Troops Ready To Parade At Queen's Celebration

Hundreds of Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel have been put through their paces as they rehearsed for the Windsor muster and parade as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

Representatives from across the Senior Service attended the drill-training at Longmoor camp near Bordon, Hampshire, today ahead of the parade on Saturday.

The route will start at Windsor Great Walk with nearly 2,500 members of the armed forces marching through the town centre before arriving at the castle to muster in front of the Queen and Prince Philip.

Reservist Lieutenant Doug Wylie, a former regular Royal Navy physical trainer for 30 years, said he was extremely proud to represent the Royal Navy.

He said:

"It is a real honour and pleasure to march on Saturday in front of the Queen.

"This is the only time we will be able to celebrate this event in our lifetime and I am proud to be a part of it.

"We have been training at Longmoor for two-and-a-half days and it has been intense, but for most of us it is a brushing-up of skills we learnt at HMS Raleigh or BRNC Dartmouth during training."

Many of the personnel taking part have recently returned from operations in Afghanistan and also off the coast of Libya last year during Op Ellamy.

Lieutenant Richard Farrow deployed to Libya as the logistics officer on board Trafalgar class submarine HMS Turbulent.

He said: 

"Watching the explosions in Tripoli through the periscope of the submarine was particularly memorable as was being part of a campaign to liberate the people of Libya.

"This is clearly very different to what I was doing last year, but I am very proud to be at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, it is an honour."

Lieutenant Adam Tasker, based at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose returned from Op Herrick in Afghanistan in 2009 where he worked as an observer for the Sea King mark 7 aircraft.

He said: 

"It was a very interesting job. As mission systems operators we were looking at the movements of vehicles on the ground as part of the ongoing data gathering out there.

"Now I'm here at Longmoor training as part of the Jubilee parade which proves how flexible the Royal Navy can be."