In this interview Karen shares an inspiring story which began with her passion for sports and a determination to transgress the roles available to women in the army. Although she began her WRAC journey as a chef, she had plans to be a Physical Training Instructor and it was only after serving two years in Cyprus as a cook that she applied for her second trade. Karen describes how she passed the initial selection but suffered an unfortunate ankle injury which prevented her from completing the specialised PTI training. Feeling lost after her injury, she recalls the frustration she began to feel with the options available to women in the WRAC and considered leaving. Therefore, for Karen, the disbandment of the WRAC came as a sign that she and many other women alike could move forward and beyond the restraints of female specific roles. At Deep Cut she trialled for the military training instructors course with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, and in her interview describes the constant discrimination she faced in such a male dominated field. Karen became the first female instructor and went on to serve as Sergeant Major in Bosnia, Macedonia and Iraq before her career was ended by misfortune. This interview provides an example of one of the many trailblazing veterans of the WRAC.

Mike Jackson joined the army aged 17 in 1961 and went to Sandhurst next year. Initially in the Intelligence Corps he then joined the Parachute Regiment. In the early 1970s he was posted to Northern Ireland. Here he witnessed or was close to many harrowing events such as the Ballymurphy killings, Bloody Sunday and the Warrenpoint ambush. He saw bodies dismembered by bombs and acknowledged that this could be traumatic. Mike thinks that soldiers adapt to such events, helped by the adrenalin the body produces. He did not want to go into detail regarding Bloody Sunday as he had already disclosed this during the Saville Report years earlier. He regrets that he missed the Falklands War as he was working in the MOD at the time and after service in Norway he was sent to former Yugoslavia. Here he commanded the British 3^rd division and some units from other nations. Later, in 1999, he commanded KFOR, a multi-national peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During this time he was ordered by General Clark, the US overall commander, to prevent a Russian unit from seizing Pristina airfield. Jackson refused the order, saying that he was not going to ‘…start the Third World War…’, an action which gained notoriety in the media. Later, in 2003, he was promoted to head of the Army. In 2006 he retired after forty-five years’ service. He describes his career as both enjoyable and rewarding as it helped to make a difference to peoples lives.

Joining during the Second World War, Betty was sent to train at the Welsh Barracks near Wrexham. After performing well in her tests, she was sent to interview with the Intelligence Corps in London. She remembers being immediately taken to sign the Official Secrets Act and proceed to working in listing translated messages in Bletchley. It was at this posting that she discovered her talent for paraphrasing, and from this point onwards was given the task of paraphrasing translated enemy messages to be sent on to Burma. Remarkably, Betty was then sent to work in the Pentagon before moving to the British Army Staff base in Washington DC. In her interview she describes the lack of news made available to American civilians surrounding the war in Europe, and her frustration at the lack of understanding future employment had on the highly classified status of her military work. When asked her thoughts on the disbandment of the WRAC, Betty felt disappointed that there was no longer a women's army as she enjoyed the independent identification of the female corps.