It took me over twenty years to produce my military memoirs, relating in chronological order, my twenty-three years of service in the British Army. The timeline, locations and events were as close to the truth as I could manage. I amended names, including my own, to avoid legal issues or embarrassment to any person or organisation from that career.
I gave the principal character the name Jim Faulkner.
The story spanned twenty-three years and covered my experiences in many units stationed in various operational theatres. I published the story as five eBooks and created a three-volume paperback edition. It covered my working life from age 17 to 40, from 1969 to 1992.
My aim with this story is to relate the next twenty-five years of Jim Faulkner’s life, from an honourable military discharge in 1992 to retirement in 2017.
Like my own, all of the other people’s names will be amended, and, once again, the characters will represent the real people I met in my second career. The dates and positions I held are accurate, and the towns and cities are those I worked in, but I’ve mixed the sequence here and there to prevent the tracing of people or events.
Unlike my military career, which was written as an autobiography, this episode of my life will be related as anecdotes. I’ve never properly come to terms with being a civilian—I’m a military veteran. I mention that here because I feel it will be a useful factor to keep in mind as you see how well, or badly, Jim Faulkner adjusted to life in ‘Civvy Street’.
I’m opening with a few passages from the end of my military memoirs to create a logical starting point and a brief back story. Having tried other methods to begin this story, this is the easiest for a reader to appreciate the portal I stepped through when I left the security of a military environment.
Tom