In our first of two colleague stories to mark Armed Forces Week, we would like to introduce to one of our newly qualified Health Advisors, Paul Bass.
Paul passed his training just a few weeks ago at our Orbis Advice Centre in Derby, and he has been telling us about his past, joining our growing ranks of former servicemen and women at DHU.
“I started off in the Army Cadet Force at just 12 years old and learned a lot about the Army. It was something I was always interested in and stayed in the youth organisation until I was 16. As soon as I left school, I joined the Junior Leaders Regiment, Royal artillery and had a year’s training at Bramcote in Warwickshire, passing out in June 1985.
“I then served in West Germany with the 1st Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery before my first of 16 trips to be stationed in Canada, eventually being deployed to Northern Ireland where I trained as Infantry in County Omagh. That included an emergency tour to South Omagh where I helped to restore and rebuild the observation towers along the borders which was very intense.
“I was promoted to Lance Bombardier and, whilst on leave in Germany, I was deployed to The Gulf in October 1991 with the 40 Field Regiment where they needed additional troops to support a number of ground missions. It was a difficult time and after my tours there I came back to Nottingham to help with recruitment, to Keady and Middleton in South Omagh for six months when I became Detachment Commander before taking on more courses to become an instructor at the Royal School or Artillery.
“My service duties weren’t over, I went on a peace keeping mission at Glamoc in Bosnia before returning to take on normal regimental duties before joining the police in 2001. I then joined DHU in May 2024 because I felt, at my time of life, I needed a final change of pace but did not want to waste what I have to offer. DHU 111 offered the next best thing to suit my work/life balance and with the added bonus of continuing my service with pension.
“I have enjoyed it and understand the different skill set needed for this role. The feedback from coaches has been excellent with the amount and scope of support at all levels exactly what I need.
“I’m also really pleased to be joining an organisation that supports former service personnel like myself and I’ve just been made aware of how additional time is made available for Reservists to help the make their time commitments without impacting annual leave too much. My role as a Cadet Adult Volunteer is basically a Reservist role and we need to keep up our training and commit to a week for an annual camp. I hope they get the same buzz and level of interest that I got when I was starting out.”