So I went to work for the United nations
So when I was at Cranwell,
the Soviet third Shock army and the Red
you know, the West German plain.
That was what we,
Well, we'd been in contest
And so the entire air force pretty
And it was a very, very routine,
you know, had it transpired it would be
but when it wasn't, it was very, very
well drilled air force.
And, and as I was at Cranwell,
the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia,
being executed in Romania.
And you just,
carried on going,
But we all realise something
And then to find yourself,
five years later in one of the,
serving alongside,
the Russian peacekeeping force.
The Red army was just an extraordinary
So I was a military observer there because
short but really rather nasty civil war.
It was all that kind of ethno nationalism
the guardrails, I suppose,
All that stuff that had been building up
all those artificial movements of people,
for Soviet purposes rather than
in Ukraine now, I mean,
but it had all come sort of boiling
The Russians, who were quite happy to see
republics because it kept them
no such thing, really, occupying forces.
But the UN had supplied,
they'd sent in military observers say,
about 20 odd different countries.
So we were, we were unarmed and our job
parts of the sort of the.
Either side of a piece, a ceasefire line,
to just kind of keep an eye on things,
So that's what we're doing.
Yeah, you saw the, the true state of a
I mean, it was so
of development, a failed state.
You know, people were stealing the copper
everything, the railway line,
You saw, you know, lots of men who had
The certainties of a kind of artificial
They'd lost.
And actually the place was being
They were still doing all the work,
by the side of the road waiting for,
and sort the place out
So that was quite interesting.
There was working alongside the Red army,
or the Russian Federation,
you realise just how bad they were
I mean, I regularly go to their
that part of Georgia in the north,
field punishments being.
You'd see people hanging from trees,
You know, all sorts of stuff going on.
And also the.
The makeup of the.
The army was.
I know one section, it'd have someone from
It have, you know, someone
Lots of gold teeth and all that.
And obviously people from Russia,
And it was just a fascinating
This is what.
And they were lovely people, lots of.
Lots of warmth and lots.
But.
But as I say, you know, five years after,
This is what we were going to spend
Suddenly I was.
I was in some mountain
peacekeeping company headquarters,
It was fascinating.
It was really.
It's an amazing place.
Yes, you always, you always.
You dress it up as important,
But, yeah, I did.
I managed to get.
Went to Tbilisi a few
I mean,
so the rest of Georgia,
I mean, nothing was working,
place, first Christian state
And I managed to get
I went to Moscow in some Petersburg,
I don't think I could do that now.
