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thedrifter
03-22-03, 03:47 PM
British troops, from recent recruits to experienced soldiers, have been speaking about their emotions and what they have been doing during the first few days of conflict.

Ricky Fisher, 18, is the youngest soldier in the British army.

He was posted to Iraq just a day after his 18th birthday.

He said: "I am nervous but we have to keep our task in hand. We have to focus on what we are doing.

"I was expecting some sort of violence but so far it's good to see people waving."

The thoughts of soldiers were with their families at home.

One middle-aged Territorial Army soldier spoke of his young daughter.

"She was beginning to walk when I got the papers. This place is surreal. Being here is surreal."

Final letter

Captain Ken Jolley had to burn a letter from his five-year-old son Nathan before going into battle so that it did not fall into the hands of the Iraqis.

It had read: "I hope you are not getting sand in your eyes, daddy. I love and miss you."

Captain Jolley said: "It was weird. Burning my boy's letter just felt really weird."

Like many soldiers, he has written a final letter and given it the regimental chaplain.

"It was horrendous, writing that. It was so hard. You keep thinking about the reasons why you are doing it."

Pride

British and US fighter plane pilots were both involved in a mission which resulted in the destruction of three tanks north of Basra.

RAF pilot Flight Lieutenant Scott Morley spent Friday and Saturday supporting American marines and British ground troops hunting for tanks.

"I'm not excited, excited is not a word I'd use, it's something else."

Returning from his mission, he said: "It was a military target and we may have saved the lives of our soldiers on the ground and I am proud to have been part of it.

Corporal Craig Gadd, 30, from Hull, is one of the British soldiers clearing mines at a beach on the strategically important Al-Faw peninsula.

He said: "The beach looked like something out of Saving Private Ryan.

"I have never seen so many mines, they seemed to go on forever.

"It was the first time I have had to blow any real mines and you could hear the firing from the fighting going on near us.

"When we were out there it didn't bother me that much but afterwards when I sat down I just thought `bloody hell'."


Sempers,

Roger