Mo
was born in London on 8th July 1943. He began his military career by
joining the local 10th Battalion, the Parachute Regiment (TA) in
1961 when he was seventeen. He became Regimental Light Heavyweight
Boxing Champion.
He enlisted
as a Regular Para in 1962 and soon transferred to the gunners. He
then volunteered for a little known combined operations unit based
at the Joint Services Amphibious Welfare Centre at Poole in
Dorset: 95CDO FOU. This unit was made up from sailors and gunners,
whose main objective as forward observers was to infiltrate
beach-heads in four-man Op-parties and direct naval gunfire on to
enemy targets.
All
volunteers had to pass the Airborne's 'P Company' and the Royal
Marine Commando Course. Further specialist training included
free-fall parachuting, small boat handling, beach reconnaissance,
submarine drills and diving. Mo spent twelve years with this unit, doing two full tours in Singapore and one year in Malta. He
saw service in Malaysia, Borneo, Aden, Cyprus and Northern Ireland.
During a rare home posting he spent a year as an instructor at
the Army's Free-Fall Parachute Centre at Netheravon and over a ten
year period logged over 1,000 jumps.
In 1974 he
became a Signals/Gunnery Instructor in an Artillery Regiment in
Germany. On promotion to Warrant Officer he remained in the Gunnery
world as a Weapons Systems Officer and finally as a Battery
Sergeant-Major of a Guided Weapons Anti-tank Battery. He retired
from the Army in 1984 having completed 22 years service.
