Although I do understand that it is a bit

of character building, it builds a bit of

personality and all that sort of stuff.

It was turning me into a person

that I didn't wanna be though.

I was using the gym as a like

quite a bit of a big outlet.

I said, I remember saying this to

one of the fucking screws that were

giving me shit, and instead of fucking

taking your frustrations out on me,

why don't you fucking have a set

of bullets and go speak to the co?

Like literally, every man wants

to test himself and see what his

capabilities are and his limitations,

regardless of what anybody says,

whether that be in the military,

whether you do fucking judo, whether

you do BJJ or you're a bodybuilder.

Every bloke wants to push themselves

to their fucking limits and see

where they can take themselves.

Guys, welcome back to another

edition of the Combat Fuel podcast.

Today we are joined by three

four battery crap hat guy.

That's not done much.

Ollie, he made me say that.

Ollie from Heavy Duty Gym Wear.

Robert, thank you so much for,

for joining us on our podcast.

Who are you?

So I'm Ollie and I'm into a bit

of bodybuilding gym fitness.

Used to be in the Army,

not in the army anymore.

I've done every shit job under

the sun whilst building up a brand

called Heavy Duty Gym Wear that's

built for the hardworking, that

provides top quality, heavy duty

clothing for working class people.

Nice, love it.

And just a little bit

on your introduction.

You made me say that.

Yeah.

But I think what it also shows

is a lot of integrity from you.

You know, you're not coming on

here to be like, oh I've done

this, this, this in the military.

Like yeah, I'm coming on

here to shoot, do that.

It's, you know, it's also, I

dunno if you can see this on the

camera, he's absolutely massive.

So he might just pick me up and

break me in half if I'm rude to him.

No, but Dy where did life start for you?

So obviously in my mum's womb, yeah,

no, obviously in my mum's womb, come

out the womb at Tall Bay Hospital in

Brixham, which is a based down in Devon.

Went to school at Brixham Community

College, obviously primary

school, all that sort of shit.

Went to South Devon College, for a year.

Got kicked outta college, for

fighting and all that sort of stuff.

And then I decided to join the

military, which was well spent two

years trying to get into the Royal

Marines and all that sort of shit.

And then, obviously didn't get into

the Marines and went for the Army.

Love it.

But so, and you mentioned your mum.

Was your dad present growing up as well?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

My mum happy happy family.

Yeah, happy family.

Mum and dad are still together.

My old man's done fucking 20 years,

20 plus years in the fire service.

He's now semi-retired because

obviously the UK's fucking shit and

fucking rapes everybody's asses.

So he's gotta work like an absolute.

That's a whole new podcast, isn't it?

Yeah.

However, I agree.

Yeah, I agree.

But so where, if you family was

pretty good, decent upbringing,

but you were scrapping a lot

getting kicked outta college.

Yeah, I was just always like, even

in school, like I had the ability to

be obviously a quite an intelligent

individual with regards to like

schooling and stuff like that.

But as time went on throughout school,

I just realised that a lot of it's just

fucking bullshit and unnecessary and I

just didn't really, I've always been.

Quite a hard individual to, I'd

say manage, going through school

and college and stuff like that.

I'd like always get very bored

and my attention span would

always like fucking, I dunno.

I just, I dunno how to explain it and,

well, you can say like, school's very

much, it's a memory lesson, isn't it?

You know, during primary

school, secondary school Yeah.

To an extent college.

It's just remember these

things, how to do them.

Yeah.

It's, you know, I'm so glad that I

learned, I don't even, I was gonna say

something intelligent then high ask word.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Just, I don't even know what

the fuck that shit is, but Yeah.

But yeah, we, we school's like

such a, like, like it's just what

fucking does my head in with school.

Sorry if I swear too much, but I

fucking swear all the time, especially

when I'm thinking about stuff.

But, with regards to school, like you're

giving everybody such a generic test.

Like, it's like a one size fits all

when really that's not the case really.

You're like, you're suppressing people's

individuality and their different

abilities and capabilities with that.

You're trying to fit everybody into

the same box and essentially you're

trying to produce a like, society

of just workers through school.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

And, and you know, and there's no

discredit for people that want to

go in, do that sort of stuff, go

away, do a nine to five job, go

home and, and, and live their lives.

Yeah.

But there's not a lot of

like, support for people.

Like, as you know, I didn't get

on too well at school either.

Mm. It was just, I couldn't sit

down, I couldn't concentrate.

Didn't like it.

Yeah.

They'd probably call it a DHD now.

Yeah.

Or just being a little bit retarded.

Yeah.

And I just couldn't get on school.

No.

Joining Army was the

best thing I ever did.

Yeah, yeah.

But, you know, fast forward

and you mentioned about being

a failed Royal Marine 'cause

you didn't quite get through.

Yeah.

What was the appeal to want to

join the Marines at the start?

So, obviously when I was like younger,

I was born in obviously nineteen

ninety seven, nineteen ninety seven.

So I'm, I was 20, 28 at the

minute, but, born in 97.

So at the time period where I'd

just started secondary school,

that's when Afghan was going on.

Yeah.

My mum and dad would always have

the fucking news on in the morning

and all that sort of stuff.

And I'd be coming downstairs to

fucking go to school and every morning

it'd be on there fucking raw Marine.

This Royal Marine, that

raw marine killed air raw.

And I felt like this, even at a young

age, like 13, 14, like I felt this

like fucking, it was quite a very like,

patriotic feeling and obviously you

know that yourself and it was like,

it was like, I need to go and do that.

Like, it was no like, fucking thing.

It is like, I need to go and do this.

Or it was like for a bit of like fucking

subliminal programming through fucking

smashing Call of Duty model warfare.

Do you know what I mean?

One of the two.

But yeah, that's, that was my appeal.

And obviously I didn't get

on very well at school.

I seen the Royal Marine adverts

on the telly, like 99% need not

apply, all that sort of stuff.

And, it just, just

attracted, attracted me.

Obviously watched that fucking,

commander on the Frontline documentary

and all that sort of stuff.

And I was like, that's what I'm

gonna do when I leave school.

and I started telling people that that's

what I was gonna do when I left school.

And, I was like 14, 15, 16, I was fat

as fuck, unfit as fuck every PE lesson.

If we'd done fucking,

what's that fucking thing?

Track and fucking field.

And field.

Yeah.

Track and field and fucking,

what's the fucking one there?

You fucking run Cross country.

Yeah.

Doing cross country.

Always at the back.

Always the last book at the

fucking back hanging out.

But yeah, I told everybody and obviously

going through school I was like big into

my rugby, so I was playing rugby a lot.

So you weren't that unfit if

you're still able to play rugby.

Yeah, well rugby's very

start and stop, isn't it?

So it's a different kind of endurance to

actual road running, what I would say.

but yeah, I was just, I played

prop as well, which isn't the

fittest position on the pitch.

Do you know what I mean?

Being big.

Yeah.

And strong.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Or being a fat Hmong.

Yeah.

So I fucking obviously done done

the rugby side of stuff like that.

And I remember one time we was at fucking

rugby training and for some reason our

rugby coach went round and asked everybody

what they wanna do when they leave school.

'cause we were in year 11, we're

coming to leaving school, so I'm

gonna go join the Royal Marines.

And everybody burst out

laughing and fucking whatever.

And I thought, fuck it,

I'm not, I can't do that.

Everybody's telling me I can't do it.

I like fucking proper beat

myself down and thought, oh, fuck

it, I'll go do something else.

So then I decided to fucking apply, apply

for college and I didn't know what to do.

So I just picked adventure sports, which

is like a proper, just something to do.

Was this at a point where

if you hadn't gone and got a

job you had to try and Yeah.

Further education?

So yeah, I was the first

year of further education.

Yeah.

So I had to go do further education

and obviously school wasn't a massive

appeal to me, but I'd always worked.

So my family's like a family of grafters.

My mum's a proper grafter and I owe

a lot of like, respect to me mum.

She's a fucking proper grafter.

And, I'd always worked from like 12,

so always worked at like Turkish car

washes, washing cars at the weekends,

like through school, like through year

10, through year nine, 10, and 11.

Like I had three jobs fucking

used to fucking graph, like fuck,

obviously paid no tax, whatever.

So what, I was a fucking

millionaire when I was a kid.

didn't pay any attention to my

GCSEs, all that sort of shit.

And, yeah, obviously went off to do

adventure sports at fucking, self dev

Devon College or whatever, turn up.

And then like when I do

things, I really buy into it.

Like I'm, I'm a very all enough in person.

Yeah.

And I'm a person of like extremes.

Like I want to fucking take

it as far as I can fucking go.

so I really bought into this adventure

sports course and then fucking went

on it and it was just full of wankers.

Like it was full of wankers, like

tearing up smoking fucking pot.

Didn't give a fuck,

like just fucking knobs.

But the thing was, it was like

the age spectrum was really weird.

It was like from like 17 to like

30, do you know what I mean?

Like, it was a really weird dynamic.

So I had like blokes on there that

were like 25 and all that sort of shit.

And I remember we went out fucking

hill walking and cunts would be turning

up in a pair of jeans and the course

would get fucking cancelled that

they would've to go back to college.

'cause fucking cunts turning

up in the wrong sort of kit

and all that sort of shit.

And obviously 'cause I was

working, I had the money to go

and buy the right appropriate

gear and all that sort of stuff.

So like that used to really piss me off.

And, I remember, we went, me and my mates

went down to do, you know, board Masters?

Yep.

Down in, down in, I, me and

my mates went down to this

fucking board Masters festival.

And I remember for the whole fucking

weekend I was just getting ripped

about doing adventure sports.

'cause all of my mates were doing

the A-Levels then go off to uni.

Yeah.

So they're just like constantly fucking

putting me down, like saying like, just

fucking, like, giving me loads of shit.

And it really fucking got to me.

You really fucking pissed me off.

And, anyways, I remember going

back to college and all that

sort of stuff and I literally

was in college for like two days.

This fucking lad started giving me a load

of shit, hammering me on the bus all the

way, way back from this fucking trip.

Got off the bus, we're walking

back into the classroom.

I thought, you know what?

Fuck this.

So I've tapped him on the

shoulder, he is turned around.

I just fucking chinned him.

Just fucking, just fucking hammered him.

And then started pasting him, pasting

him up a bit, and the fucking course

instruct has absolutely lost his head.

And, ended up getting

kicked outta college.

Kicked off the course.

I was like, all fuck it.

I'm a, I'm gonna go do this Marine shit.

And, but also like, you know, obviously

we don't condone like going from filling

people in for nothing, but when someone is

at you like it's bullying though, right?

And everyone has a, a breaking point.

Don't they hate Yeah.

I hate hate to use the word

bullying, but it is, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

Because we like proud men.

We don't wanna be I've bullied, but

like that, that literally what he was

doing to you going on and on and on.

Yeah.

And he turned around and

fuck about and find out.

And he found out.

And the thing is, is like there's

a difference between having

banter with someone that you

know, and that's close to you.

Yes.

And they allowed to push that boundary

because they know where the boundary is.

But the, there's thing, the thing with

ba banner is it's the ability to turn

around and we're giving each other shit.

It's about, it's enough.

Yeah.

Okay.

Noted.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But it's when you go in and go,

especially when you don't know

someone, you're not powers with 'em.

Yeah.

And it, it literally is.

And it, and you wonder why people turn

around and they, they hit breaking points.

