Tri-Service
Ex-Soldier Goes From The Front Line To The Final Frontier
A former soldier has replaced the front line with a new frontier - space.
Martyn Cockram spent 24 years in the artillery and another twelve as an Army Education Officer, now he teaches at the European Space Agency in Cologne.
The people he tutors belong to a select group who prepare astronauts for their missions.
Cockram found his European Space Agency job through a Ministry of Defence agency, the Career Transition Partnership.
The CTP places personnel leaving the forces in suitable civilian posts.
Martyn told Forces TV:
“I’m a sort of Apollo era child and I remember sitting as a ten year old avidly watching the first man on the moon, that sort of thing... My first love was the Army – the military – but then to find myself working here and the first day I walked into this training hall was just amazing.”
Despite his new job the 60-year-old former soldier says he misses the banter and camaraderie of military life.
Martyn intends to continue as part of a team that puts people into space.
He says it will never quite match being in the Army but in civilian life he couldn’t have wished for a better job.
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