MAJOR Mark Bower, 43, lives in Orchard Road, Malton, and joined the Army after leaving sixth form in Pocklington in 1983.

Initially he served with the Prince of Wales Own regiment – which later became 1 Yorks – and attended Sandhurst.

He said: “At the time it was the local regiment for Pocklington and a lot of my mates joined 1 Yorks. I have been with 2 Yorks for two years. To be honest I’ve been 1 Yorks and I’ll always be 1 Yorks.”

His tours have included Northern Ireland, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan and was awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal in 1993 while he was in Bosnia after he helped evacuate a hospital which was being mortared.

He said: “My job is primarily writing the plans for operations which we do when we deploy on an operation like this. This is the first tour I’ve actually done where my chance to get out and about is quite limited. Which is quite frustrating.

“All my previous tours I’ve been on the ground with the troops which is quite a change. You are in a forward location but not on the ground.”

Maj Bower praised the work done by British troops. He said: “I think they are doing an awesome job. I think they’ve performed superbly. They work very long hours in very dangerous conditions. Their morale is superb and they continue to produce excellent results. They still put their kit on and get out there and do the job.

“People have a go at the youth of Britain but the youth of Britain we have with us are doing an excellent job. If people want to see an example of youths from Malton and Scarborough come and have a look at them here.

“There’s humour about and there’s good banter. Morale is high and there is teamwork. We are very very lucky with the soldiers we’ve got – they are Yorkshire soldiers.”

And he had a special message for his family – wife Clare, 42, and children 12-year-old Ed and nine-year-old Christian: “I’ll be back home soon. For the boys be good for your mother and I’ll see everyone in the Spotted Cow.

“I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and Santa brought you what you wanted. We will have another Christmas when I am home in February.”

From The Scarborough Evening News on Wednesday, January 9, 2008.