Yeah.

And they snap and bad stuff happens.

Yeah.

You know?

That's it.

Wow.

So the Marine thing is, upcoming

now and you're like, right, I

wanna be, I wanna be a Marine.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And like there was nothing really for

me back in Brixham like back home.

There's like not a lot of job

opportunities with regards to like,

unless you wanna be a fucking fisherman,

work down the fish market, work in a

fucking cafe, or work in a restaurant

or a chip shop or sell ice cream.

Do you like fish?

Yeah.

You could have stayed there.

It yeah.

Yeah.

But fucking, yeah.

If, if fucking I didn't

wanna do any of that shit.

There wasn't really much opportunity

or much scope for any sort of work.

So I was like, right, I'm gonna

go do this fucking marine thing.

And I applied and I remember

I was like 110 kilo.

fucking went down to the careers office

fucking 'cause they get, do all that

BMI test and all that sort of shit.

And the bloke's got me doing this

fucking BMI test and he's gone, you're

a fat, he goes, you're a fat hunter.

There's no way we're

putting you through this.

He goes, come back in three months

time when you're fucking fit.

Yeah.

And so I went away, come back

in like three months time and

I was like fucking 80 kilo.

Nice.

So I'd lost, I'd lost fucking

loads of weight hammered.

It got really fit, like

basically beasted myself.

Yeah.

Because I didn't know what I was doing.

I was just basically

beasted myself endlessly.

And I got to a sort of a sticking

point with the Beast, obviously

Beasting myself, where I was like,

right, I've taken myself this far.

I need to get a little bit of help.

So, obviously I was doing the rugby and

all that sort of shit and at this sort

of stage I was at like Colts level and

there was a guy at, a local gym called

John Ery, who I owe quite a lot to.

He installed quite a lot of like,

good values when it comes to training,

fitness and all that sort of stuff.

he, he was, one of the, well he was

the gym manager of winner 2000 and

painting and I, I got in touch with

him and I was obviously working a lot

and all that sort of stuff and I was

like, right John, I wanna do one PT

session with you a week and I want you

to programme like my fucking training

and get me fit to join the Marines.

And, that that's what he'd done.

So he helped me get over all those sort

of hurdles and sort of like he was that

one person that like fucking believed in

me and and sometimes that's all you need.

Do you know what I mean?

To give you that push.

Was he a bit of a role

model for you as well then?

Yeah, he was in a way, yeah.

I'd say he was, to be fair,

he was a pretty good, good,

good role model because like.

He'll probably even say himself

that he's not the most genetically

gifted person, but he's like, what

I'd call a, like one percenter.

And, by like, what I mean by one

percenter is like, he's the sort of

person that will do every single thing,

every little bit extra to be better.

Do you know what I mean?

Like all the 1% pink salt on his meals,

fucking creating s, all that sort of

shit, like to be that little bit better

than he would be because a lot of blokes,

like you've probably seen him in the

military and all that sort of stuff.

They don't give a fuck about fizz.

They'll rock up to a fucking PT

session still pissed up or something.

Yeah.

But we've all done that.

Yeah.

But they're doing it

every fucking session.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

It's like, yeah.

So, but what happened then?

Because you, you didn't join the Marines.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

So I spent two years going through the

fucking, obviously Royal Royal Marine

application process and obviously it's

capita that deal with the, the, I can

see where this is going now already.

The, the, the whole fucking

thing in it and that they, they

kept losing my documents and

all that sort of stuff, so Sure.

I kept having to send them like, I'm

not bashing religion here or anything,

but I had a really like diehard

fucking religious doctor surgery,

so they were quite anti-military,

people joining the military.

So I don't wanna maybe insinuate that

doctor surgery had anything to do with

those documents going missing every time.

But it seemed to be quite apparent that.

There was something going on.

'cause I feel like it's a simple

process to send some documents off.

You would think.

Yeah.

Cap capitant well versed in Yeah.

Quickly getting applications done either.

Yeah.

So anyways, I've, I've ended up

getting to the medical point of

the application process and they've

given me what that, you know, that

fucking pipe that you're blowing?

Yep.

And it's got the fucking slider.

Yep.

Anyways, I've fucking blown into

this fucking pipe and I've only

hit like fucking 200, so I'm

fucking like, what the fuck?

He's like, slow test.

Yeah, that's it.

That, yeah.

And he's like, do it again.

Done it again.

Two 50, do it again.

Two 50, do it again.

Two 50.

He's like, right.

What I want you to do is take

this own with you for a month.

Record all your results

and all that sort of stuff.

So I've done that.

I couldn't get past like 300 ever.

Like, I dunno why, but just couldn't

Anyways, turned out that I had asthma

as a kid and they fucking stopped.

I had as what, like three years old?

That was, yeah.

So they reckon that my lung capacity

wouldn't have been able to handle the

Norway training, the arctic warfare

side of things if I got through there,

because they said that exerting myself

in arduous cold conditions would affect,

like, my mates used to call me fucking

mouse lungs, but because of that.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

And, fucking they'd said that

they'd gimme this fucking wheezy

lung or some fucking bullshit.

if I was out there, which obviously

to later find out in the army,

working in cold conditions

had no effect on me at all.

And, yeah, that was the end of

that, that, that process there.

but it evidently wasn't the end of

your aspirations to join the military.

Oh, no.

Yeah.

Like I knew, like I wanted to join the

mil military and like I remember fucking

sat there thinking like, if I didn't get

into Marines, what more my options were.

So it was Marines army, and then I was

looking at the French Foreign and Legion.

Yes.

So I, those are my, my

three, three options.

So the day that I failed my medical, I

applied for the Royal Marie, for the Army.

I went on to the British Army

website, just typed in commando scene

two, nine, commando, like gunner,

boom, apply, applied for that.

And then fucking like five months

later I started basic training at Pur.

Right.

And that, that evidently is well, isn't

where you ended up in two nine Commando.

No.

So you, you've gone

through training though.

Yeah.

How did you find training?

Like being away from home, like

for the first time as a young lad?

Easy.

Loved it.

Yeah.

Enjoyed it.

Enjoyed training.

Yeah.

Like.

I, growing up my dad was really strict.

Like really strict.

Yeah.

which I don't resent him for now,

but at the time I really resented it.

And for him how strict he was.

But looking back at it now with

regards to, I'm very similar to him

with regards to his personality.

We do clash quite a lot.

but looking back at him and how like

strict he was with me, he was probably

thinking in his head, fucking hell if

he's gonna be anything like I was in

his twenties, he's gonna be a handful.

Yeah.

So it was coming from like

a real place of like love.

but only time has sort

of made me learn that.

Yeah, absolutely.

And at the time I really resented

him for how strict he was.

So I just wanted to

escape his like clutches.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

but yeah.

I obviously ended up and, and

training wasn't overly hard.

No.

I found, found basic training

really disappointing.

Like really disappointing.

like don't get me wrong, because I'd

worked so hard at, from like becoming

a fat cunt to obviously a point where

I was smashing all the pre joinin

fitness test for the Royal Marines.

Yeah.

I'd got myself like, too fit for

the army, if you know what I mean.

Yeah.

so like I remember I've got

on really well with this.

He's still my best mate to this day.

We went fucking through training

and everything together.

His name's Jack, he's

still in, he's a sergeant.

we fucking went through basic training

and all that sort of shit together and

he was really fit as well and like we

just used to fucking smash anything

and we, it got to the point where

we'd get bored and we'd deliberately

get in shit to get Beasted more.

I don't think I've ever heard someone

say I got in shit to get beast in it.

That's brilliant.

Yeah.

'cause we, we used to find it quite funny.

yeah, we just used to get in,

get into a bit of trouble where

and get, get Beasted more.

But yeah, I was, once I'd passed out I

was like really disappointed in myself.

I stood on the parade square

thinking to myself like, is that it?

That's it Done.

Oh yeah.

I was like, that's a bit matic.

'cause I had a load of lads back

from my hometown that had joined

like the Remy and stuff like that.

And I remember being in Wetherspoons

and like, because you're naive and you

don't know, you look at 'em thinking,

God, these guys must be fucking built

different, do you know what I mean?

This guy must be fucking hard as nails.

Yeah.

And but really he's a fat dosser.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

but yeah, and I was just

like really disappointed.

Annette to be fair, how,

at what point though did it

change from two Nine Commando?

Because you didn't end up there.

Yeah, so I've fucking obviously

done my phase two at Lar Hill and

Wiltshire, which ended up being

like fucking 20 something weeks.

'cause they get you doing loads of

other fucking stupid shit there.

But, I basically got fucking.

Groomed by my training team into

going to seven because they were

all airborne, airborne sky guards.

So it's, for those that don't

know, we've got the parachute

regiment and we've got seven RHA.

Yeah, but it's not, again,

this is for the viewers.

Okay.

But what's the difference?

Why aren't they just the

seventh parachute regiment?

What's, what's the difference

between the, the units?

So obviously, so I now obviously know

all of this shit because I went there,

but at the time I knew fuck all,

I didn't even know what they were.

I didn't even know what the

fucking joining tests were.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

but with regards you a question,

so seven para, RHA are the attached

arms for the parachute regiment.

So obviously like for, I don't know,

for like the Duke of Ls, whatever, for,

you've got like third RHA, they're like

the combat support for, an infantry unit

if they require those sort of means.

Is that a good answer?

Yeah, I think so.

I'd like to think so.

So basically it's a fucking.

It's basically, oh fuck it.

It's basically like the fuck,

it's basically fucking you.

You're a para, but you're not a para.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

Because like you got the

infantry unit, which is like

your fucking spearhead, isn't it?

Where it's like you got fucking one

power of two para, three para, and

obviously they do their fucking p

company whilst in their basic training.

Yeah.

Whereas with attached arms or all arms,

you go to your regular unit, well you

do with seven, you go to your re unit,

operate and function within your unit,

and then you get told when you're

allowed to go on the, p company course.

Yeah.

so if your fucking regiment's on

demand or whatever, there's probably

no fucking chance you'll get on it and

you'll just get visa for being a crap.

Although our, our beloved

government, And stop that.

So, two and three power an hour.

I don't know if they seven RHAs

as well, but they're now no

longer gonna be an airborne unit.

I didn't know that it came out recently.

They're taking their, their jumps

away, keeping the pay, but they're

not doing jumps and they're, I don't

know how much wanna slate this.

So they're gonna be hats,

helicopter assault troops.

Okay.

Tell us about the word hat.

I thought it was horrendous

attitude to soldiering.

So where, where does this,

this hats thing come from?

And like, e explain it again

for those that don't know.

That might be a civilian watcher, so

like, understand it and, Okay, cool.

Banter.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, when you go to a specialist unit,

like, seven, well there's like, it's

like a fucking, there's like a whole

complete fucking tear system to the hats.

Yeah.

Because you've got like SF at the

top, which are like, you can't,

they can't, can't touch 'em.

Yeah, you can't touch 'em.

They're like unhackable.

I like that.

Yeah.

They're, they're unhackable.

They're like fucking, yeah.

And then you got like fucking special

forces support group, don't you?

Yeah.

Which is obviously like, again,

unhackable to the rest of the army,

but can get hatted off by SF blokes.

Yeah.

And then under there, what you've got

like, your regular, well you've got

your Marines and your parachute regimen.

Yeah.

So they can hat everybody

else off below them.

Yeah.

