Hi Ashikul,

Thanks for your question.

It is a difficult question to answer as it is such a personal thing but I’m happy to share my thoughts and experiences with you.

Before deploying on operational tour I definitely took time to reflect on the possibility that I may not come home again. It is a sobering thought and makes you appreciate what you have in your life. When I joined the Army I decided that I was willing to make that sacrifice, should it be required, in order to allow the Army to achieve its mission and have a wider impact on the World.

That said, statistically you are much more likely to die from something like heart disease or cancer than through war, so really we should constantly be grateful for what we have. If during our lifetime we can contribute to making something better, then to me that feels like a life well lived.

Personally I don’t think you can ever become immune to the death or injury of those around you, even the enemy. We are human at the end of the day and it’s important that you never lose the gravitas of taking a life, that is why we live by such strong ethics and a code of conduct. Because if these ethics we live by we know that we will have taken the actions that we needed to, and the loss of life, whilst unfortunate, was not fur nothing. You will remember these things but will make peace with them. You will also never be alone in the decisions you make, or in dealing with them afterwards as you will work in a very close knit team.

I very deep question for a Thursday morning but I hope my response goes some way to answering your questions. Please feel free to come back to me if you want to discuss anything else.

Katie

06 February, 2020 10:49