As the nation prepares to commemorate the brave deeds of our Armed Forces ancestors for Remembrance Day, Ekin Karasin heads to Spain to find out how today’s soldiers operate and how they feel about fighting for their country

THE shrubby wasteland of eastern Spain may not seem a likely place to find soldiers from North East mining towns.

But thanks to Trident Juncture 2015, cavalry troops based in North Yorkshire have found themselves taking part in NATO’s biggest multi-national exercise in over ten years.

The Northern Echo spoke to troops from the Light Dragoons about what it was like to trade in Catterick Garrison for a massive training base near the rural village of Chinchilla de Monte-Aragón in Spain.

Trooper Craig Griffiths, 25, from Horden, County Durham. said: “Being from up North, people are proud to fight for their country, there’s a certain amount of pride that comes with the job.”

His close friend Trooper Mathew Johnson, 26, from the neighbouring town of Easington Colliery in County Durham, added: “Working together, seeing what we are capable of, doing well and showing other nations what the Light Dragoons are all about – that’s been a real highlight.”

The Light Dragoons, a light cavalry regiment that specialise in reconnaissance and date as far back as the 16th century, are taking part in the overall exercise which involves 36,000 troops from more than 30 nations.

When asked how such a large scale operation compares to training back home, Trooper Johnson said: “This exercise has been a real eye opener. It’s good to be doing exactly what we have trained for. As cavalry, we get to use Jackals and Coyotes to do reconnaissance, setting off ahead and finding out information to send back.”

The troops, who have been in Spain since October, will reside there until November 16, working alongside Norwegian, Danish, American, Italian and Spanish soldiers in a number of training exercises.

The Light Dragoons, despite confessing they thought the exercise would be "like 25 degrees in Benidorm" have been washing themselves with basins, sleeping under tents pitched next to armoured Jackal vehicles and taking part in intense exercises stretching over several days with little sleep.

Trooper Griffiths said: “The worst bit is when you’re in your sleeping bag all nice and cosy at three in the morning, when you hear the footsteps and you just hear someone say ‘you’re on stag’.”

The dreaded ‘stag’ translates as sentry duty where soldiers sit at an observation post at all hours of the morning and “see things in the dark”, although Trooper Johnson was quick to add that good company eased the strain.

He said: “When you’re on top of a mountain with your binoculars for twelve hours you speak to your pals.

“And when it gets really cold you just have a laugh and try to make the most of it. That’s the best part of it.”

Trooper Shane Smith, 21, who has a wife and baby, said the most exciting thing about the exercise was getting to go on a plane for the first time.

Trooper Smith, who came to Spain with his peers from Catterick Garrison, added: “I see these guys more than I see my mates at home, they’ve become like my best friends.”

Alongside Spain, the Trident Juncture 2015 is also taking place in Italy, Portugal, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, Canada, Norway, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The exercise involves air, land, maritime, and special forces training simultaneously in complex environments to improve tactics in modern warfare.

To say it's a stroke of ingenuity in cohesion is an understatement.

So how does such a large scale exercise operate at the very top of the chain of command? Brigadier Gerald Strickland of the 4th Infantry Brigade and North East Headquarters stressed that learning from different nations is crucial to success.

He said: "We all recognise that in this day and age we are stronger when we are together. NATO is proving to the rest of the world that we have all the capability to do the tasks necessary.

"The 4th brigade is based in Catterick and we are proud of the fact that we are in Yorkshire. We are a footprint in the North East and are able to support the army with anything they might need."