And then you've got fucking

like, wear seven and like two

nine and things like that.

Think they are, is under

the Marines and the paras.

They can get hatted off by all of the

above, but hat off everybody below.

So it's like a whole complete

hat and off system, isn't it?

And so with somebody watching it, like

enjoys watching military based stuff be

like, isn't that hat something you wear?

Yeah.

So it's like fucking, I'm just

slated for saying that, aren't I?

Yeah, just like a a a

non-colored, A non, yeah.

A non fancy colour berry.

I suppose.

What's like a highlight of your,

like, of your military career of

getting to seven RHA Any moment?

What was like the, the epitome, the

thing that you remember constantly this.

And it can be bad or good leaving.

I like that.

Leaving when you were then.

And how was it, how was battalion life?

So, you know, you've gone through,

you hadn't quite made Marines,

you were gonna go two nine,

you ended up in seven RH eight.

Yeah.

How was battalion life for a young lad?

You were about 2019.

19 now.

Yeah, so I've, I've rocked up

19 years old, obviously real

fucking wet behind the ears.

And, I remember, fucking remember I

stood outside the block waiting for the

bonko to turn up and showed me where

my room was or that sort of stuff.

It was a bit late, probably

about hour late or something.

So I'm stood there in this

fucking suit with my iron and

board, all this fucking shit.

I've got my, I obviously always

turn up suited and booted.

Other guys turn up in

tracksuit bottoms or whatever.

But I decided to wear a suit and I had

my fucking bricks and rugby club tie on.

Yeah.

Which obviously I'm very passionate about.

Yeah.

And fucking Bonko turned up, he's locked

up my tie and he's like, what the fuck

is that shit you're wearing there?

And he goes, why have you come dressed

like a fucking, what, what's the fucking

people called that fucking sell houses?

What's the agent?

Yeah.

He's like, why have you come

dressed as a fucking estate agent?

And then, he got me, he's like, gone

in, get down on your belt buckle.

We start fucking banging him out.

So I started banging out these press

apps and he is taking me up to my room,

show me a room, put me in my room.

He's like, right, I'll show you

where you're gonna be working.

So he's took me up to my, up to

the gun park in my fucking suit.

And then anyways, the whole fucking

unit's up there fucking like the FSTs.

'cause they were practising for

a gun salute in a few months time.

obviously in Colchester Town

when it was the Queen's birthday,

they'd do a royal gun salute.

I think that still happens every year.

so there were Royal Glen Salute

in Colchester fucking town, and

they were practising for that.

And I've rocked up and

the whole battery's there.

And, I remember that the FSTs,

obviously the fire support teams, they

were all like, stood there watching.

so fucking obviously I didn't know,

Fucking anything, do you know what I mean?

Just rocked up and the bonkers just gone.

Right.

There you go.

Go stand with those boats there, obviously

put me in the middle of all these FSTs

and they're like, who the fuck are you?

And like, fucking ask

me loads of questions.

And then this one's was like, to

me, I always remember this, he

just goes, are you gonna get your

fucking cock out then or what?

And I stood there like, what the fuck?

So I've just got my cock out.

And then he's like,

that's pretty decent size.

And I was like, oh, thanks.

And then fucking put it up.

And then it was just such a fucking weird,

weird fucking welcome to the military.

Yeah.

Welcome to, and it's, again,

everything in the military has

to be naked by default, isn't it?

Yeah.

You know, it's, it's just part and parcel.

Yeah, it is.

And then, anyways, I've ended up

joining in, in this fucking gun salute

shit just there in my suit and they're

all calling me the estate agent.

And it was, honestly, I just felt

so, it was just real awkward.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

I hated it.

I absolutely hated it.

But obviously everybody else

finds it fucking hilarious.

And I had another mate that I

met later down the line, called

Butler, really good bloke.

And he ended it.

He, he was para trained and all

that sort of stuff, and he was in

seven and anyways, he got fucking

a bit of a beast and an initiation.

He drove his own personal car up

to the gun park on his first day.

And one of these sergeants, I won't

say the sergeant's name, just in case

there's any sort of repercussions

or anything like that, got him

to jack back one of the guns.

So when you, like, you put this big

fucking jacket in your jacket back.

Yeah.

And it's just to test that

the gun functions correctly

and all that sort of shit.

And it doesn't judder.

So you, that's making sure like

the pressures and all that sort of

shit within the gun are like, okay.

whilst he was jacking back this gun

in this fucking suit sweating buckets,

this sergeant was in the gun park car

park in his own personal car fucking

doing donuts in this shitty little corr.

So when I found that lad la

Yeah, when I found that out, I

thought, well, mine wasn't so bad.

so yeah, so that was my

first day at the unit.

Nice.

19 years old, getting your

cock out for the lads.

Yeah.

And it's, and again, there's no

homophobic intent of it, is it?

It's just, oh no.

It should be a big part of

it's character building.

Oh, massively.

If you can get naked, like in

front of the lads and you know,

and sometimes things go too far.

I do, but yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

On the general, I think it's needed in the

military because if you can be comfortable

being uncomfortable like that Oh yeah.

You can be okay at war and Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's like wearing a

big part of the character.

Yeah.

Although it's a fine line.

It's, it's where it comes from.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

What did you think then?

You've gone to, gone to Bed?

My first, after your first day, you're

an estate agent with your dick out.

To be honest, I didn't really

like, I'd obviously played rugby

beforehand, so rugby culture is

very, it's basically the same thing.

Yeah.

It's pretty much the same thing.

So I wasn't overly that phased

by it, to be completely honest.

So, yeah, I didn't, it didn't really

have like any sort of impact on me.

I do know some lads that turned up and

like phoned their mums up and cried to

their mums and shit like that and over

their first day and stuff like that.

but yeah, that wasn't my case at all.

It was just like, well,

that's the first day done.

See what the next day brings.

Nice, nice.

I had a tactical KFC at

Solstice Services to Miss Fizz.

We got told to arrive for midday, so

I was like, I'm arriving at midday.

Yeah.

LA told me, oh, by the way,

like, that's Laine Italian.

Yeah.

We're getting beasted Monday morning,

like, what time are you coming?

I'm like, well, I've been told

midday, so gotta get there for midday.

One of the other lads in training going

up and he's like, oh, we're, it needs to

be like, I'm gonna be there for like nine.

Show 'em keen and ready.

I'm like, bro, it's not a job we're

gonna get kicked out from, we'll

get sacked for turning up on time.

I was like, and they literally, we

rocked up and blokes were coming.

They'd been absolutely, because they

just moved into a combination bit.

Absolutely.

Franked out and fuck.

So the whole, the whole company

got slammed and I'm there like

fresh off my KFC Loving it.

Yeah.

Chilling.

Yeah.

How long was, just to ask how long was

your training and all that sort of stuff?

six months.

Okay.

I can't actually remember how many weeks.

I think it's 26 weeks.

Yeah.

At cataract.

And is it just straight infantry training?

No trade.

Yeah.

So it's, although it's still broken

down, I think into phase one and two,

there was no real that I remember

distinction between phase one and two.

It was basic soldier building up and up

and up for longer and longer exercises.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that was it.

And then bit of driver training.

Got my Cat C at the end of it.

Yeah.

And then it's like, go battalion.

Yeah.

Turn up at this place at this time.

Okay, cool.

I purposely, deliberately

failed at phase two Cat C 'cause

I didn't wanna be a driver.

Yeah, yeah.

I was lucky to not end

up driving for my career.

Yeah.

But yeah, it's, I learned

quickly then it was, oh, cat C,

do you wanna do your D licence?

And they, Marco, I was like, do

not do, I'm like, what's a D?

They're like, it's a mini bus

and anytime you go anywhere

you'll be driving a mini bus.

I was like, so I just didn't turn up.

That reminds me, that reminds

me of adventure training.

So we had a mini bus, and this,

so I didn't even want to go

on this adventure training.

This is when, this is

just after I got there.

So I'd done, I literally had my first day,

obviously what I just spoke about there.

First week done, second week I got

put on the armoured wit course.

Yeah.

So I went on to do a WIT

course or that sort of shit

was on that for like two weeks.

Then it got canned.

I wasn't on an IC course.

And then I got put on adventure training

up in Wales, doing like fucking hill

walking and all that sort of shit.

I didn't even want to go

fucking on adventure training.

but obviously I got voluntold to do it and

I was the only non powertrain lad on it.

How did that work out for you?

It was shit.

It was fucking shit.

I just got beasted and then, anyways,

I turned up to gone fucking adventure

training and obviously there's a fucking

mini bus there and, all the fucking

parallel train lads have got in the

back and I've gone to get in the back.

He goes, where do you think you are going?

Big lad.

He goes, what do you mean Bombardier?

He's like, where do you

think you are going?

I was like, well, I'll

just sit in the back.

He goes, no mate.

He goes, you are driving this mini bus.

And I was like, I ain't got a licence.

And he's like, don't worry about that.

Yeah.

Love it.

I, I won't say obviously the,

the, the name of the bloke.

And then anyways, fucking I was like,

obviously you need, what was that

fucking vehicle, sir? Called again?

Oh, you Razer, what's it called?

Yeah, your little mt your

little like driving military

driving licence thing, isn't it?

Licence, yeah.

I was like, I don't have that.

He goes, don't worry about that.

Anyways, I fucking started driving

this thing and I'm like proper, like

I'd not been driving very long so

I was proper shit out at driving,

fucking grinding in the thing.

They're all on the back fucking

absolutely hammering me anyways.

Oh mate.

Yeah.

I was like having a

fucking complete meltdown.

Got like an hour and a half into the

drive, stopped at the services and I

was like, like proper sweat buckets.

Like proper in flat

mode, like hating life.

And I remember this lad, he's, he'd passed

P company and all that sort of stuff.

He's same age as me at the time.

He'd been in a bit longer.

he, he, he was on the advanced

trainer's name was Sawyer.

And he goes, look mate, he

goes, sit in the passenger seat,

I'll drive the rest of the way.

And I was like, what a fucking legend.

And he's like, look, I've

been in your position before.

He's like, it's shit.

He says, don't worry about it.

'cause they were like, take, like,

they were starting to take it to

a point where it was like too far.

Yeah.

And he was like, I've got all the

search tickets, all that sort of stuff.

If anything gets said,

don't worry about it.

Yeah.

I've been driving since

camp kind of thing.

Yeah.

And then, yeah, he ended up driving

the rest of the way, fucking thing.

He looked after me out like throughout

the whole of the fucking time there,

like took me under his wing so to speak.

Yeah.

And yeah, I really do thank

him for that kind of thing.

he was one of the good sort of good

blokes that a bit moral courage there.

Yeah.

Stand up for the new bloke and Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He'd gone a bit far there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like he, it showed that he'd had a,

had a set of balls because like it's

easy to get sucked into herd mentality.

Yeah.

Yeah.

like to stand up for what you

believe in, can be seen as like.

Bit out there in it.

How was the adventure training though,

when you were, you were there, you said

you're the only non powertrain guy?

Yes.

I was just getting fucking, I

just got fucking beasted really.

Like fucking, I'd be there

just after a day of like hill

walking, all that sort of shit.

be sat in my room and then I would have

like this guy, this Scottish, lunch Jack

being like, obviously Powertrain Scottish,

launch Jack who worked in the Armoury.

He'd be like, what do

you think you are doing?

He's like, oh, I'm done

for the day, aren't I?

He's like, no.

