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FREDDIE MACNAIR >> I mean, in the modern context it certainly is a worry that we're away quite a lot.
I mean, we have been away... I've been with regimental service with the Highlanders for
the last nearly seven years and I've been away quite a lot as part of the training for
going to both Iraq and Afghanistan.
But I think it's just something that... well you expect it as a young officer.
And I think going back further generations it was something you signed up to do.
I mean, I think family tradition shows you there's nothing certain in going away to conflict
that you're going to come out the other side.
But again it's a risk that's mitigated by good training. Especially in the modern Army.
I had a lot of faith before I went away to both Iraq and Afghanistan in the kit,
in the training and also those that I was surrounded with.
I was more confident of going away with a whole lot of aggressive Scottish soldiers
than anything else.
That was the bit that put my mind at ease rather than the fact of...
I didn't really think about I suppose the consequences of what would happen.
But it was the guys around me which was the bit that gave me confidence...
and the confidence to do the job.
WILLIAM MACNAIR >> I don't suppose it was so direct, it was more indirect, as that
his mother was very concerned about him.
I think you have a different view if you've been on operations yourself.
You know there's an awful lot of fresh air around a bullet.
And if it can happen, it can also happen crossing the road or...
I think if you come from a family like ours where an awful lot of people have been killed
or injured, you know that that's part of it, but you know also that the line survives.
I did four operational tours in Northern Ireland and I did three operation years as a spy in East Germany.
And, in fact, Freddie and I were blown up in the same bomb when we were blown up in Rheindahlen
and it didn't even wake Freddie up.
I was never shot at or anything in Northern Ireland.
I was only shot at once by the Soviet Army in East Germany and blown up in my own house in Rheindahlen.