Page 6 - Flaming Cauldron – Issue 61

ACC ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER

“I didn’t know why, but

something in my mind told

me to become a soldier”

Sgt Pardeep Kaur, MBE

Seventeen years ago, if you had told a young woman from India’s the Army, let alone what part of it to join, so I began
Punjab that in early February 2023 she would be interviewed by a to research what trades I could go into. Then I went
magazine, in advance of receiving an MBE from His Majesty King to the recruitment centre in Wembley and they told
Charles III, it’s unlikely she would have believed you. me straight that as I was from the Commonwealth
But for RLC Chef, Sgt Pardeep Kaur, that’s most of the trades open to me were basically those
exactly what she was doing. In 2007 Pardeep Kaur of the RLC. Because of my Punjabi background,
left her native Punjab in search of new opportu- and the fact I liked to cook, I decided I wanted to
nities and moved to the UK to live with her aunt become a Chef and show the whole army what our
and uncle. Initially she found work as a beautician, cooking is all about.”
but in 2009 the opportunity she was looking for It took Sgt Kaur nine months before she was
dawned on her: “At the time I didn’t know why, but accepted for Phase 1 training: “Basically my English
something in my mind told me to become a soldier wasn’t good enough, because we weren’t brought
the British Army,” she says. “I knew nothing about up as English speakers at home,” she explains. “The
language barrier was very challenging and also the
cultural change was a big thing; including British
food and the different values and standards in this
country compared with what I was brought up with.”
She began her basic training at ATR Pirbright
in October 2009 and found the 14-week transition
from civilian to soldier another significant chal-
lenge. “As a woman I struggled with spending long
periods in the field, without showers or normal
sanitation facilities. I got through that, but there
was one point, while on exercise in Wales, when I
Pardeep Kaur came to started to question my decision. I was not used to
the UK in 2007 from being cold and wet and living in such close prox-
the Punjab seeking new
opportunities imity to so many people, but I said to myself, think

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