Ipswich Army Careers Office
I don’t travel back to my hometown as much as I should.
Ipswich was the place where I spent the majority of the first 16 years of my life, and I have some great memories of my childhood growing up in a ‘non-technical’ environment.
When I look back, it was my Mum who showed the most surprise when I announced that I wanted to join the Army. I think it was a shock announcement to most, including my close friends.
If I was to be honest, I imagine most thought I was not the typical ‘Army’ type. The only military family history I can remember was with my Grandad who served in the Royal Air Force, I still have his military scarf.
I enjoyed school and gained a good handful of ‘O’ Levels and one of my intended career avenues was working at BT Martlesham which was just down the road. I visited it once on a school trip and it looked like a great exciting place to work, more so than a similar trip to an Army barracks which surprisingly I didn’t find enjoyable.
So that begs the question, what placed the idea in my head to join the Army?
Initially, it was a live news item which caught my eye, my Dad called me down from my bedroom where I was either revising, trying to ‘splice’ a cassette tape or putting my next hour into practicing my violin. For that single hour, I sat in front of the tv completely mesmerised.
This planted a seed.
The thought of doing something totally different, challenging and adventurous was to change my whole direction in life.
I didn’t have a clue.
Yes, not one scooby of what an Army career looked like but the ‘slightly large’ Sergeant (three stripes) from the Ipswich Army Careers office was more than keen to let me leave his shop with as many brochures as I could carry in return for all my personal details.
So, during the early hours of a September morning in 1981, my Mum took me down to the bus station carrying my carefully packed suitcase and I embarked on a career in the Royal Signals that would eventually last 24 years.
Adrian Cheesman
Managing Director
Demob Job
Office: 0333 3445577
Mobile: 07813655898
Email: adrian@demobjob.co.uk
