Excellence in REME

Silver medal and a Bronze medal, and was made Army Team Champion, alongside When I went for the interview at the careers office it was a Green Howards recruiting Sergeant who was ‘spinning dits’ about how good life would be with me in the Infantry and the prospects that a two other competitors. career with his Battalion would provide. When I told my parents, I got a ‘nope!’ from Dad and was taken to the Careers Office the following

In this month’s Excellence in REME, he day for them to be told ‘He’s gonna get a trade!’ Although my dad served with the Royal Signals, he initially wanted to enlist into REME talks about the twin impacts of his family and martial arts on his career. as a VM; looking back I suppose I can thank him for steering me into the Corps. However, I chose the better route and became an Armourer, a decision I haven’t regretted!

Why did you choose to join the Army? The variation of postings I have been fortunate to have. I have My dad served with the Royal Signals and later with the Civil Service, which saw me moving to Germany and Cyprus. Although I grew up in a military environment, joining the military was never at the top of the list of career options. When I finished school and upon moving from Cyprus back to Scarborough, it was difficult to find a job and I tried college but didn’t enjoy it, so dropped out. My parents gave me the ultimatum of getting a job or going back to education. With limited options available I decided to have a look at the Army Careers worked in Germany with 1 Black Watch LAD in Fallingbostel, which saw me complete tours of Kosovo and Iraq, and 3 Bn REME in Paderborn for a deployment to Afghanistan, as well as Omagh Station LAD and NI GSU in Lisburn. My last posting was to the Export Support Team based in Larkhill. It involved working with the UK civilian defence industry and I managed to deploy to America, Egypt and Bangladesh, as well as supporting industry in Defence Shows in the UK like DSEI and DVD. Office and the rest is history. How does SSgt Patrick differ from Mr Patrick who

I joined pretty much straight from school, I had no real aspirations or drive and I had no idea what I would be able to achieve. With guidance I have been able to have a decent career in the Corps, which has provided me opportunities that I doubt would have been offered in civilian life, like gaining engineering qualifications and being accredited through the Engineering Council. I have also used the enhanced learning credits to help me study towards a degree. Looking back at the 16-yearold me, with his lack of focus or ambition, I doubt that would be something he would have been able SSgt Patrick’s deployment with the Export Support Team to Bangladesh to achieve.

Martial arts has taught me that there are no short cuts if you want to become good at anything and it’s important to get the basics right before moving on to more complex tasks. This is where selfdiscipline comes in because sometimes doing the basics can get monotonous, but they are just as important because these provide the foundation of future development. If you set your sights to achieve something you must have the drive and commitment to see it through to completion.

Late last year I was approached by my Instructor and asked if I would You’ve managed to achieve great success as a like to look at a way of raising funds to help the Gakushuin Karate sportsperson. What attributes do you think make a Club. I organised for the competition squad to complete ‘The Gakushuin 500 challenge’ (500 Katas and 500 bouts of fighting). Although it didn’t seem like too much at the time, it was a tough successful sportsperson, for those chasing similar success to yours? challenge and not many people spoke to me for a while afterwards! As with everything you want to achieve, you have to want to

Due to the cost of the karate gi, protective equipment, travel and accomplish it. Training hard is important but you must to be open to cost of entry, competitions can become a financial strain. Some of constructive criticism and guidance or you’ll never develop. I started the funds raised went back into the club to afford some of the training at 33 (most competitors begin training as kids), so I think I younger members the opportunity to compete. This has helped had a fair bit of luck on my side getting into an Army team that is full them test their skills against people from other clubs, styles, regions of International and World Champions. I have had plenty of and occasionally international competitors. In doing so this has experience to draw from and that has helped me massively, but enabled those young people to develop friendships and provided realistically the only thing you can do to improve is do it. It’s fine healthy competition for them to develop character and respect that having an understanding but you need to have the physical they may otherwise not have gained. experience to be able to put it into practice It was agreed that the Royal British Legion would receive some of the sponsor money, as myself as well as the instructors (FTRS and Army Reserve) understand the excellent work and assistance that the If you could sum up your life now how would you do it? RBL provides to both serving personnel and Veterans. In total £500 Life is going great! When I first started basic training being an NCO was raised for the Royal British Legion, which was gratefully received seemed a million miles away. After my first posting I didn’t know how by the South Tyneside Branch. far I would be able climb on the career ladder. When I opted not to We’ve briefly mentioned that you have won multiple medals. What did it take to achieve these wins? go the Artificer route I understood that would close a lot of doors, but I have managed to promote to SSgt (which I’m sure surprised more people than just me!) and I still have time to get to WO2. Away You need consistency in training. It’s easy to not train because you’re from REME, over the last few years I’ve used ‘Forces Help to Buy’ to not feeling it. I’ve been guilty of that plenty of times in the past, but buy a house and settle my family, I’ve used Enhanced Learning it’s all part of the experience and necessary to improve. Considering Credits to begin studying for a BSc in Engineering Management and I the current situation with many sports clubs closing, it’s pretty easy have been selected to represent KKO GB on an international level in to just wait for them to reopen to continue with training instead of a sport that I enjoy. practicing in your free time. So, if I can do it, anyone can!

If you don’t perform as well as you know you can on the day, frustration can set in and that can be a huge confidence set back. Sometimes it’s necessary to look at how far you have come and how much better you were than last time - a phrase that gets used by the Army coach is ‘you either win or you learn’. I’ve only been competing for five years and so as long as I can say I am improving every time I get on the tatami, I am happy.

The clubs I train at are civilian run so the majority of the training is in the evening and competitions are generally on weekends. My son also competes and, though I don’t think my wife minds watching me get knocked about, I don’t think she is overly keen on watching her (not so) little boy get a few knocks on our limited weekends off. I have been quite fortunate since I began competing for REME and the Army; my chain of command has supported me whenever they can. It can still be a challenge balancing training, competing and work commitments at times though. SSgt Patrick was part of the Bronze team at the WUKF World Championships He also took Silver at the Welsh Open in kumite

If anyone is interested in training or competing in karate for REME or Army please contact: REME POC: WO1 Andy O Neill Andrew.Oneill238@mod.gov.uk Army POC: Cpl David Johnston David.Johnston104@mod.gov.uk