Teen infanteer on Estonia trench life: It's like having 60 really annoying brothers
A Kingsman from the 1st Battalion, The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment has described life as an infantry soldier while deployed just 35 miles from the Russian border during a major Nato exercise.
Nineteen-year-old Amelia McCauley, based at Weeton Barracks in Lancashire, is taking part in Exercise Hedgehog – a large-scale rehearsal for war, in case Russia ever "kicks off".
The exercise is designed to test Nato's ability to respond to an invasion on its eastern flank. It involves more than 3,000 British and French troops alongside 10,000 Estonian conscripted reserves.
BFBS Forces News embedded with 1 LANCS for a key phase of the deployment and met Kgsm McCauley as she helped build trench defences deep in the forests of southern Estonia.
Just weeks into her first major overseas exercise, she described joining the infantry as the "best thing" she's ever done. She also outlined some of the opportunities she's been given since joining the battalion 18 months ago.
"We're here to basically rehearse how we'd get [to Estonia]; what we're doing now is a defensive exercise," she said.
She continued: "Because if they were to invade, what we'd be doing is occupying these trenches, trying to keep them away by blocking them, as we are doing now."
Asked how she felt being so close to the Russian border, Kgsm McCauley appeared unfazed, saying she didn't feel "good or bad" – to her, it was "just an exercise".
It's thought that fewer than half a per cent of the British Army's infantry personnel are women, but Kgsm McCauley says integration with her male colleagues is much easier than people might expect.
"After two weeks here, it was absolutely fine," she said. "It's like I've got 60 really, really annoying brothers now…
"That's basically what it's like being a female in the infantry."
A member of her battalion's boxing team, Kgsm McCauley recently completed her Junior Non-Commissioned Officer's (JNCO) cadre and could be promoted to lance corporal as soon as the autumn.
She has already deployed to Cyprus and took part in Operation Lazurite – the military's assistance to the resettlement programme for eligible Afghans following the Taliban's return to power.
And her message to any girl or woman considering a career in the infantry is simple: do it.
"It's 100% the best thing I've ever done," she said. "We travel to all sorts of places; the opportunities you get are unreal.
"There's so many life experiences that a 19-year-old on civvy street would not have got, and I've got that from being in this job."
Watch our special report on 1 LANCS' deployment close to the Russian border here.
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