticeship in welding she wanted to join the Royal Engineers, but she was laughed out of the recruiting office for being a “girl”. After some consideration, she decided to join the RMP instead. She completed her basic training with the WRAC (Women's Royal Army Corps), and did further training with the RMP before being deployed to Germany. In her interview she discusses the challenges of being a female within the military and the challenges of trying to keep up with the frontline military units she was supporting. She talks about her experience of integrating herself into a very male dominated space, and how she became someone who the men could confide in during difficult times. Rachel talks about being deployed to Bosnia and Kosovo with the Green Howards, remembering it as her toughest deployment. The atrocities she witnessed over there are something that she has never forgotten, needing counselling when she returned home to help her emotionally come to terms about what she witnessed over there. One of her proudest moments was deploying to Iraq in 2003, where she helped build a local girls' school, impressing the Iraqi men with her welding skills and forming strong relationships with the locals. After being put up for commission, she supported 1st Battalion, The Rifles in Afghanistan as a regimental admin officer, the highlight of her career. After 24 years, she left the military for a new challenge.

Coming from a musical and artistic family, John was attracted to military service as an opportunity to become a professional musician. He joined the Staffordshire Regiment, and after arduous basic training, joined the military band. He focused on the cornet and the double bass and describes his development as a musician. He puts his success down to hard work; he wanted to become a professional musician in a military band and he would do whatever it took to achieve this. He was then given the opportunity to train at Kneller Hall, which he describes as ‘the mecca for army music’. He practised hard and won a prize for the most improved musician on double bass as well as best double bass musician for that year. Following graduation, he spent time in Northern Ireland, then Gibraltar. Eventually he became an instructor in the Prince of Wales division and from there back to Kneller Hall as a student Bandmaster. Having graduated, he became the first black bandmaster and went to the Cheshire Regiment and from there to Bosnia and the first Gulf War. He describes his time with the Cheshire Regiment, during which he received a commission before retiring in 2000.

Having served in the Irish Army in 1943 to 44, ‘Paddy’ was discharged along with many of his compatriots, so he enlisted in the British Army. Even though he was Irish, on the advice of his father, he joined the Manchester regiment in Liverpool. From there, Paddy volunteered to join the Commandos and transferred to Achnacarry in Scotland in 1944. Although the training was gruelling, he succeeded and was proud to achieve his beret. Transferring to Wrexham in 1945, he was selected for special training and then posted to the Far East, training for Operation Nipper. Surrender following the second atom bomb resulted in redirection to the Malacca Straits and from there to the Middle East. Paddy describes serving in Egypt and then Israel and then in 1948, being posted to London, where he was on guard during the night of King Charles’s birth. Subsequently posted again to the Far East, it was in 1949 that he was sent to Korea. He tells of many battles and experiences including Operation Rowley, the taking and loss of Pyongyang and Kunu-ri. Paddy is critical of the behaviour of the American Military in Korea. Ultimately, Paddy expresses the view that war is futile.