Ant Middleton
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Buzz Magazine | August 2018 | Carl Marsh
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As Ant Middleton prepares to go on a tour of the UK, the former soldier, current author, and all-round hardman chats to Buzz’s own ex-military man Carl Marsh about his experiences.
You were Special Forces but why is there not so much written about people like yourself that have been in the Special Boat Service (SBS) – it’s often all about the SAS?
It’s because we are quite happy in the SBS to let the SAS take the credit for us over somethings. You know if you look in most of the papers and you see ‘SAS”, well you can cross that out and just put SBS there the majority of the time! It’s just a different mentality, we are happy with who we are, we are a lot more strict in what we are allowed to say and what we are allowed to do but now we are all bound by The Official Secrets Act which is a big thing for the SAS and the SBS but I think that the SAS just sells better doesn’t it? When people see the TV show Who Dares Wins they see that 3 of us are SBS and one of us is from Hereford (SAS) – all they really see is SAS because of the Iranian Embassy Siege [London – 1980] and their ears prick up and their eyes widen.
I love that about the SBS. I am very proud that we (just) get in and get the job done, and then get out. I love that side of things but I think that due to the fact that most people don’t really know what the SBS is about, therefore the SAS massively overshadows it. The SBS is roughly made up of 98% Royal Marines, so we have all come from the hardest and.....
You were Special Forces but why is there not so much written about people like yourself that have been in the Special Boat Service (SBS) – it’s often all about the SAS?
It’s because we are quite happy in the SBS to let the SAS take the credit for us over somethings. You know if you look in most of the papers and you see ‘SAS”, well you can cross that out and just put SBS there the majority of the time! It’s just a different mentality, we are happy with who we are, we are a lot more strict in what we are allowed to say and what we are allowed to do but now we are all bound by The Official Secrets Act which is a big thing for the SAS and the SBS but I think that the SAS just sells better doesn’t it? When people see the TV show Who Dares Wins they see that 3 of us are SBS and one of us is from Hereford (SAS) – all they really see is SAS because of the Iranian Embassy Siege [London – 1980] and their ears prick up and their eyes widen.
I love that about the SBS. I am very proud that we (just) get in and get the job done, and then get out. I love that side of things but I think that due to the fact that most people don’t really know what the SBS is about, therefore the SAS massively overshadows it. The SBS is roughly made up of 98% Royal Marines, so we have all come from the hardest and.....
