Laura Harris 4 - How old were you when you joined HMS Illustrious
Laura joined the Navy in 2001. HMS Illustrious is her second ship. Here she talks about how old she was when she joined the ship and the ages of the other women she serves with.
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Extract Text (Duration0.57)
Ummm I think I was 21, 20, no I would have been 20 sorry, yeah. So it was quite, it is quite young in relative to some of the people that were on board, but a lot of the girls that were coming through were 16, 17 but because I'd joined at 18 years old I'd been in two years already so I got a little bit of experience. I think one of the girls was 17, but I mean a lot of the girls in that situation at that time they couldn't be with us because at war you can only take up to 18 and over, so the youngest were 18. But when we actually got back and had our new joiners, there's 17 year olds and at some point a couple of months ago we had a girl join who'd just literally left school, so you can't imagine just going from being a school girl to a military warship environment.
You don't realise the stuff that goes on
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You have to get up early if you want a decent shower
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Some of the young girls have been mothered quite a lot
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How old were you when you joined HMS Illustrious?
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People think there are magic shutters
1.15 mins - mp3 File
