Chris Allen's Blog - Posts Tagged "army"
A NEW YEAR FOR THOSE WHO SERVE
This post first appeared on C Mash Loves to Read.
The Christmas and New Year period is a very trying time for military families, especially those with young children. The absence of a loved one who is necessarily in harm’s way only serves to intensify the impact of protracted separation upon the family unit. So, it becomes incredibly important for the families at home to have strong support both from their own immediate networks and the community, just as much as the deployed servicemen and servicewomen require the best possible support along with our thoughts and most sincere best wishes for a safe return home.
I’m a first generation Australian, with a strong British lineage on both my Dad’s and my Mum’s side of the family, specifically England and Wales. I grew up on the stories my father told of my grandfather and my uncles during both world wars and as a young lad, those things really resonated. I felt a strong pull towards military service very early on and, as I got older, I became serious about it. That childhood interest grew into a real sense of duty. It was almost inevitable that I would choose a military career.
We have an eclectic mix of military service throughout the family, soldiers, sailors and airmen, but I feel the strongest link to my father’s eldest brother, Stanley, who served with the British Parachute Regiment during the Second World War. Sadly, I never met Uncle Stan but you can imagine the sense of pride and accomplishment I felt when, many years later as a young Captain, I was chosen for a highly coveted attachment to British Airborne Forces. In terms of my family history, I really felt as though I had come full circle at that point.
A couple of years later, when injuries I’d sustained in service caught up with me, I was medically retired having reached the rank of Major. Then, following a sojourn into the world of humanitarian aid during the emergency in East Timor in 1999, my post-military career has predominantly been in law enforcement and government security roles.
I’ve often been asked if there are any moments from my military career that have found their way into my novels. There are hundreds of experiences I draw on and many of them appear in my Alex Morgan adventures. However, one in particular came to mind when I was writing my first novel that was so perfect for the story, that I decided to include it almost verbatim – from real life onto the page.
I don’t want to spoil it for anyone reading DEFENDER, but this incident involved a number of parachute jumps we were doing while I was attached to 3PARA in the UK. The Regiment was required to trial the new low-level parachute being considered for introduction into British Airborne Forces. These particular ‘chutes are designed to deploy, as the name implies, at very low levels. We’d jumped a few times on this day at a much lower altitude than we usually would have – so the margin for error was significantly reduced. That is, jumping out of the aircraft at low altitude means less air time and much less time to rectify a problem in an emergency. In essence, you jump with a large parachute on your back (the Main) and a much smaller parachute on your chest (the Reserve) – although despite the fact that we were still jumping with Reserve parachutes, at such low altitude they were more or less along for the ride rather than being of any actual use.
On this one jump, when I exited the aircraft into the full blast of the aircraft’s slipstream and carried out all of the drills familiar to every paratrooper, my Main parachute wasn’t in the mood to comply. In fact, it was belligerently refusing to participate in the activity at all. I thought at the time that it must have had something against Australians! Realizing that the ground was rapidly on its way up to meet me and my Reserve parachute was nothing more than a passenger, my only option was to somehow convince the Main parachute to do what it was supposed – fly!
After a few thought provoking seconds where I engaged in a macabre parody of riding an invisible bicycle while trying to pull apart the support chains of a children’s playground swing, I managed to get some air into the canopy and the recalcitrant parachute deployed. I emerged from a rough landing unharmed, albeit a little shaken and stirred.
Episodes like these are written these stories for lovers of the action thriller genre who enjoy gritty realism served with a healthy dose of escapism; a perfect excuse to escape over the Christmas & New Year holidays without ever having to leave your chair.
I consider myself very fortunate to be able to spend Christmas at home with my family and friends. Many others are not so fortunate. Many of the characters I have written about in these books are exactly the types of men and women who will be away from their loved ones over the holidays, most probably in harm’s way. Therefore, while we celebrate the season in safety and contentment, enjoying the dangerous adventures of our fictional heroes – whoever they may be – on a movie screen or from the pages of a book, it’s very timely to spare a thought for those brave individuals all over the world who protect others as their day job. Spare a thought too for their loved ones who know only too well what the sacrifice of service really means.
Happy New Year.
The Christmas and New Year period is a very trying time for military families, especially those with young children. The absence of a loved one who is necessarily in harm’s way only serves to intensify the impact of protracted separation upon the family unit. So, it becomes incredibly important for the families at home to have strong support both from their own immediate networks and the community, just as much as the deployed servicemen and servicewomen require the best possible support along with our thoughts and most sincere best wishes for a safe return home.