He's like, get your fiz kit on.

You gotta go do fucking 10 k or

like get hill sprints or something.

Yeah, yeah.

Just like proper beast of me.

And I was like, I've just done, obviously

at this point in my mind I'm like, I've

just spent two years getting myself

fucking absolutely beasting myself.

Yeah.

To fucking get into the Marines.

Yeah.

I've just beasted myself

to get into the army.

I've done 16 weeks of basic training,

20 something weeks of phase two.

Now I've turned it up to unit thinking.

Right.

Foot's gonna come off the

gas a little bit here.

Yeah.

And it's just gone even harder.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

That's a big important part, isn't it?

That when people, once you've passed

training, that's that's the real start.

Yeah.

It's not really a test.

It's a, it's not attendance

course, it's still training, right?

Yeah, yeah.

But when you're done, then you get

to battalion, you're like, oh shit.

Like this is that, and in

hindsight you're like, that's

where my career really started.

Like Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Foot never comes off the gas.

Does it ever?

Yeah.

Ever.

It's fucking next level.

And I remember, so like I'd done

that stint of, adventure training

and all that sort of stuff.

And then at this sort of period of

time, it's like October sort of time,

fucking go in November, before Christmas.

So we had a, a pre-PA course

going on, when we come back off of

Christmas leave in January and now.

It was, this is something that I

couldn't ever get my head around.

So like whenever we'd done battery PT or,

or you'd call it company fiz or whatever.

Yeah.

All the non powertrain would be at

the front in their own fucking squad.

And then obviously all the

powertrain lads would be in the back.

Yeah.

All the non powertrain lads

wouldn't wear maroon t-shirts.

They'd wear the fucking shit green ones.

Yeah.

With the fucking white fucking Yeah.

Thing and all that shit.

And obviously all the fucking powertrain

lads would be wearing the battery tops.

And then we got a new co come in and said,

no, we don't want that to be a thing.

What we're gonna do is we're gonna

put everybody in the maroon tops.

So we've all started wearing these

fucking maroon tops now, obviously

still at the front of the squad.

And I found it such a

bizarre mentality from 'em.

Like we was getting absolutely fucking

hammered for wearing these maroon tops.

Like we've chose to wear 'em.

Yeah.

But it's come from higher up and like

constantly get, it sounds really petty,

empathetic, talking about it now, fucking

afterwards and all that sort of stuff.

But like we were getting absolutely

peppi about these fucking maron tops.

But it wasn't our fucking

wasn't your decision.

It wasn't our decision.

It's not like you went to do it.

You.

Yeah.

So I was like, instead of taking

your frustrations out on us,

why don't you fucking go in?

Like, and I said, I remember

saying this to one of the fucking

screws that were giving me shit.

I said, instead of fucking taking

your frustrations out on me, why don't

you fucking have a set of bollocks

and go speak to the CO about this?

Yeah.

It went down like a fucking

lead balloon vetted this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And then, yeah.

Anyways, obviously fucking they kept

like, so what I was trying to say there

is like, they kept fucking like dangling

this carrot of like this pre-PA you're

gonna go on pre-PA, you'll be on pre-PA.

but our gun barrier was so on demand, we

couldn't really afford to let anybody go.

Yeah.

On pre-PA.

because obviously pre-PA is, I think it's

four weeks and then six weeks up the road.

Yeah, I think so.

It might change now, but yeah.

And obviously it's held at

Colchester and all that sort of shit.

So they've been dangling this fucking

carrot of oh, you're gonna go on pre-PA,

you're gonna go on pre-PA coming up to

Christmas leave, gone on Christmas leave.

well before fucking went on

Christmas leave the BSM comes

down, gots us all on parade.

And he's like, right, this is on

these, these are the list of lads

who's on pre power after Christmas.

And then reading out the names.

I was one of them.

I was like, fucking buzzing.

Right?

I can get this fucking nick done.

Move on with my career fucking progress.

Stop getting called a shit

cunt every fucking day.

Yeah.

And fucking get on with it.

And I fucking went on Christmas leave

and I had a really shit Christmas leave.

'cause all I'd done was fucking train.

Went out running, hammered the

running, hammered the fucking like

gym sessions, all that sort of shit.

Didn't have any fun.

Was really strict on my diet so

I didn't put on too much weight.

and then come back off of Christmas

leave and they was like, right,

you're not on pre para, you're going

to Kenya for a fucking exercise.

And then that, at that moment I was

a bit like I was fucking raging.

I bet.

'cause I had all this pent up rage of

like fucking getting hammered every

day by fucking for being this fucking

crap, whatever, all this fucking pent

up rage and all that sort of shit.

And then fucking Getting fucked

around like that, it just

like, it just pissed me off.

'cause I just thought to myself,

what's the fucking point?

Anyways, went out to Kenya and, had a

really shit time out in Kenya again.

'cause I was big, I was big

into my weight training as well.

Yeah.

So what I used to do, so

obviously we got a, on camp.

There was in Colchester, there's like a,

regimental gym and then like a fucking,

like, it was this big CrossFit gym.

I think it was R HQ gym of which

like everybody can sort of fucking

go in and all that sort of stuff.

so I used to be big into

the gym on, on an evening.

So we'd always do hat pt. So in

the morning we'd do battery pt.

Yeah.

And then once we knock off for the day

at four o'clock, five o'clock, we'd

have hat pt, which could be anything.

It could be a circuit in the gym.

It could be a fucking 10 mile tab.

It could be fucking anything.

we wouldn't have sports afternoon,

we'd have hat PT on a Wednesday.

and after all that phase, like my

thing that I would like to do in my

downtime was weight train, which was

doing a bit of bodybuilding stuff.

Yeah.

and obviously, a lot of the senior

ranks within, seven at that time

weren't really that educated on

weight training or anything like that.

I'm not too sure why, but they obviously

didn't see a need for it or whatever.

so that was for me going to do a bit

of weight training on the evenings.

A bit of an outlet for

all this frustration.

it kept me from.

Using this built up frustration and

'cause like I'm not one to usually bite

my tongue on how I feel or something.

I act quite You're upset how it is.

Yeah.

I ain't, I ain't, I ain't bothered.

Do you know what I mean?

I'll be 100% real.

And like I was going through the week

and I was like really struggling to

bite my tongue and all this frustration

was like building up, building up and I

could feel it like bubbling in me, like

turning me into a person that I wasn't.

And like on an evenings I'd be like

chilling there in my room a weekend 'cause

I live fucking miles away from camp.

I wouldn't go home and I'd have some

fucking screw or fucking lunch jack

pissed up, come to my room with a set

of boxing gloves, throwing me a set of

boxing gloves and making one of me and

my mates fucking fight each other in the

hallway whilst they fucking sink bottles

of fucking buckfast and shit like that.

Although that is part of character

building and I did enjoy parts of that.

That wasn't me and it wasn't who I was and

it wasn't something that I wanted to be

doing to my mates that who I'm meant to

be then gonna be working with potentially

on operation and things like that.

And then I've got somebody that's meant

to be my boss or my peer telling me

to do those things within the block.

I think that's quite a toxic trait,

although I do understand that it is a bit

of character building, it builds a bit

personality and all that sort of stuff.

It was turning me into a person

that I, I I, I didn't wanna be.

so I was using the gym as a,

like quite a bit of a big outlet.

So after doing the hat PT and all

that sort of shit, I'd go for an hour

and training the, regimental gym.

Yeah.

And there was a group of sergeants that

used to go in around the same time as me.

they always used to turn

up half an hour later.

And they'd see me in there and they'd

kicked me out because I wasn't powertrain.

So they kept kicking me out.

And then that happened, all the

way up until we went to Kenya.

And then we went out to Kenya, obviously

went out to the train exercise.

Have you been to Kenya?

Yeah.

And do you know how on, I can't

remember what the camp's called.

they've got that metal hut, don't they?

With all the old school weights in and

that it's like a proper rust dungeon.

I remember on an evening everybody

would be like fucking around

getting pissed up or doing whatever.

I'd just be in there on

my own weight training.

'cause that was my thing.

Like, I fucking love weight

training therapy, isn't it, man?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

I I wouldn't like to use the term

therapy because obviously if you've got

underlying issues, there's only so much

the weights can Oh yeah, absolutely.

It is not gonna go down and do it.

But it's, it's, it helps in, in a

very like, easy, contextualised way.

That therapy as in weights

is, it's so good for us.

Yeah.

And it makes us feel good though, right?

Doesn't it?

Yeah.

It's our bit.

It's our thing.

We en we enjoy.

Yeah.

And even like, even through school,

when I was going through school,

like on my lunchtimes and stuff,

I'd be getting kicked outta my

lessons and all that sort of stuff.

I'd always go to the gym at

school from like 12 to 16.

I was always in the gym.

I didn't have a fucking

clue what I was doing.

I looked absolutely shit.

But I just loved the feeling that

moving weights round gave me.

And obviously I never lost that

throughout, like my whole time throughout

doing anything in the military.

Like that was always what

made me feel like me.

Yeah.

like through phase one, I had

all my career team, my EAs

all in my personal locker.

Yeah.

Everybody would be like, wow.

What's that you using?

What's that?

What's that?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Literally.

But it was like my protein.

Sorry.

Yeah.

But it was like my protein.

That's right.

We weren't around then.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

And then fucking, yeah,

obviously I had all that sort

of shit in my personal locker.

Went out to Kenya and like I

was there fucking training on

an evening on my own at probably

like nine, 10 o'clock at night.

Just because I knew I'd like get left

alone because if they see me in there,

they'd kick me out because they felt like

weight training wasn't, wasn't beneficial

to pass in P company because you'd get

muscle bound and all this sort of shit.

But yeah, maybe you'd get muscle

bound if you were fucking taking

loads of anabolic steroids and

fucking getting fucking massive.

But you're not, do you know what I mean?

You're just moving weight from, and

then when we look at the science

now, like someone to go out on a tab

who can squat their own body weight

is far less likely to be injured to

be able to carry themselves Yeah.

Than someone that can squat

half their body weight.

Yeah.

Like you need that strength

to be able to do your job.

That's it.

Like there's, there's so many

people that are now like still

within the, the military that are

big on like, the weight training.

Like coach, you sponsor then you

coach Dean Hammond, is that Yeah.

Yeah.

He's like big onto all that sort of stuff.

Like he helped coach some lad

that I know called, Fucking hell.

I forgot his fuck.

That sounds fucking stupid.

Now how fucking my mind's gone,

fucking my mate that I can't name him.

Yeah, yeah.

My mate though, I can't

name, we'll call him Joe.

No Ed, ed Harbour Ginger Lad

is fucking, what's his name?

Incredibly.

I'm trying to remember his

fucking Instagram or it's

something like real fucking zesty.

But anyways, he fucking trained him

and he's an absolute beast at squatting

and he's like absolutely smashed all

his offers for trading for the Navy

recently and all that sort of shit.

which is good.

He's done a lot of like, of

the photography fee stuff for

heavy duty before he joined

them at like Wicked maybe.

So he's had a complete

like change in direction.

but yeah, back to going what I was

saying, 'cause I've gone down a bit of

a fucking tangent there really haven't

I, going back to what I was saying with

Kenya and all that sort of shit, fucking.

Then like my sergeant Major

started to find me in the evenings

fucking going to the, to the gym.

Yeah.

And he started fucking kicking

me out doing the same thing that

the fucking, the sergeants was.

