Lieutenant Anthony J Clarke

Anthony 'Tony' Clarke joined 10 Para in July 1982, attending recruit cadre 95 and posted into Anti-Tank Platoon, Support Company, based at Aldershot.  Tony recalls:

"When I turned up aged 18 and a few days, the Battalion had just returned from Denmark as part of 6th Field Force. C/Sgt Don McNaughton was the SPSI and Maj John Power was the OC. Assault Pioneers and Machine Guns were also based at Redan Road, but Mortars were at Leigh-on Sea. The Anti-Tanks had WOMBAT, although this was soon packed off to I think 2 PARA in Berlin, as we were issued with the 'new' MILAN. 

"There was much to learn and do, but Support Company was fit, full of experience and professionalism. A great bunch of guys and we always did well in exercises and competitions. I remember Ex Lionheart in 1984, and nearly being run over by a runaway Challenger one night on that canal intersection. Also flying around as 'Orange Special Forces' in a Chinook. Lots of adventures through the 80s.

"They ran the JNCO cadre at Depot Para in early 1986 and there were MILAN courses at Netheravon. We made trips to live fire at Otterburn and Sennybridge. We dug holes all over western Europe, but trips to Germany obviously slowed after 1989. Training changed, in many ways more interesting, but we increasingly experienced the effects of defence cuts. When I made Sgt in 1991, there was a MILAN detachment in Portsmouth and I think we lost 1 Company at White City.

"As the career path was getting thin, in 1994 I went through the commissioning process. I was posted to 3 Company based at Finchley, with a rifle platoon and later Training Wing. I remember Ex Purple Star, North Carolina in 1996 and that Divisional drop, the ever bizarre Ascension Island in '97 and other extreme at Goose Bay, Canada in early '98, when the ice storm grounded our C-130.

"I returned to Support Company / Mortars at Aldershot and then Croydon in autumn 1998 as 2i/c to OC Maj 'Moose' Shannon, just in time to hear that 10 Para would be disbanded the next year." 

Tony became a Lt. 25 September 1996 and resigned his commission 1 July 1999 (The London Gazette)