Putting the day job on hold to make a difference
Cameron is a PE teacher from North Wales but this year he has swapped the playing field for the battlefield as he trains Ukrainian recruits to fight the illegal invasion of their country.
Operation Interflex is the UK-led training mission to give Ukrainian recruits the skills they need to survive and be lethal on the battlefield in Ukraine. More than 23,500 recruits have been trained in the UK since July 2022 after President Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine began.
Nine nations are taking part in the training here in the UK and around 1,000 personnel from the UK Armed Forces are deployed to deliver the essential training. Cameron, a Lance Corporal from The Third Battalion the Royal Welsh is one of them. Cameron joined the Army Reserves in 2016, whilst he was studying at university. Since completing his studies he has been working as a PE teacher at a Secondary School.
Here he explains why he volunteered to give up the day job for Op Interflex:
How has mobilising affected your day job?
I do a lot of supply teaching, so I can take as much time off as I want. Over the past year I have neglected my teaching duties to train and be able to spend more time as a soldier, while I am still quite young, because it’s gonna come to a point where I have to pick one. When I get older, the civilian career will take priority over the Reserves.
So at the moment I can afford to have it swapped around and have my Reserves duties take priority over my career for now. It’s working quite well for me, personally. I’m able to take time off to do courses, to go and train and to do this at least, so it’s working quite well.
Why did you volunteer for Op Interflex?
So the trawl came out last year, and straightaway I put my name down. I suppose having been a bit too young to have gone on any kinetic tours myself, this is the best way I can make a difference, if that makes sense, I can make a fundamental difference to the war in Ukraine. I could be part of the help, rather than just watching it.
It is as much my duty having the knowledge I have got and the experience I have gained to help them learn how to fight, as it is for the Ukrainians to volunteer to fight.
I’d watched the situation in Ukraine unfold, I’ve been following it on the news first with the invasion of Crimea and then the full scale invasion of mainland Ukraine. You could see it as it escalated, you can’t just leave it, you can’t just let it happen. It doesn’t have to be kinetic to make a difference to the war.
Training and teaching, I think they go hand in hand, being able to convey knowledge in a way that everyone can understand. Even though they speak a foreign language to me, we’re able to find order in chaos.
Being a PE teacher, you’re always organising activities and very rarely they go how you’ve planned them to, and you have to pivot to be able to get the best training done that you can. And that happens here, sometimes, so that’s really helped me out here.
How is it training Ukrainians?
To be honest it’s just like being with any other group of soldiers, joking, laughing etc. They have the exact same mentality as us. And they have just as many jokes as us, considering what they’ve been through compared to me. It’s amazing. I wish I could speak Ukrainian fluently so that you know, I could essentially be one.
You appear to have a massive sense of pride in being part of Op Interflex?
Massive sense of pride. Like I say, I’m a bit too young to have gone out on the operational tours that we [the British Army] have had. But to be able to say I was here, that I made a difference, yes, massive sense of pride for sure.
I would say regardless of cap badge or unit, be it logistics, infantry, we’ve got cavalry here, regardless, you’re trained by the British Army, you’re good enough [to volunteer for Op Interflex]. And yeah, I think it’s your duty — as much as anyone else’s — to try and make a difference.
