Comments made from members, do they echo your thoughts,

might you now consider joining us.

Gaz served with 33 in the 1980's

Tim Evers

 The virgin on paradeCenetaph 2009

Well I arrived in London on Saturday morning, and parked my bike outside the Union Jack Club. Once checked in I found the bar full of old soldiers, telling stories, re-telling stories and drinking to their hearts content. Being a farely young soldier(compared to them) I sat quietly on the perifary, taking in the scene.... Within five minutes, I had been engaged in conversation, my regiment asked for , heads nodded in approval and a drink was bought for me. 2 hours later, a little worse for drink I made my excuses and headed into London. It struck me ,that regardless of age, race, religion or social background all ''Squaddies'' will look after another and will not see him go without a drink. Maybe a lesson can be learnt from these blessed few. the following morning a made my way to charing cross station. My recce the following afternoon was not wasted (is it ever) I emerged into the station to find a lonely figure standing where he said he would be. Pete Markham in overcoat ,berret poppy and medals. A knowing look came my way and awelcoming hand. Noiw I've never Pete upto this point but the bond of professionalism and Corp pride was obvious. We chatted about the journey we had both made and made general small talk. Ove tthe next hour or so, more EOD blazers arrived. Hands were extanded again, first names were told and old freinds slapped soundly on the back as thier parentage was questioned again and again. We made a move... I followed. I was a Cenataph virgin so I did what the others did. We walked to Horse Guards to where we supposed to assemble. A wooden banner stating B13 was held aloft... we made a B-line for it. Underneath were numerous Steely-eyed heroes. We joined them. Amonst them were myself. Major ( now Mr) Jenks, Colin Dawson, Steve Duplok and others I knew only by sight.. and of course Gary. If you were there and haven't mentoined you, I humbley ask your forgiveness. All of a sudden, a lanky guards officer started shouting.... so we paid him no attention, then our column set off so we followed. Drill eh who needs it? Then to my surprise we were on Whitehall in full view of the massing crowds. Again a Guards officer did some vocal gymnastics and we halted... roughly together. We stood in rows of 6, listening and looking at the surroundings. Veterans were forming beside us till the whole of Whitehall was awash with berrets, ribbon and hightly polished metal. I won't go into the hymes and prayers or wreath laying. The bit that sticks in my mind is the march past itself. A bit raggedy at first, some of us haven't marched for a good long while, but as we neared the Marble collossas it all fell in to place. The step was picked up, the chests pushed out, the heads raised and the pride and swagger were there in abundance. An eyes left and we were past. Over so quickly. We marched further and as we entered Horse guards again , who should be there... But Prince Andrew taking the salute. Thought was very nice of him. We rounded the square and came to a halt. Fell out and headed for the Pub. I won't go into what happened in there or the resulting headaches, loss of bearings and beer knocked over, but mark my words, a great time was had by all. I felt emmensely proud to represent The Corp and EOD and will be there again, god willing. If you didn't make it, you missed a great event. Contact either Pete via face book or click on the link onmy facebook for the Bomb disposal link. Jion the assciationand get your invitation, trust me... you will not regret a single second of it. Cheers Tim

Tim served in the 2000's and is now a branch member

Hi Peter,

You have obviously done a lot of hard work on the BD Branch Overview and I think it is a job well done. Of course I am guilty of being an "absent member"and put off joining for a long time after I retired from the army (and DEODS.Nowadays I try to spend as little time in the UK as possible as it is too cold and expensive, but I digress. Having identified all of the membership groupsand determined the age related criteria, one is left with the conclusion that we must identify  what it is that would make younger people want to join theBD Branch. So I guess that we need to do some marketing to those people, when we find out what it is that would fire their rockets.I don't know if people are still coerced into joining the REA when theyjoin the Corps these days. I remember trying to work out whether or not I shouldgive them a days pay a year or suffer with no beer for a week and pay for life membership. Anyway, presumably they are still grabbing them for the REA outof training. So do you think 33 would cooperate in distributing REA BD branch joining material to those passing the basic course? Maybe it could beadvertised to them as a "family within a family" or something like that.Anyway, those are my random thoughts. Let me know if there is anything Ican do to help (probably not much as I am in Vietnam).CheersMattPS just for your statistics:ex 49 ex 583ex DEODSWO2