A DURSLEY sailor has set off for a six month deployment to the Middle East just six months after getting married.
Happy couple Hayley and Joshua Adamms wed in August last year, but in February Joshua, 22, set off aboard HMS Bulwark for Operation Taurus, the Royal Navy’s largest deployment to the Middle East and Asia in over a decade.
It will be the longest that Joshua has ever been away from Hayley, 26, his new baby girl Isabella, who is 14 months old and step-son Jacob Robertson, six.
The purpose of the trip is a large scale training exercise, which HMS Bulwark will be taking part in alongside eight Royal Navy ships, a US Navy destroyer, a French Navy ship and a UK submarine.
Joshua, speaking to the Gazette from HMS Bulwark, said he has been excited about the trip, but being his first trip away he is missing his family a lot.
"It is tough being away from home, I really miss my wife and children. This is the first time I have been away for a long period of time.
"The good thing is getting to see different countries that I would never have been able to visit.
"You make the most of it when you out though," added Joshua, a former Rednock pupil, whose role on the ship is galley chef. "All the lads are good fun and we make the most of our time off."
Meanwhile Hayley stays at home in Highfields looking after the children and says she is missing Joshua already and there is still four months to go.
"I really miss him when he is away, I think he finds it hard too because he isn’t getting to see his little girl grow up," said Hayley. "But there are lots of wives with husbands in the services and they cope, so you just get on with it."
The aim of Operation Taurus is to ensure that the Royal Navy maintains its traditional sea fighting capabilities, at a time when many naval personnel are serving alongside their Army and RAF colleagues on land-based operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Phase one of the training will be amphibious training in the Mediterranean, the second phase will take them to the Suez canal before taking part in a multi-national jungle warfare training package in Brunei.
When the task group returns to the UK in August this year, they will have clocked up over 20,000 nautical miles. Not only that but Hayley and Joshua will celebrate their first wedding anniversary just after he returns.
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