And it was, this is just because

you're not powertrain still?

Yeah, all completely.

'cause I'm fucking not powertrain

and that was like really

starting to fucking piss me off.

Otherwise it's come back from Kenya after

having a bit of a shit time in Kenya.

And I got into trouble with like a couple

weeks after I got into the trouble,

a bit of trouble with the police, for

reasons that I'm not gonna go into, but

got into trouble with the police and I

went from being a lad in the regiment

that wasn't really fucking known to

being known as something that's quite

fucking, not you, you're not, well you

don't really want to be known for it.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

so I basically had this massive fucking

bullseye fucking targeted on my back.

So everything just got

progressively fucking worse.

Like I was getting called every

fucking name under the sun on like

hat, hat PT on pt and like there's

only sort of so much you can take.

And obviously then they'd

stripped away my outlet, which was

going to the gym on an evening.

so obviously, I dunno about yourself,

but when you're in camp, we used

to have areas early morning.

Yep, yep.

So our areas were at zero six.

Oh.

So I'd wake up at, 0 4 30 and go to

the RHQ gym because that was open 24 7.

Yeah.

So I, that was how I got in my weight

training and all that sort of stuff.

Yeah.

So I started doing that before areas

and then if they asked where I was,

I'd say, oh, I've been out for a

little, little bimble round the block

or whatever, or fucking round camp.

And yeah, started doing that

and I was like, right, cool.

I've got me outlet back and all that sort

of stuff that helped me keep a lid on what

was going on with all the trouble with

the police and all that sort of stuff.

'cause it was quite a lot to

deal with being only young.

Like I was 20 at this point, so it's

quite a lot to deal with being 20.

I didn't really speak about it with

anybody, so I had all this fucking

shit going on in my head, didn't

have a phone, didn't have fuck all,

so it's not like I could phone my

thing back and all that sort of shit.

So I was using the gym as an outlet

and I was doing that for a few months.

And then this another warrant officer

come off of a posting called, Fitzy.

And he started training at the same time

in the morning, in this fucking RHQ gym.

And he was loving it.

He was loving it, seeing me in

there and he was absolutely buzzing.

And he was like, fist pump me like

that, like a massive breath of fresh

air from all the shit you've been

giving to a guy now that's like nice.

Like, yeah.

Like he fucking loved to see it.

And he was like, that's fucking ace.

Like, it was like proper fired up.

And he was a really good

bloke to be fair to him.

Like really good individual in his like.

He's a picture of what I thought

the Army should have been and Yeah.

And could have been and was gonna

be, do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

The way that he conducted

himself, the way that he acted.

'cause I always remember this one, one,

we were doing some fucking helicopter,

what, what do you call it when you run

out the back of the fucking Chinook?

What's the, what's the

terminology for that?

I've been out.

Are we fucking years?

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

I forgot all that terminology.

And we were like raw infantry.

Yeah.

But we're fucking basically running

out the back of a fucking chin.

getting a big fucking Yeah.

Circle.

All that sort of shit.

We were doing those drills.

Yeah.

And basically all the hats went

onto this fucking is we were doing

it out of a fucking iso container.

Yeah.

Real professional.

But yeah.

Stacked up in an iso container, come

out, all the hats were going through it.

And the FSTs, the powertrain

gun bunnies rule stood there

like fucking watching us do it.

And he's come walking over and

I've seen him walking over from

a distance like thingy and we

are all there fucking thingy.

And they're absolutely beasting

us saying, we are shit, we're

this, we're that and the other.

All our fucking bins all over the place.

We're in shit state, like absolute thingy.

And they're absolutely pouting us.

And he comes over and he's

watching it and he's watching it.

And I could see him like getting

more and more frustrated with how

these fucking, screws and fucking

Lance jacks were acting towards us.

Yeah.

And he just fucking blurts

out, listen you cunts.

And he's fucking points his fucking,

the fucking pointing sticker, the

fucking, FSTs and all that sort of stuff.

He goes, you are all taking the piss outta

these lot, but that's a reflection on you.

He goes, you lot, I meant

to be mentoring them.

He goes, they're in shit state

because you are in shit state.

And then that's all he said

and fucking walked off.

Yeah.

And that just like, it

was like a pinker drop.

Do you know what I mean?

And it was like, yeah.

That was like a big

prominent moment for me.

Like of like, these guys

that were teaching us were

just pretty shits to be fair.

And it's how, how did L Battalion

in Life change after that then?

So, I'm hoping you're gonna say that

they'd like, they're like, they're like

the abuse towards you, like stopped.

'cause again, there's a fine line

between like character, but, but it

sounds now like your whole career so

far has just been getting hammered.

Just getting hammered full send Yeah.

All the time.

Yeah, it was, it was, it was full on like.

Like there's a lot of lads that like

you couldn't relax in the block.

Yeah.

And a place where you

should be able to relax.

You, you should have been able to relax

'cause you'd have someone kicking in your

door or flowing, throwing a fucking one

of those fucking stem grenade things.

You fucking strike bangs.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like throwing one of them

in your room or something.

Do you know what I mean?

Or throwing it through your

window when the crack was open.

Just shit like that.

Or like pro propping a bucket

of water up against your door.

So when you open your door bomb.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Boom.

Although that stuff is funny.

Yeah.

It fucking, when it's constant

it is just a bit too much.

When it's daily.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When it's daily it's fucking

drives you fucking mental.

but with regards to

changing too, too much.

it only got worse really because obviously

I got in trouble with the police.

the guy, oh, going back to what that

fitzy Gier obviously he went up into

the top corridor, was absolutely

singing my praises and all that sort

of shit for smashing out fiz early

morning and all this sort of stuff.

And he was like, this guy cook.

He's got loads of potential.

Like he's shown like some good signs.

And he even through like phase

one and phase two, I smashed it.

Like I was always top third.

plays second in my troop of second best.

I'm always second best.

Do you know what I mean?

Always second best, but place fucking

second best in my troop for phase

two and all that sort of stuff.

And then like, I was keen, I loved it.

That's all I wanted to

do was be a soldier.

Yeah.

and it was just sort of ruining

my experience really going there.

but it's made me the person I'm today.

He's sat there singing my fucking

praises in this fucking, office.

And the Sergeant Mays just gone to him.

Nah, he, he can't be weight training.

Get him outta there.

Gone in the next day.

I'm like gone to fist bump.

He's like, look mate, I fucking

breaks my heart to fucking say

this to you 'cause you're not

allowed to be training in there.

He goes, it's way above me.

He goes, there's nothing I can fucking do.

He says, I've tried to fight

your corner, but it's like

fucking five on one up there.

And I, yeah, it's fucking shit.

And then, anyways, obviously they

took away that outlet and then like.

Everything started getting for me,

like a bit progressively worse.

Like I then started going home

at the weekends, from camp and

stuff like that, and I would be

getting pissed up back at home.

Like I'd even just go out

on the piss on my own.

Like I wouldn't even

need a group of mates.

I'd just, and I'd just be like looking

for trouble and getting into fights

and just being, again, going back

to what I said earlier, it turned

me into a person that I wasn't.

and I didn't like being that person.

it was pretty shit.

But you live and you learn.

And then, again, I went on, some

adventure training down in fucking nookie

and I filled in a powertrain lunch.

Jack got in a lot of trouble for that.

do you remember in 2019 when, was it

2019 or 2018 when Spain was playing

England in the World Cup semi-final?

Yep.

So I, I, this happened a bit before I

started the drinking and all that sort

of stuff, but it was just after I got

in trouble, I lost my room key on camp.

This is another prominent point,

of, of, of what made me like

sort of despise being there.

I lost my key on camp somewhere and,

fucking I've gone, there was a screw

on my corridor who was in the FSTs.

Yeah.

Who obviously is supposedly

meant to be a figure of, I don't

know, senior in leadership.

Yeah.

Sea drills and all that fucking gay shit.

But I've knocked on his

door, excuse me, bombed.

I was like, I'm sorry to bother you.

I've lost my room.

Key.

Can you help me?

He goes, no mate, fuck off.

Basically.

'cause he was watching

the football in his room.

Yeah.

Shut the door in my

face and I'm like right.

Gone down into the fucking, Bottom

corridor, gone on orders, got the

bono's number, phoned the bonko.

He's like, Bombardier, dicks

in here, blah, blah, blah.

I'm like, alright, Bombardier

dicks and he's gonna cook you.

I'm really sorry to bother

yourself, but I've lost my room.

Key on camp.

Is there anything you can do to help me?

He goes, oh no mate.

Phone Sergeant Page hungs up.

Anyway, phoned up this

guy called Sergeant Page.

I was like, alright, Sergeant Page.

I was like, fucking gonna cook your here.

Really sorry to bother you.

Like being polite is anything,

I've lost my room key.

Is there anything you can do to help me?

He goes, you've just jumped

the chain of command.

Have you?

I was like, no fucking Lance Bomber

there has told me to call ya.

And he's like, right, call him back.

He's, he's meant to be the

one dealing with this issue.

Anyways, phoned him up and, fucking,

I've gone obviously said what?

Reiterated what he's just told

me and all that sort of shit.

And, he goes, look mate, he goes,

I'm out watching the football.

I'm not interested.

Like fuck off.

Basically hung up phone, gone back

up to that Tod's door, literally

told him what I've just said.

Like that's like literally just happened

when I've called the Broncos number.

He's like, look mate, it

really ain't my problem.

And then there was a group of

lads, powertrain lads that were

winding me up saying they had my

key and all that sort of shit.

And, I fucking just absolutely lost it.

And I was just fucking grabbed

the fucking sides of the door

and just fucking booted the door.

And it's just fucking all

coming, all the brick work,

everything just completely fucked.

It just kicked the fuck out there.

And this bombardier this Bombardier's

come out his corridor going

absolutely fucking ballistic.

Like, what the fuck you

did you think he was doing?

And I was just absolutely

rut saying, look, none of you

cunts are fucking helping me.

Like, I've been asking for help for

about fucking four or five hours.

You're all taking the fucking piss.

I was like, you're meant to be fucking

in positions of fucking leadership

and people that I'm aspiring to be.

And I like, I don't wanna

be like any of you cunts.

Do you know what I mean?

And, fucking kicked my

door in fucking erupted.

And they'd come up with a story, the

three of 'em that I'd been out watching

the football, lost my room, key coming

off the piss, kicked my door in,

and then I got billed like 730 quid.

Got put on those guard duties,

got fucked, like, fuck.

But Yeah.

Loads of, there's so many more stories

of shit like that that happened and it's

like all, all, whilst this is going on,

like we won't touch on the the why, but

you know, there's some stuff going on

with the police that that wasn't true.

But you still had to prove it.

Like from a mental health

perspective, you know, you are

getting like 24 7 shit at work.

Yeah.

And then you're dealing with like

an accusation that that obviously

was, was cleared and Yeah.

You know, something

that didn't happen Yeah.

But potentially could

have been very serious.

Oh yeah.

Like that if you weren't even, even

the, nothing happened from that

situation, that complaint that changed

the complete dynamic of my military

career because it changed everybody's

views and perspectives on me.

Yeah.

Like I used to have sergeants getting

in my face and saying that you're

gonna go to prison and all this shit.

Just being, I don't

understand why they done it.

They've probably got their own shit

going on that they've never dealt with.

And I think that's it.

