A BECKINGHAM soldier is serving with the Royal Military Police in Kuwait to make sure that six-years-worth of combat equipment gets sent home in good order.
Lance Corporal Drew Bowness, 21, joined the Army last year and is serving his first operational tour in Kuwait.
He is part of the huge operation to bring back the UK’s kit from Basra in as good a state as possible by the end of July this year so t
hat it can be refurbished quickly.
Drew’s unit, 174 Provost Company Royal Military Police, is checking every Army vehicle, from quad bikes to Challenger Two main battle tanks, passing through Shuaiba Port in Kuwait on their way back to the UK.
They are making sure no unauthorised equipment or contraband has been left inside.
So far his unit has searched through more than 1,000 vehicles and checked 800 containers.
”Kuwait is safer than Afghanistan but it’s hard work,” said Drew.
“With 12-hour shifts we are pretty much working all the time and when we are off, we are catching up on our sleep.”
The former Queen Elizabeth’s High School student left college and went straight into the Army.
He said: ”‘I didn’t want to go to university but I always wanted to join the police.”
“I liked the idea of the military too, so I joined the Royal Military Police.”
On completion of his basic courses Drew was posted to 174 Provost Company, based in Shropshire, and went straight into training for a deployment to Iraq.
Drew, who is also responsible for policing and security patrolling in the British support base in Kuwait, could be out in the Middle East until the autumn.
Although he said he misses his friends and family, he also looks forward to the possibility of serving in Afghanistan in the future.
”I knew the current tempo of operations and that’s what I wanted.”
“My parents are supportive and they always have been,” he said.
For more information on what the Army is doing in Iraq today, visit www.mod.uk
