‘A pothead like me’ – as a teenager, with my grandmother …

All photographs are from the author’s collection

… and, after years of service in the Marines, with my nephew Luke.

On exercise in Scotland during training. The yellow devices fitted to the muzzles of the SA80 rifles are blank-firing adaptors.

Jungle training in Belize; we also did the Arctic warfare course.

Having completed a signals course, I was one of the advance party sent out from RM Condor in Arbroath, Scotland, to Pristina in Kosovo, to maintain order in the war-ravaged country. Here I am showing off my living quarters.

One of our tasks was to persuade local Kosovans to hand in any weapons, although they tended not to give up ‘the good stuff’. This is me with a Second World War-vintage .45 Thompson sub-machine gun – the famous ‘Tommy gun’ beloved of American gangsters in the 1920s and 1930s.

Searching a house in Kosovo – in fact, much of the action we saw seemed to be farmers shooting at each other as the result of some feud, on one occasion a quarrel over a stray cow. However, a culture of violent revenge undeniably permeated the country at that time.

Me, exhausted, during the invasion of Iraq in March 2003; this was taken on D-plus-2.

Heading northwards into Iraq following the invasion in March 2003 – I am standing up in the back of the Land Rover.

Me during a house search while clearing villages south of Basra. I am holding up one of many portraits of Saddam Hussein that were to be found in all government offices and most homes.

Sitting on the quad bike on which I reconnoitred much of the area south of Basra; note my SA80 strapped to the luggage carrier at the front

Three comrades-in-arms, including Corporal Sibsy, and I (second from right) digging an emplacement in the Iraqi desert. We quickly learned that the desert is not only almost entirely sand, but is extremely cold at night or in bad or winter weather.

When dawn broke after my arrival at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, the first thing I noticed were the encircling mountains. An RAF CH-47 Chinook on the airstrip at Bastion – we would fly in these amazing aircraft many times.

‘Er, guys – I’ve got a situation here’ – me after discovering a landmine while we were building our camp at Bastion, even though the area was supposed to have been swept.

On operations in Tora Bora. This network of caves in eastern Afghanistan, close to the border with Pakistan, was a Taliban stronghold.

J (Juliet) Company, 42 Commando RM, at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Not all the men in this photograph would make it back home, and some would be terribly wounded.

Me (third from left) with members of my multiple, including Fergie, before we left Camp Bastion for our first CP. Neither we, nor our uniforms, would look so smart on our return some seven months later.

‘Sunray’ – Major Steve McCulley, commanding Juliet Company, in the ops room at CP Toki directing the ISAF response during an attack by insurgents – he had been bathing when the attack started, and only had time to throw on his body armour. Not long afterwards he was to be severely wounded by an IED.

Me in full battle array during a compound search. The weight of our equipment, including body armour, combined with the heat to take its toll during long patrols.

Patrolling alongside one of the many irrigation channels that criss-cross the countryside in that part of Helmand. At times we were glad to get into them to cool down a little; at others, they provided cover from Taliban fire.

A patrol entering a compound to search it and question its inhabitants, while locals Afghans look on. Note the tall crop and the mud walls

Me (left) and another of my patrol safely in cover after a prolonged firefight with the Taliban.

Homecoming parade at Bickleigh Barracks, Devon, after 42 Commando’s return to the UK from Afghanistan, late 2011. Proud Green Berets, but not all of them escaped unscathed, and some paid the ultimate price. The RSM (far left) stands at attention next to his injured marines; ahead of him, Kaz is in the wheelchair nearest the camera.