You know, a lot, I've been there myself,

you know, you project like what's

going on and a lot of people in the

military might don't be offended if

you're offended, maybe look at yourself.

Yeah.

But when we got shit going on and we

don't wanna deal with our own shit,

we'll project our shit onto someone else.

Yeah.

And it sounds like, like this is like

what you like a lot of those guys, it's

not your whole battalion, but it sounds

like the majority, the majority of people

you've worked with have been like that.

And maybe that's, you know,

rage baiting people here.

Maybe it's because they're not

parachute regiment that they're just

feel unfulfilled in their life or

they've got some issues at home, their

wife's left them cheating on them.

The kids don't like 'em.

Could be anything.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They're like bitter in their own lives

for the last like 40 minutes, hearing

a story of like pretty like serious

failings from the military going on,

you know, and a lot of friends out in

the military from, from private soldiers

that are joining like nowadays Yeah.

Up to two and th one three star

general and it's, I've never

had anything like it, mate.

Yeah.

Honestly, it's, it is.

Yeah.

It's fucking mad.

You know, lads need to be given

a certain level of shit because

it makes you a robust individual.

Yeah.

But then there's like an, we're nearly

two years into your service now.

Yeah.

And it's, yeah.

It's made me a little bit irate.

Yeah.

Listening to like the failings of it and,

and 'cause ultimately I'll say was people

killed themselves over with this shit.

Oh yeah.

A hundred percent People literally,

and it's, it is rife as well, right?

Yeah.

Had that crossed your mind at all?

Or you, again, there's no, it's a

really horrible subject to touch

on, but I think it's also wrong

that you avoid it completely.

But it's, how did you, I mean, you're

still sat in, out with a successful

business, but how do you, how was your

mental health and how did you avoid like,

going down that potential rabbit hole?

well obviously for me it was

the weight training and then

they took that away from me.

Which obviously had a fucking

major impact, which then I then was

looking at other obviously means

to fill that void 'cause that was

a void that needed to be filled.

I used to, so I used to go down to like

a supplement shop in Colchester Town.

I dunno if it's still there, but it

was an old school bodybuilding shop.

Was it at the top?

I know where it was, where the subway is.

There's a I used to go in there.

Yeah.

And I used to speak, like speak to the

guy in there and that's what got me into

the, like, that's where I first started

getting into the bodybuilding scene.

'cause I used to go down there and

buy like the flex magazines and

stuff like that and like buy the, go

in and buy his fucking supplements.

I would chat to him for fucking

ages and he just like, really, like

made me like, feel fucking welcome.

Which I'd not felt.

Yeah.

Obviously, which everybody wants

to belong or be, feel like they're

a part of something, don't they?

Yeah.

And that's what a lot of people

in the MI military look for.

Yeah.

Don't they?

They want a sense of

belonging, a sense of purpose.

And I feel like going through my,

it was only four years, but going

through my sort of military career,

so many people don't have that.

And I, I, there's a video that I made on

the artillery, that I used to vent and

project like all of these frustrations

at the time when I was going through

it, like towards the end of my career.

I just wanted to say

everything, how it was.

And it ended up doing like, the fucking

rounds of fucking, Lark Hill or the

top corridor and all that sort of shit.

'cause it was seen as anti recruitment.

yeah, there's a funny story about that.

That's a completely different

story, story itself.

but could come to that later.

But, yeah, I put that sort of

video out there and, Buckling.

I've lost my train of thought there.

I've fucking The video you made.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I made that, this video

was just fucking saying it.

How it, how it was.

Oh no.

Fuck it.

I fucking lost where I

was gonna go with that.

That's right.

Well let's touch on, so, so

you didn't finish your time

with seven RHA did you up?

No, I ended up getting kicked out 'cause

I was a disgraced regiment and I didn't

deserve to wear the maroon machine.

apparently that's what my b

sm said to me at the time.

Yeah.

yeah.

So, and where did you go when you were I

ended up getting sent a three four battery

because apparently at the time that

was best suited for me, but it wasn't.

but you could arguably look

at it as a career fail.

But fuck no.

It was the best fucking two years that

I had to be fair when I got sent there.

but yeah.

And did, did things change

when you went to three four?

Oh massively.

Completely different place.

Completely different place.

And to be fair, that's the point

that I didn't touch on earlier, is

is the fucking, when we was out in

Kenya, we worked with the Duke of Ls.

Yeah.

and we were playing enemy and we

was like working alongside the

Duke of Ls against the Girish.

And I was seeing how

the Duke of Ls operated.

And now I think in terms of I

infantry, the Duke of Ls are meant

to be quite shithouse, aren't they?

They, they don't have a reputation

of being the best of what some

of the other battalions are.

Yeah.

With respectfully saying,

do you know what I mean?

And I remember seeing how the Duke of

LA conducted themselves and every single

one of them were on first name terms.

They all looked out for each other.

There was this, and me being this

non powertrain gunner looking

at that thinking, fucking hell.

That's what the Army's

actually meant to be like.

That's where it's like other places.

But like there was this such a, like I

remember lads wanted to triple P outta

seven and the triple Ps wouldn't even

leave the desk because we were on demand.

They needed manpower.

And like the amount of careers that, and

opportunities and stuff like that, that

that's killed for people must be unreal.

Like failing the mil, like the

military failing these people because

to fit into normal society after

being in the military, for a lot

of people it's really difficult.

And sometimes the only place that

a lot of people feel suited or

welcomed is the military in it.

Yeah.

and like coming into civilian

life after the military, I

found that quite difficult.

Which I think a lot of us did.

I certainly struggle with

my transition back to Yeah.

Civilian in life.

And it's, and you know, the military as

a whole I think is, is a great thing.

And anyone thinking of joining

should absolutely join.

Oh yeah.

A hundred percent.

It was the best thing I ever done.

I think a huge testament to you and

your mental resilience that Yeah.

you enjoyed what you did.

Yeah.

And you still count the other side,

whereas you, you could've, oh yeah.

I could've done something

silly quite easily.

'cause I remember the a point, we

was on parade in seven RHA and I was

getting absolutely hammered by everyone.

Like fucking absolutely pasted.

And everybody was laughing,

making jokes, bloody, bloody blah.

Anyways, we've all fell into parade

and I was the last one walking over.

And this para train, full screw

goes to me really quietly.

He leans in and goes, mate,

honestly, he goes, I dunno how

you're handling this so well.

He goes, 'cause if that was me,

I would've fucking top myself.

And I said to him, mate, it doesn't

matter what anybody fucking says, I

know what's true, so it doesn't matter.

And that's the fucking.

I think that's what made a lot

of people feel quite like, that's

why I got Beasted quite a lot.

'cause I think a lot of people felt

intimidated by me in the sense of

how confident I am in my own self

beliefs and my own moral compass.

And being a big, what, six foot

something bloke that's not small,

who goes do it can be intimidating.

Mm-hmm.

You know, but you, you're not, no.

You love your sky going

Yeah, I'm, I'm fucking sound.

Do you know what I mean?

But yeah, the military for me, going back

to your question that you asked, did,

life change when I went to three four

Battery, it changed massively because

three four Battery again hasn't got

the greatest reputation of being like

the best place to go in the artillery.

It's a bit of like a, they used

to call it a bit of an asbo unit.

So, when I went there, that's why

I said for the two years that I was

there, I had a wicked time because a

lot of the lads that were there were

also quite considerably rogue as well.

Yeah.

So it was like the gunner and Thelan

Jacks basically called the shots.

Yeah.

Because that's how

fucking together we were.

Because if they pissed us off, we just

act cunts because at the end of the day,

the courses need, the courses that are

coming through Lark Hill that are doing

the training and all that sort of stuff.

Obviously they need the guns to go bang.

And if we are fucking

around being cunt Yeah.

The guns aren't gonna go bang.

Yeah.

So it was in their best

interest to keep us happy.

Yeah.

So it was, and it's, I think

a lot of it comes down to

leadership as well, doesn't it?

Oh, 100%.

And military's hard because it can't be

all sunshine and rainbows all the time.

No.

But a lot of it comes to, to

military, it's treat people

the way you want to be treated.

And if we go from a business point of

view, I think it was Richard Branson

that said it, it is like treat your staff

so well that they've got the ability

to leave and go and do it themselves.

giving 'em the knowledge but treat

them so well they don't want to.

Mm-hmm.

And the minutes can be to say

like, treat the lads so well that

they want to do the work for you.

Yeah.

Without you having to use anything like a

punishment as a reason to why, or trying

to have like, oh we let's been forced fun.

Yeah.

Make that lead and look after the

lads and they'll want to work for you.

I, I absolutely found out my sense

that I wanted to work for my,

my lance Jack, John Rowland and,

and Monkey by section Commander.

I wanted to do stuff with em because they

they genuinely cared about who you were.

Yeah.

But also you fuck up, you're getting Yeah.

Like I had aspirations that I

wanted to go through my JWI course.

Yeah.

Do jungle warfare, do

fucking, all that shit.

Yeah.

Like, I've had like real ambitions to

fucking really push myself as a soldier.

'cause like I said to you before the

podcast started, I'm a person of extremes.

Like when I'm all in on

something, I'm fucking all in.

I'm not like fucking around doing.

And that's exactly what the

ministry needs, people that are

all in who want to give their life.

Yeah.

That's it.

Like, yeah.

Like fucking I'm, I'm all or nothing.

And that's where like.

Although like now obviously

it sounds really, really gay

or if you want to edit that out,

it sounds really shit, but, but

fucking like the, the, all those

shit times that I went through have

only helped me to make this better.

Yeah.

Because even going through

all of that shit that I went

through in that period of time.

Like I still went to the gym.

I still wanted to lift weights.

It made me find my like greater

purpose than just Ollie the soldier.

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

And it's only like taking me

sort of time and like learning

to discover a greater purpose.

Absolutely.

And let's just skip back slash forwards

to what made you want to be out?

So with regards to like leaving,

I got, when I was in Colchester,

I got a shoulder injury.

I dislocated my shoulder pretty badly.

and obviously in that sort of environment

in a very male dominated, well it

was male dominated 'cause there was

no females there, females weren't

allowed to do PE company at that time.

you can't show any sort of sign

of weakness at all, can you?

So I've dislocated my shoulder,

had to go hospital, got it put

back in, all that sort of stuff.

Said to my tro sergeant

about going on the sick.

He's like, nah, you're

not going on the sick.

You got a exercise in Salisbury coming up.

So they put me on exercise with a fuck

sh I actually went on at before again

in Newie and that's where I battered

some lad, but ended up getting back in.

I told 'em I didn't wanna go on at,

'cause I got fucked shoulder there.

He was like, nah, you're going on at going

on exercise, doing all that sort of shit.

then obviously went to three four Battery.

started playing rugby, done rugby,

fucking dislocating my shoulder

again, due to the injury that got

in Colchester that I neglected.

Didn't do any physio,

rehab, fuck all for it.

just proceeded as normal, dislocated

really bad, ripped a load of tendons,

rotator cuff, all that sort of stuff.

Had an operation and then I was

on like the fucking Biff for like

fucking eight months or whatever.

and that's where I like spent three

weeks at home and decided that

this ain't the career path that

yeah, I want to pursue anymore.

just because I had such a.

Bitter, it sounds like,

oh no, understandably so.

It's like, yeah, it's like

bittersweet because all I ever

wanted to be was a fucking soldier.

And then it's like really anti-climatic.

