..meets Podcaster Tim Heale!

Getting to know Tim

Tim currently works with the Portsmouth and Gosport History Group. They are running a Falklands 40 year anniversiary exhibition at the Explosives museum in Gosport. Tim tells us how he was in Northern Ireland at the time of the end of the Falklands war. 

PSYOPS - Psychological Operations

Tim spent some years in the British Army proving psychological operations. This is the ability to look at a target audience and change an attitude ardor behaviour. In his experience Tim spends just over 10 years with 15 (UK) Psychological Operations Group. He does seven operational tours in the discipline, including two tours of Kosovo, and one in Macedonia, and Kabul. Tim describes how he fell in love with Afghanistan, and how much of a wonderful place it was. 

Time as a Unit Welfare Office

Then for 8 years, Tim works as a Unit Welfare Officer. He works in a team of 3 people, for London Central Garrison, with three incremental companies of foot-guards - being 9 Company Grenadier Guards, 7 Company Coldstream Guards, and F Company Scotts Guards. This is along with the 5 Foot-guards Bands (Welsh and Irish Guards). As well as this, there is London District Headquarters and London Central Garrison Headquarters. 

The work involves looking after the welfare of all persons who operate within these companies, from Housing needs, Medical and Dental Needs, and Mental Health needs. 

As well has his extensive experience within the British Army, Tim also has extensive experience in the field of Rugby, American Football, Hang Gliding, Telemark Skiing, and Offshore Sailing! 

Tim tells us about his many experiences sailing up to the Baltic, and sailing around Denmark and Sweden. Two Years ago Tim also sails around the UK, and he tells us of the rescue of Artie the Ship's Cat! 

Tim learned how to Telemark Ski in Norway in the Wintertime, and he tells us how he learned to do this. In 2005 the Army put a team together to go to Les Menuires to take on the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines in a Telemark Skiing competition. The following year the Army Telemark Association set up a competition called the British Telemark Championships held in Rauris, Austria. 

In 1982 Tim got posted to the Army Hang Gliding Centre in Sennybridge, in the Brecon Beacons. On day 1 of turning up at the Centre, Tim is taught how to hang glide. He tells us how he was taught the basics of hang gliding, despite being there as the Storeman Clerk of the Centre. After progressing, he then tells us how he eventually became a hang gliding instructor. 

Mental Health Spotlight

Tim tells of his experience working in TRIM - this is the Trauma Incident Management Unit. This entails understanding what happens when somebody experiences a traumatic incident. This doesn't have to be a conflict related incident - this could also be a road traffic accident. 

When there has been a traumatic incident, a team comes together to assess a number of factors. This includes wether people have been directly involved in the incident or if they were on the peripheries. The team also decides whether an individual requires one-on-one treatment, small group treatment, or treatment as part of a larger group. 

The main goal of the group is to explain to people that is okay to experience certain feelings regarding what they have witnessed. Loss of sleep, and reli

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