Hello all.

As my (hopefully tongue in cheek) name suggests, I'm a civi. Yes I do wear military kit on occasions, I'm a walker and camper, and to my mind you can't beat a lot of issue kit. I'm also over forty and overweight. I do avoid British uniform items for fear of being thought to suffer from Waltism, and by inference to therefore be disrespectful to a bunch of guys and girls doing a bloody hard job that I certainly couldn't do.

I've been lurking for a few weeks since stumbling across Arrsepedia. I've signed up because I wanted to say that this site should be compulsory reading for all us civis, particulary the armchair generals out there. I've had my eyes opened and many preconceptions shattered since I started reading the forums.

To those of you who serve or have served, I believe you deserve the upmost support and respect from the rest of us and I salute you.

I will continue reading with interest (even if many of the abbreviations and acronyms escape me).