And going back to, a part that you

said earlier, like the military's

become so fucking career driven.

Like, I thought I was joining a place

where like, you make some of the best

mates of your life, but because I've

ever, like, again, it's the, this is a

whole completely different podcast in

itself, but because the UK sold itself out

to all these independent companies like

Capita fucking Sodexo, all sorts of shit.

And like the wrong people

are getting promoted for one.

And like it's become such a career driven.

Job.

People aren't doing it

for the love of the game.

Do you know what I mean?

They're doing it for self gain,

feathering their own nests.

They don't care about the bigger

picture or their own moral compass.

They're happy to throw the man to, to

the left and the right of them under the

bus so they can get up to the next rung.

Do you know what I mean?

There's a lot of that that I saw when I

was in, three, four battery and in when I

just thought to myself, this ain't, this

ain't the army that I wanna be a part of.

Yeah.

This isn't the army

that I wanna represent.

this isn't the way I conduct myself.

And I just sort of washed my hands with it

because obviously wherever I went to next,

I was gonna start at the bottom again.

And at that point I would've

been a four year gunner.

I would've been 23.

And I say, not that there's

anything wrong with this, but I'm

just gonna say this, how it is.

You see it quite a lot with lads that

join at a young age, from like 17 to 20.

Like I call it the squatty rut.

Yeah.

Have you ever heard of that?

No, I haven't.

Okay.

So this is a thing that

I've come up with my myself.

It's like you get stuck in like

what I call the squatty rut.

So from like a young age to about 23,

you're a gunner or a junior fucking rank.

Fucking no, no, no stripe, no nothing.

And they're the best.

They're like your fucking

millionaire years.

Do you know what I mean?

You're spanking all your money, you're

going out on the piss, having fun,

going on holidays, doing whatever.

You then get to the end of

that four, five year period and

you're looking at like promoting.

So you, you're a bit

older, you're a bit wiser.

You think, right, I'm gonna start getting

my life together and like getting misses

or by that sort of point, you have a

bird or whatever, this is like obviously

not applicable to everyone, but the vast

majority, you get a bird, you fucking

pick up your first stripe, you're with

your bird for like two or three years.

You then fucking pick up like full screw

or what this is like in the artillery.

Get pick, pick up, like

full screw, whatever.

And then you're like deep

three years deep, four years

deep in your relationship.

You're like, oh, you know what?

It's gonna be a fucking good idea.

Why don't we get fucking married so we

can get a married quarter and get a pad?

Yeah.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Get a pad.

fucking next thing you know, you're at

your eight to 12 year point and then you

get stuck in what you call the squatty

rut because you are that trapped within

the system that the army's created.

It makes you so scared to leave.

Yeah.

Because you're institutionalised.

You know what I mean?

And I think that's more prominent

in the army of today than it

would've been in the army of like,

say the nineties or whatever.

'cause there's, there was more

stuff going on for the general Army.

It was more exciting.

He was away a lot more.

but now you're just.

And no disrespect to obviously

anybody, 'cause I've done nothing

great with my military career at all.

But it got to the point where

I was fed up a playing soldier.

Yeah.

Like just fucking walking around

shooting blank fucking rounds.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah, yeah.

Like I get it's training, but there's

only so much training that you

can do before it gets repetitive.

That's right.

We said in another episode we had one

of the guys, which is there's no better

recruitment tool for the military

than a war as horrendous as it is.

And, and war is hell, but it, it works.

That's, that's ultimately

what a lot of Yeah.

Lads joined for, isn't it?

Because they want to experience that.

Yeah.

Being gone and done, you know, like

actually be careful what you wish for.

Oh.

But it's also, that's

why people join the army.

Yeah.

You know, you don't join the army

because you want to bake cakes.

Yeah.

That's it.

You join the army, you want to

join like one of the most lethal

fighting forces in the world.

Don't.

Yeah.

That's it.

That's why every man, like literally every

man wants to test himself and see what

his capabilities are and his limitations

regardless of what anybody says, whether

that be in the military, whether you do

fucking judo, whether you do BJJ, whether

you're a bodybuilder, every bloke wants

to push themselves to their fucking limits

and see where they can take themselves.

All of us wanna do it because

we, as much as we try not to

be, we are very ego driven.

Yep, yep.

Like we wanna prove to

ourselves more than anything.

Absolutely.

That we are capable of achieving

these great feats, whether that be

in business or whatever, like, and

that's not a negative thing if you

conduct yourself in the right way.

And might I think so.

Might know about it.

Not at all.

But, so we we're out in the military now.

Yeah.

Did you start heavy duty

straightaway or was there another

job that you, you started doing?

So, With my last year of leaving the

military, it was when COVID happened.

Yep.

So obviously everything like happened

in what, February, March, whatever?

Yeah.

21st of March because I owned

a gym and it got shut down.

Fuck sake, cunts.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cunts.

I love COVID though.

Best time of my life.

I give all my kit to all my gym members.

I wrote them all programmes

to use the Bitsa kit.

They had I think all bar a

couple, for various reasons.

Most because jobs couldn't

afford to keep Yeah.

Most kept the memberships going.

Did that.

and I went in to pack orders for

supplements and trained and my life

didn't change 'cause I don't see

it anyway 'cause my fucking loser.

But Sounds like a good life.

Yeah, I loved it mate.

Yeah, I loved it.

Have to see anyone.

Yeah, it was beautiful.

Yeah.

So obviously got locked down on camp,

so I was like doing guard duty, like

fucking, two days on, like three days

off for fucking the foreseeable future.

Yeah.

and I was handed in my Triple

P in the start of that march.

So the start of March, I handed in my

Triple P on like the 17th or whatever.

Then obviously fucking COVID

happened and all that sort of shit.

and I wanted to go and

do my close protection.

Yep.

courses and all that sort of stuff.

So I put in to do all

of that sort of stuff.

The courses kept getting cancelled.

Obviously the artillery is great

for qualifications, so I got none.

yeah.

And then fucking obviously,

wanted to do my close protection.

All the courses got cancelled,

everything's getting closer and closer

up to the point that I was leaving.

And my brother-in-law was a foreman on

a, for a building company called Eclipse.

And he was like, oh, why don't you come

labour for me, like labour at our firm.

and I was like, oh, I've got

nothing else to do, so why not?

So I was getting paid like nine pound

fucking 50 and getting absolutely shagged

in the ass fucking with loads of work.

Do you know what I mean?

so I left going from somewhere where I

felt like I had a tiny bit of purpose.

Yeah.

To feeling in like I was just a mule.

Okay.

and obviously going from the army to like

doing a labouring job was quite bizarre.

'cause at this point I was 23 being

told what to do by 20-year-old

lads that of all they've done is

a carpentry course at college.

And that was quite a hard pill to swallow.

And again, I was, went a bit against the

grain there and got into some trouble.

Fighting on building

sites and stuff like that.

but literally, I, I, I, I'd

done that for about six weeks.

and then I come up with the idea

of doing heavy duty gym wear,

which is the clothing brand.

So that's where it started on a building

site, carrying a piece of timber.

Yep.

when I was building a school, so, yeah.

Nice.

And I had 600 quid in the bank and I

was like, right, I can't, I, I can't

do this for the rest of my life.

I need to put all this frustration,

energy, my passion, just everything

that has ever gone right or wrong in my

life, and just put it into one thing.

Yeah.

And that's what I've done.

Love it, man.

Yeah, love it.

That's brilliant.

And it, I mean, look at

the size of the brand now.

Yeah.

It's, it's, you, you're doing quite well.

But what's unique as well is you, you

make your own clothing as well, don't you?

Yeah.

You don't just like put a sticker

on it and be like, yes, it's mine.

It's all, everything's tailor made.

So everything tailor made by you.

Yeah.

Everything's tailor made for the brand.

So everything that we sell, so if you

buy a heavy duty gym, wear hoodie,

this is a heavy duty gym wear hoodie.

And it's not made for any other

brand because there's obviously,

there's a lot of brands that print

on different sort of clothing.

And to be able to do this at the

sort of small scale that we're at,

like, I just run this with me and my

partner, Libby, to be able to do this

at the small scale that we're at.

I didn't know it was because

I'm actually like really fucking

stupid, but really fucking stubborn.

Yeah.

So I've just, I managed to make it work.

what we're doing is actually apparent,

actually quite difficult to do.

do you know a clothing brand

is, is properly hard to do?

Yeah.

And to get it off the ground.

'cause I think, again, and no disrespect

to the veteran community, but like

the two big ones is when lads get

out, I wanna do business, I wanna

sell clothing, I wanna make alley

clothing, and I wanna make Yeah.

Coffee.

That's like the, the done thing, isn't it?

Yeah.

And no disrespect to anyone,

everyone's free to do what they want.

It just seems that like the percentage

of companies you see is so much higher.

Yeah.

Because the buy-in can be quite

cheap to print some cool designs.

Yeah.

And there's a lot of

cool brands out there.

Yeah.

You know, it's, but to make a business

that then lasts as long as it has.

And when did you start?

It was 2021 ish.

Yeah, yeah.

No.

When was COVID?

2020. March the 21st, 2020.

So, yeah, so it would've

been I think 2022.

So we're You're four and a bit years.

Yeah.

Deep now about to go to five years.

So, you know, and the percentage of

companies that last that long mm-hmm.

I've seen so many Come and go.

Isn't, isn't high.

So, you know, and it's, yeah.

And what I think the really unique,

rather than focus on being a military

company, trying to have like cool

alley designs, you were like, you

went completely off piece with it.

Different.

Oh, I went black sheep and it

was, and it was, it's worked.

Yeah.

You've done well.

You found your niche.

And there's some other

really cool brands out there.

like some, one of the guys turned

around, he's gone and done stuff

for rugby and it's really cool.

It's cool to see you, like you

targeted like, oh, is that the

bloke that was in, Royal Marines?

the rugby one.

Rough rb. I think it was Rough Reds then.

SFSG.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Really cool.

Yeah, I've seen that.

It's fucking awesome stuff.

It's weird.

Can see people doing stuff.

You start off by making,

hats out of shirts.

Old rugby shirts.

Yeah.

It's fucking awesome.

Yeah.

It's so cool.

Like, like with yourself, like,

correct me if I'm wrong, but like

a big part of your demographic is

hardcore bodybuilding community.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's like some massive names

that are wearing your stuff and

it's, yeah, it's quite crazy really.

How does it feel there?

Seeing people like James Holling

head wearing a heavy duty gym wear.

To be honest with you,

I don't really know how to answer

that question 'cause like I

think the Ollie of the Ollie of.

Like 2018 that was going into Colchester

supplement shop would be fucking amazed.

Yeah.

But the Ollie of today is a bit like.

Like, it's weird.

I dunno how to explain it.

It's like, it's, it is fucking

awesome, don't get me wrong.

But there's so much more to be done.

Do you know what I mean?

I love that.

I love it.

It's very humble of you as well to say.

'cause it's, it is not a

small company now, is it?

No.

It's not like you're selling

like a couple of t-shirts week.

No, we're like, we're selling over to

like fucking New Zealand, Australia

got stuff going to America, Canada.

And when you have a drop, it's like

you'll do a drop and it's, that's gone.

And like the most frequent

question I see you being asked is

like, when's this backing stock?

When's that backing stock?

Yeah.

Why can't I get that?

Yeah.

Which is a wicked problem

to have though, right?

