Page 38 - QARANC Vol 20 No 1 2022

38 The Gazette QARANC Association
Proud to be first QA reservist
promoted to Brigadier
Brigadier (Retd) David J McArthur OBE TD tells his story
Covid has interrupted all our lives including the postponement of social events. In my case the pandemic conspired to deny me my dining out from the Corps.
Too much time has passed since my retirement, well over two years and the sense of occasion which accompanies this type of farewell has been lost.
The custom of dining out retiring officers has several purposes, saying farewell, marking an end and a new beginning as well as revisiting significant events in the departing officer’s career. Although the formal dining out isn’t taking place that at least I can provide a record of the highlights of almost 40 years of service!
The first highlight in my military career was in 1964 when as five-year-
old I was driven around the LAD of the DWR in an AFV 432 by my uncle, I was sold on the Army after that! By coincidence the LAD later became the AMS Training Centre which became very significant in my later career. I am pretty sure that I drove around North Germany in the same generation 432 in the 1980s!
I had the privilege of serving initially as a Private soldier in the Support Weapons Coy, 15th (Scottish) Bn Parachute Regiment(V) in the late 1970s and was commissioned in 1983 as a Lieutenant Nursing Officer RAMC(V) in 205 (Scottish) General Hospital RAMC(V). I retired in 2019 as Brigadier and Head of the AMS Reserves, and it all seems to have happened indecently quickly!
The Territorial Army (TA) then and the Reserve Forces now, are in many ways two different worlds. There are some clear constants and some real differences. The constants are the enthusiasm, commitment and the ability to run with two jobs at the same time, in other words the people remain the same.
The differences are however profound. Those were the days when the Territorial Army was wrapped in a brown paper parcel and stamped not to be used unless the Soviets cut up rough!
The TA had a clear role in the Cold War years with units and indeed some sub-units being allocated to operational locations with specific roles. The difficulty would have been