George A Moodie A Soldiers Story.

George A Moodie.

 
George joined the Royal Scots in 1943 while living in his home town of Edinburgh. He volunteered for the airborne soon after and upon completion of training was posted to the 9th Parachute Battalion of the 6th Airborne division. He was one of the few who actually took part in the attack on the Merville Battery on D-day as part of Lt Alan (twinkle toes) Jeffersons assault group. He stayed with the battalion until 1948, taking part in The battle of the Bulge and The Rhine crossing and operations in Palestine. On returning to the UK he was posted to the P.C.A.U at Upper Heyford where he met a young parachute packer, Hilary Sloane, they married on xmas eve 1949. In Feb 1950 he left the army and tried civvy life but re-enlisted in 1951, the recruiter thought he was a new recruit so he was given a new army number by mistake. Once more he joined the Royal Scots for six weeks, insisting on going back to the paras he was sent back to depot, doing the entire P course again with other returning veterans. He was once more posted to P.C.A.U at Abingdon, it was here in 1953 he took part in the filming of The Red Beret, doing the jumping scenes from the balloon and aircraft. After another stint at depot he was posted to 3 Para, serving in the middle east in Jordan, Egypt and Cyprus. He missed the last combat drop during the Suez crisis due to the birth of a new son. He stayed with 3 Para and HQ until 1966. He then served as an M.O.D police sargeant until retirement in 1985. He now lives back in his native Scotland with Hilary and is a member of Fife branch P.R.A. George and Hilary had 8 children, 5 boys and 3 girls, sadly one girl died in infancy. All five sons joined the army, the eldest with The Duke of Wellingtons Regiment and the others all joining The Parachute Regiment. The two girls followed mum into the R.A.F.