Yeah, it's pretty cool 'cause

it's custom made clothing.

It can't just be at the drop of a hat.

No, that's it.

We need stuff.

Get it here now.

Yeah, it's, it's, yeah, the, I

like I, something I always say

like a lot to myself is like.

Imagination and ideas and dropping

products isn't the problem.

It's having the money and

capabilities to do it.

That's the only thing

that's holding us back.

Yeah.

Is like, 'cause it obviously it's a

self-propelled company from obviously

my own hard work because I've only

recently started doing it full time.

Yep.

from August last year.

'cause I got sack from my job.

Why did you get sacked Ollie?

I went from, this is the thing is

I told you I'm a man of extremes.

So I, I've gone from like hero to zero.

I was getting employee of the

month to then getting sacks.

Do you know what I mean?

There's no, at this point though,

I don't expect anything else.

Yeah.

There's, there's no, there's

no fucking in between.

but they wanted to get rid of me because

obviously I'm not a fucking idiot.

And I knew I was getting the piss

taken outta me and I was saying

it to the manager, of our depot.

I was doing traffic management,

putting traffic cones out on the

road and all that sort of stuff.

And so I was working a zero hour

contract and now there was, so

there's 70 workers within the company.

About 20 of 'em had full-time contracts

and now when you work over 44 hours,

for this company, you got paid overtime

if you're on a full-time contract.

And the other lads were on a

zero hour contract, but there was

so much work that the zero hour

contracts were doing 72 hour weeks.

Wow.

Yeah.

And obviously I'm still running a brand.

This is what I think I've got

some sort of fucking super A DHD.

Yeah.

So I'm fucking working 72 hours

a week, still going to the gym

and probably sleeping about

three or four hours a night.

doing that for a whole fucking year.

But yeah, the lads are on fucking

full-time contracts, so they would

get paid overtime and all that

sort of stuff after 44 hours.

And then the lads on the zero

hour contracts were getting

shagged with fucking, 72 hours.

And I said to him, look, I wanna cut

my hours down to three days a week.

And he goes, well, 'cause I just

wanted that bit of safety net.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

And a bit of breathing

space as well though, right?

Yeah, yeah.

'cause I'm trying to

fucking balance everything.

Yeah.

I'm trying to run a business, trying to go

to the gym, trying to keep my Mrs. Happy.

I fucking, it's fucking crazy.

but anyways, I said to him, look,

I wanna cut my hours down here.

He's like, look, if you do that,

I'm gonna make your career here

at, highways very difficult.

And I was like, he said

that I was the phone.

I was like, what do you mean by that?

He goes, well, you won't get the hours.

I just won't give 'em to you,

so I'm gonna go from 72 to none.

So I was like, right, whatever.

So I started putting these, they had

these unavailable for work forms in Yeah.

So I just wrote out loads of those for

like every other weekend and like every

Monday for like six months in advance.

Yeah.

And just put 'em all in fucking tray.

And he absolutely went mental about

it and like rejected them all.

So then I went to HR about it.

Yeah.

I was like, look, I've gone

through the right means and

all this, this sort of stuff.

And obviously that

didn't go down very well.

'cause then they contacted him

and, all that sort of stuff.

So they were sort of like looking for

a reason to get rid of me because I was

started like randomly, like for a good

three or four, five, weeks in a row.

I kept getting my sites randomly audited.

Audited.

So they'd come out, make sure

everything's to like the regulations.

They'd give you an onsite drug

test, all that sort of stuff.

Obviously I've done no drugs other

than fucking anabolic steroids.

Yeah.

there's, I don't, that

doesn't give me a kick.

Smoking a bit of weed or

sniffing gear or whatever.

That's not my fucking scene.

But they were trying to get rid of

me and they were trying to find a

reason to get rid of me, and I knew

they were trying to get rid of me.

so I was just making sure

I'd done everything perfect.

Yeah.

And it was really fucking rattling him.

Yeah.

so we found this video from like

fucking six weeks back and I'd

fucking swerved a bit harshly.

Yeah.

And when you swerve harshly or break

harshly, there's cameras in the van.

So they monitor you all the time.

Yeah.

it sends alert to the office and

it's like harsh braking detected,

harsh braking detected, and it

fucking just made me lose the plot.

So I fucking punched it.

I punched it, and I fucking got called

into his office and he's gone to me,

do you know what you're here for?

I was like, not really.

Jordan, to be honest with ya, he

goes, what do you think of this?

And he turns his computer

screen round presses play, and

it's me punching this camera.

And I, and I just fucking

absolutely burst out laughing.

And he goes, do you think that's funny?

Do you Yes.

I said, well, what do you

expect me to say to that?

There's no argument.

Do you know what I mean?

I'm better red-handed, punching

this camera and, integrity as well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I'm not bothered if I've fucked up.

I'll say, look, I've fucked up.

If I've been a cunt, I'll be like,

look, I've been a cunt there.

I've like, that's not

me, the fucking thingy.

If I've been a fucking dick, I'll admit.

Yeah.

I've been a dick there.

But, yeah, I was like, what

do you expect me to sell?

I was just, it's there.

It's black and white.

I can't argue that he, and then basically

that's the reason why they got rid of me.

But he sat there for weeks through

like five, six weeks of Van Foot to

find that one clip to get rid of me.

That's how much they

wanted to get rid of me.

But it's the best thing he's ever

done because it's made the brand

just go from strength to strength.

Yeah.

and he must be sat there now

screwing that he's there in a job

that he's probably not happy in.

Yeah, because what, why

wouldn't you support someone?

Yeah.

I, I never understand that mentality and

like, oh, at the point of view that like.

Just because you clap for someone

else, it doesn't dull your flame.

No, not at all.

A big person that's has is like a

good inspirational figure that I've

always looked at is Jamie Tonne.

He goes, just 'cause you're

fish in the river doesn't mean

there's like fucking less fish.

Yeah.

That's one of his things.

Yeah.

I used to like watch his

inspirational stuff quite a lot.

I used to listen to his podcast when I

was like working in fucking, before I

joined the Army that used to get me fired

up and all that sort of stuff, but yeah.

Yeah, I totally agree with you.

I dunno why you wouldn't wanna support

somebody because it's only gonna make

the world that we live in a better place.

Yeah.

And good karma though, right?

If he'd supported you, you

know, he might be getting some

free, some free clothing now.

Yeah.

And like, and also it's just,

it just makes the world a

better place, doesn't it?

Yeah.

It's nice to be nice and we don't turn

around until like, Fraser's recording

this, or Dan or any of our media guys and

we're like, you can't do anything else.

You work for anyone else.

Nah, no way.

They tell me they wanna

go work and do some work.

Oh, I've got something from

another, something brand.

Yeah.

Crack on you go earn the money.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's like, so I, I guess very much like

yourself, so with us being independent

brands with the commercial side, and

I've worked in commercial environments

after I've left the army, and honestly,

I couldn't think of anything worse

that didn't fit in people to do it.

I couldn't do it.

Yeah.

It's fucking crazy.

And like, working in a commercial

environment, I don't think that brings

the best out of people because then again,

it's going back to like what we said in,

at the start of the podcast with regards

to schooling and stuff like that, because

you're boxing off people's creativity

and personalities and that's what makes

things great is freedom of expression.

Yep.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, if you are, if you are say with

regards to the, your media guy or

whoever's doing your stuff, if you

are like, right, I want this, this,

this, this, this, this and like this,

you are not allowed to pick any music.

You're not allowed to do anything.

You've gotta do this.

Like, he's not gonna get the best

work because he's not gonna be

able to create what's in your mind.

Absolutely.

Because he's not you.

Yeah.

So you've gotta give people that

ability to be able to just, it's a

big thing though, like when it's your

brand, like allowing that trust, but

you, you've got people can't do it

if you don't give them the chance.

Yeah.

You, you know, you've, everyone

that works for us, we're like, this

is like a scope of what I'd like.

Give more guidance.

You can do it yourself.

Yeah.

Like Leah works for us doing like whatever

she, this is like what you need to know.

Yeah.

Go ahead and do it.

Yeah.

How.

Figure out.

Have the creativity.

Creativity, yeah.

To do it yourself.

And, and they like, I like to

think anyway, maybe I'm wrong.

Mm-hmm.

Touch wood, everyone that works

for us, like seven of us now

are like, enjoys working for us.

Crazy.

You like working for us?

It's fucking prison.

Prison.

I used to say the Army's like prison

with more luxuries, but it is, yeah.

No, literally.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm lads that work in work in prisons.

It is exactly the same.

Yeah.

Like it is exactly the same.

Yeah.

Just we're allowed to leave.

Yeah.

They get, they get home sometimes, but

really over a career, they're doing

the same sort of time as the prisoners.

If, let's just get into a bit of

advice before we finish to Ali.

If someone's in your footsteps now,

and let's take your time at seven R

hf, someone's following your footsteps,

what's the piece of advice for them?

On the spot here.

Yeah, advice.

The thing is, is people can tell you

how to do something, how to live your

life, say these things about you, they

can say whatever the fuck PE people

are always gonna talk fucking shit.

But if you know who you are and you

don't need to question who you are, and

you've got integrity, your own morals

and all that sort of stuff, it doesn't

fucking matter what anybody's gotta say.

Because I think if you've got a good

sort of base of morals, integrity

and who you are as a person, you

p polite, you're well-managed, you

say, please just say thank you.

You hold doors open for people.

You want to see people fucking do

well and all that sort of stuff.

No matter what anybody says to you

negative or tries to hold you back

or hold, like fucking boxes you in,

you can achieve whatever you want to

achieve and whatever you wanna put your

mind to, because those key qualities

will take you further than any sort

of fucking qualification I think could

ever take her, because fucking I've

managed to build a brand off of that.

Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

I I've got no qualifications.

I didn't even know how to

fucking run the business.

Didn't even know, like I'm

just using myself an example.

I'm not like sucking my

own dick here or anything.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, that's not me.

But like what I'm trying to say is

if I can do it any fucking cu can

because I'm not fucking special.

Love that man.

And any misconceptions

that you'd like to address.

So with regards to anything from service,

from people that know you might have

this perception of you or from Ollie,

the heavy duty gym wear brand owner.

at the end of the day, people are

gonna think what they wanna think.

I'm not here to change anyone's mind.

I like that.

Yeah.

It's, it's incredibly humble as well.

It really is, man.

Like just being sat there like,

yeah, I don't actually care.

And I think that's when you get

true freedom as well, isn't it?

When you stop caring

what anyone else thinks.

Yeah.

They say people are always gonna talk.

Couple hundred years.

People aren't even gonna

know what our names are.

Exactly.

That've achieved something

like extraordinary.

It's yeah, exactly that.

Oh cool.

Cheers.

I want to enjoy my life for

me and do what I want to do.

Yeah.

When I want to do it.

And hopefully people buy the stuff

that we make 'cause they love it.

Yeah.

That's it.

Yeah.

Wicked man.

Ali wrote, thank you for your service.

Thank you for joining us.

That's, obviously that Thank you for

your service, but because it makes

me feel sick because I I know you do.

And Peter was said, but we don't set

enough light at the end of the day.

Yeah.

You still agreed to sign on the dotted

line and you didn't what was gonna happen.

So it is still, thank you

for your service, brother.

Yeah, no worries.

Thank you for joining

us on our podcast, man.

I've loved being here.

It's been good.

That's a real strong grip jitsu.