Originating from a military background, Mary knew she wanted to join the army and officially signed in 1978 when she left school. After excelling in her assessments, she chose to join the Royal Army Pay Corps knowing that they had bases all over the world. Following her initial training at Guildford, Mary was posted to Brighton where she worked on translating army promotions into symbols in order for occurrences to be coded into computer systems. She was then moved to Krefeld in Germany and placed in a pay team with two other RAPC individuals. She remembers her time in Germany as the moment in which she, like many others, became aware of the IRA threats and realities of life in the army. Having joined the WRAC towards the end of the 1970s, Mary reflects on the changing nature of women's roles and remembers the introduction of weapon training. She describes the extensive NBC training in Krefeld, in particular 'Active Edge' exercises which were intended to mimic Russian invasion. Mary describes the relationship between technological development and pay duties, and her developing awareness of the discrepancy in pay. With the disbandment of the WRAC she went for commission and became the only female RAPC. Her interview is an inspiring and authentic account of one of the many trailblazing women who broke the system.

Don McArthur recounts how his D Day parachute drop went awry, trapping him behind enemy lines with no supplies and causing him to spend ten months as a prisoner of war. During D Day Don had suspected that his given orders were flawed but the extreme camaraderie he had experienced in the Parachute Regiment prevented him from trusting his doubt and confusion.   Tasked with delivering mortars to a rendezvous point, Don and his platoon were dropped into Normandy on a dark, rainy night with no way to distinguish where to land or where to move towards. Despite the conditions he was able to locate three more of the lost Paras but no maps had been given out so following the noise of explosions was now their only option. After ten days of wandering the empty countryside with no supplies and no enemy or ally contact they were discovered by German soldiers and Don was captured.   Don found the prison camp’s staff strict and quick to anger but he couldn’t blame them for just doing their job and didn’t resist their interrogations due to how worn out he was. After having been released one month after World War 2 ended, the Parachute Regiment asked him to return to their ranks but Don instead chose to go live with his wife and infant child.