I’m a first generation Australian, with a strong British lineage on both my Dad’s and my Mum’s side of the family, specifically England and Wales. I grew up on the stories my father told of my grandfather and my uncles during both world wars and as a young lad, those things really resonated. I felt a strong pull towards military service very early on and, as I got older, I became serious about it. That childhood interest grew into a real sense of duty. It was almost inevitable that I would choose a military career.
We have an eclectic mix of military service throughout the family, soldiers, sailors and airmen, but I feel the strongest link to my father’s eldest brother, Stanley, who served with the British Parachute Regiment during the Second World War. Sadly, I never met Uncle Stan but you can imagine the sense of pride and accomplishment I felt when, many years later as a young Captain, I was chosen for a highly coveted attachment to British Airborne Forces. In terms of my family history, I really felt as though I had come full circle at that point.
A couple of years later, when injuries I’d sustained in service caught up with me, I was medically retired having reached the rank of Major. Then, following a sojourn into the world of humanitarian aid during the emergency in East Timor in 1999, my post-military career has predominantly been in law enforcement and government security roles.
I’ve often been asked if there are any moments from my military career that have found their way into my novels. There are hundreds of experiences I draw on and many of them appear in my Alex Morgan adventures. However, one in particular came to mind when I was writing my first novel that was so perfect for the story, that I decided to include it almost verbatim – from real life onto the page.
I don’t want to spoil it for anyone reading DEFENDER, but this incident involved a number of parachute jumps we were doing while I was attached to 3PARA in the UK. The Regiment was required to trial the new low-level parachute being considered for introduction into British Airborne Forces. These particular ‘chutes are designed to deploy, as the name implies, at very low levels. We’d jumped a few times on this day at a much lower altitude than we usually would have – so the margin for error was significantly reduced. That is, jumping out of the aircraft at low altitude means less air time and much less time to rectify a problem in an emergency. In essence, you jump with a large parachute on your back (the Main) and a much smaller parachute on your chest (the Reserve) – although despite the fact that we were still jumping with Reserve parachutes, at such low altitude they were more or less along for the ride rather than being of any actual use.
On this one jump, when I exited the aircraft into the full blast of the aircraft’s slipstream and carried out all of the drills familiar to every paratrooper, my Main parachute wasn’t in the mood to comply. In fact, it was belligerently refusing to participate in the activity at all. I thought at the time that it must have had something against Australians! Realizing that the ground was rapidly on its way up to meet me and my Reserve parachute was nothing more than a passenger, my only option was to somehow convince the Main parachute to do what it was supposed – fly!
After a few thought provoking seconds where I engaged in a macabre parody of riding an invisible bicycle while trying to pull apart the support chains of a children’s playground swing, I managed to get some air into the canopy and the recalcitrant parachute deployed. I emerged from a rough landing unharmed, albeit a little shaken and stirred.
Episodes like these are written these stories for lovers of the action thriller genre who enjoy gritty realism served with a healthy dose of escapism; a perfect excuse to escape over the Christmas & New Year holidays without ever having to leave your chair.
I consider myself very fortunate to be able to spend Christmas at home with my family and friends. Many others are not so fortunate. Many of the characters I have written about in these books are exactly the types of men and women who will be away from their loved ones over the holidays, most probably in harm’s way. Therefore, while we celebrate the season in safety and contentment, enjoying the dangerous adventures of our fictional heroes – whoever they may be – on a movie screen or from the pages of a book, it’s very timely to spare a thought for those brave individuals all over the world who protect others as their day job. Spare a thought too for their loved ones who know only too well what the sacrifice of service really means.
Happy New Year.
Q&A ON COFFEE TALK BLOG
This post first appeared on: http://coffeetalkwitherin.com/2013/07...
1) Tell me about your main protagonist, Alex Morgan. How much of this character is based on yourself and your own experiences as a Paratrooper and Army Major?
Alex Morgan is a real mix of me and those I’ve served with. Like me, Alex Morgan is Australian with Welsh heritage who served with the British Parachute Regiment. He’s got a predisposition to bouts of melancholy due to some of the stuff he’s seen, he thinks of himself as one of the old-school defenders of the faith, and we both share an affinity with tea and a pint of Guinness. That’s about where the similarities end – right about the time that Morgan is picked as the new star agent at Intrepid (being the black-ops division of Interpol, naturally).
