Letter To An Unknown Soldier

Andy McNab, Writer

Mate

For over ninety years now you have been ‘on stag’ at Paddington.  You must have seen tens of thousands of  servicemen and women during these years and I bet you have seen it all. Watching them rush off a train to greet a loved one, seeing them reluctantly walk off down a platform having left someone special behind. I have had to run past you many times with mates jumping on that last train back to camp. And you have seen the grim times too, uniforms lining up and waiting for their trains to take them to the conflicts that those men and women have faced since you first learnt how to put your puttees on. World War Two, Korea, South East Asia, Africa, Northern Ireland, the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan, the list is too long to for this letter.

But being on stag for so long, you know all the places that so many people have forgotten.  You have read 90 years of headlines on the front pages being clutched by the commuters as they hurry past you, hardly giving you a second look as they start the daily fight for a seat home. You know, more than anyone, just how much the British Army have given and have sacrificed over the decades because mate, you are one of them.

That’s why I wanted to write and let you know that just because the uniforms have changed, it doesn't mean anything else has. All the soldiers you've seen over the years have been just like you. They even use the same slang you did, 'Buckshee', 'dobi dust' and of course boring sentry duty ‘stagging on’. They also know what 'Dixie cleaning' means and that if they walk about looking busy with a ‘chit’ in their hand, everyone will think they are doing something important and leave them alone. I bet you had done that to get out of a duty or two! They also know the same commands to fight as you did. 'Stand To' and 'Fix Bayonets' still bring the same fear to soldiers as it did to you and your mates once.

They even  talk about the same things as you did - home, family, what they are going to do with their saved up pay. They most certainly moan just as much about everyone and  everything because we all know it’s the soldier's prerogative to have a good honk!  They still carry pictures of their girlfriends in their wallets, and owe their mother a letter (or perhaps an email now). They still cry over mates killed and injured, and when they are together, where the real world can’t hear them, they still ask what they are fighting for, but yet they get on with the job because, just like you did, they are  fighting for each other.

Mate, after you finish this letter look up and find a soldier on the platform, recognize yourself in that man and feel very proud.

Stag On!

Andy McNab

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