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I was a fighter pilot, flying Hurricanes all round the Mediterranean. I flew in the Western Desert of Libya, in Greece, in Syria, in Iraq and in Egypt.

I was commanding officer of a supersonic fighter squadron, F-8 Crusaders.

I've been to many countries and watched a number of conflicts or their residue, and I've served in the military.

I flew a full string of 35 combat missions over some of the most heavily defended targets in Europe. We were hitting Hitler's oil refineries, his tank factories, his aircraft factories, his railway yards. Those were our prime targets.

I fought in Korea, front line. I knew who the enemy were. The enemy were the people who were firing at me. And shooting at me.

We were fortunate to have the Russians as our childhood enemies. We practiced hiding under our desks in case they had the temerity to drop a nuclear weapon.

I was a soldier in WWII. The last couple of months of the war I was actually in combat.

I spent 34 months on the battleship Alabama, South Dakota-class. I was a gun captain. First we went to Russia for about 11 months with the British convoys. Then we were up in Norway and Scandinavia.

I was a grunt, walking around in the jungle of Vietnam, trying not to find the enemy. Because I am so big, they were going to give me either a heavy radio or a huge machine gun to carry. I carried a radio.

I was brought up in the War. I was an adolescent in the Second World War. And I did witness in London a great deal of the Blitz.