2) What made you decide to start writing a book?
A few different things propelled me in the direction of writing. I grew up on the yarns of Ian Fleming and Alastair Maclean, and their command of storytelling was such that I aspired to see some action in order to write about it convincingly. I was also an aspiring jazz and rock drummer when I was at school and I wasn’t too bad at it. But when the 80’s synthesized dance music like Tainted Love et al started gaining traction, that was it for me. I decided it was now or never, and joined the Army aged 18. Probably a funny way to do it, but with a family history steeped in military service, I reckon it was inevitable. That said, I didn’t actually start any serious writing until I returned from East Timor Emergency in 1999 – after I’d been medically discharged from the Army. And then it took ten years to discover my own style of storytelling through thousands of drafts. These things don’t happen overnight, as I’m sure you well know.
3) Can you describe your writing process? Are you a planner or do you “wing” it?
A bit of both, actually. After dreaming, researching and constructing the plot for each book, I’m head down and bum up writing a plethora of notes in my brown leather-bound notebook, filling post-it notes in my writing mancave, creating a map for the book on my whiteboard, the lot. It’s also brimming around in my head at this time to the point of overflow. So I’ve got to put it down somewhere so that I can then put the pieces of the puzzle together. After that, I wing it. The story comes out and I type it as fast as my two fingers can get it on the page! Editing is another story all together…
3) What is next for Alex Morgan? And Chris Allen?
Morgan has a lot on actually. He’s taking on some of the world’s shadiest and most despicable characters in Avenger – human traffickers. He’s also showing the first female agent in Intrepid the ropes, and I’m sure she will put Morgan through his paces too. My job is to see Morgan’s adventures go as far and wide as they can – be that on the big and small screens, throughout the book series, into different languages and published in different states and territories. It’s a big vision, but I know what is possible and I’ll not stop until I get there!
1) Tell me about your main protagonist, Alex Morgan. How much of this character is based on yourself and your own experiences as a Paratrooper and Army Major?
Alex Morgan is a real mix of me and those I’ve served with. Like me, Alex Morgan is Australian with Welsh heritage who served with the British Parachute Regiment. He’s got a predisposition to bouts of melancholy due to some of the stuff he’s seen, he thinks of himself as one of the old-school defenders of the faith, and we both share an affinity with tea and a pint of Guinness. That’s about where the similarities end – right about the time that Morgan is picked as the new star agent at Intrepid (being the black-ops division of Interpol, naturally).
2) What made you decide to start writing a book?
A few different things propelled me in the direction of writing. I grew up on the yarns of Ian Fleming and Alastair Maclean, and their command of storytelling was such that I aspired to see some action in order to write about it convincingly. I was also an aspiring jazz and rock drummer when I was at school and I wasn’t too bad at it. But when the 80’s synthesized dance music like Tainted Love et al started gaining traction, that was it for me. I decided it was now or never, and joined the Army aged 18. Probably a funny way to do it, but with a family history steeped in military service, I reckon it was inevitable. That said, I didn’t actually start any serious writing until I returned from East Timor Emergency in 1999 – after I’d been medically discharged from the Army. And then it took ten years to discover my own style of storytelling through thousands of drafts. These things don’t happen overnight, as I’m sure you well know.
3) Can you describe your writing process? Are you a planner or do you “wing” it?
A bit of both, actually. After dreaming, researching and constructing the plot for each book, I’m head down and bum up writing a plethora of notes in my brown leather-bound notebook, filling post-it notes in my writing mancave, creating a map for the book on my whiteboard, the lot. It’s also brimming around in my head at this time to the point of overflow. So I’ve got to put it down somewhere so that I can then put the pieces of the puzzle together. After that, I wing it. The story comes out and I type it as fast as my two fingers can get it on the page! Editing is another story all together…
3) What is next for Alex Morgan? And Chris Allen?
Morgan has a lot on actually. He’s taking on some of the world’s shadiest and most despicable characters in Avenger – human traffickers. He’s also showing the first female agent in Intrepid the ropes, and I’m sure she will put Morgan through his paces too. My job is to see Morgan’s adventures go as far and wide as they can – be that on the big and small screens, throughout the book series, into different languages and published in different states and territories. It’s a big vision, but I know what is possible and I’ll not stop until I get there!
