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Steve-Staite

A veteran interview with

Steve Staite

It some asking but we finally managed to get an interview with Steve. And I’m very glad we did. Steve led the band 26 times – 17 as drum major, something the Army claim is a world record. You can meet his wife on here too!

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About Steve Staite

Credits

Interviewed by:
Martin Bisiker

Copyright:
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Home | Veterans | Steve Staite

A veteran interview with

Steve Staite

Steve-Staite

It some asking but we finally managed to get an interview with Steve. And I’m very glad we did. Steve led the band 26 times – 17 as drum major, something the Army claim is a world record. You can meet his wife on here too!

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Cite this interview:

MLA Style:
Staite, Steve. A Veteran Interview with Steve Staite. Interview by Martin Bisiker. Legasee, n.d. https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/steve-staite/. Accessed 17 May. 2025.
APA Style:
Staite, S. (n.d.). A Veteran Interview with Steve Staite [Interview by Martin Bisiker]. Legasee. Retrieved May 17, 2025, from https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/steve-staite/
Chicago Style:
Staite, Steve. n.d.. A Veteran Interview with Steve Staite. Interview by Martin Bisiker. Legasee. Accessed May 17, 2025. https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/steve-staite/
Harvard Style:
Staite, S. (n.d.). A Veteran Interview with Steve Staite. [Interviewed by Martin Bisiker]. Legasee. Available at https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/steve-staite/ (Accessed: 17 May 2025)
Vancouver Style:
Staite, S. A Veteran Interview with Steve Staite [Internet]. Interview by M. Bisiker. Legasee; n.d. [cited 2025 May 17]. Available from: https://www.legasee.org.uk/veteran/steve-staite/
An interview with

Alec Hall

Alec Hall served with 181 Field Ambulance (Airborne) as a medical nurse

In 1940, aged 18, Alec Hall was one of the first people to volunteer for 1st Airborne. He was in the Royal Army Medical Corps training at Tidworth Hospital where he learned various medical skills, including delivering a baby. He excelled in sports, playing football and hockey for his unit, and placing 8th in a cross-country run for the British Southern Command. He then trained with gliders and served in an airborne hospital, often being loaned out to other units. Invariably in the thick if the action, he recalls his time in Oran, North Africa, and a trip through the Atlas Mountains. In Italy, attached to the Airborne Light Artillery, he describes intense action from a cemetary. He talks extensively about his role as a medic, the equipment he used, and being part of the first gliders to Arnhem in Operation Market Garden in September 1944.  Based in two hotels which were set up as hospitals, Alec treated wounded soldiers and vividly remembers giving two pints of his own blood to save Reg Curtis, who was operated on in the field. Eventually he was taken POW and sent to Stalag V11-B. Upon the war's end, Alec endured the Long march and stayed briefly at a local woman's house, listening to her recount her husband's shooting. After returning to the UK, Alec underwent medical checks and set a running record—a mile in just over 4 minutes. He revisited Tidworth Hospital before transferring to 102 Company in Dortmund Hospital, Germany. Alec passed away on October 16th, 2023
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Service:
Interviewed by:
Martin Bisiker
An interview with

Loraine Patrick

Loraine was a groom and dog handler under the WRAC.

After seeing the WRAC in a magazine, Loraine was inspired to join the army and in 1973 arrived at Guildford. Determined to work with animals, she was quickly posted to Mulgrave where she began her specialised dog training. Loraine describes how following graduation, each woman was given a 'line' to maintain. She recalls the strict disciplinary environment of the kennels and the limited positions for women available. Although members of the WRAC were in training with dogs, they weren't officially allowed to train dogs - only handle them, as this was an overtly male profession. Following her years at the kennels, she left to work in a veterinary hospital on promotion. Devastatingly, she was forced to leave on conditions of marriage but after divorcing years later, was able to rejoin the WRAC with the encouragement of other women around her. She provides some interesting insights into the changing climate when she returned to the army in 1984. After becoming a qualified instructor, in 1988 she was promoted to a professional horse coach and groom at the Saddle Club in Hong Kong. In this interview, Loraine describes the disbandment of the WRAC as a societal indicator that not only were women's roles changing, but they were moving beyond a restrictive system.
Service:
Interviewed by:
Martin Bisiker
An interview with

Anthony Cooper

The committed service of an infantryman in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the catastrophic event that changed his life forever.

A keen runner and fitness fanatic, Anthony Cooper signed up at 16 and completed his training at AFC Harrogate and Catterick before being posted to Germany with the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment – an experience he recalls with great glee. Anthony goes on to talk about the six-month operational tour of Iraq that followed, and shares the harsh realities of his first real soldiering experience compared to the practice of training. After a brief decompression in Cyprus, Anthony returned to Catterick where training for combat in Afghanistan began. He recalls the relentlessness of the conflict on arriving in Nad Ali, and talks about living with the fear of a constant threat to life which became all too real in 2010 when a 45kg IED exploded beneath his feet on a routine patrol in Helmand Province. Anthony talks candidly about his injuries, the long road to recovery and the hard work needed to adapt to life as an amputee with severe brain trauma and visual impairment. The extraordinary courage and resilience of his service now manifest themselves in his determination to overcome any new obstacle in his path, and to achieve his dream of running again one day on blades.
Service:
Interviewed by:
Martin Bisiker