You can pass every test at Sandhurst and still hit the real shock on day one of troop command: sometimes you simply do not have the answer. I sit down with Major Catherine Henderson, a serving Royal Signals officer with a seriously varied career, to talk about what leadership looks like when the textbook ends and your soldiers need you to be steady, human, and useful.

We walk through her journey from Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College to Sandhurst, then into the Royal Signals, with stops along the way in recruiting, instructing, and strategic work in Main Building. If you are weighing up cap badges or staring down the regimental selection board process, we get practical: why unit visits matter, how a simple five-year plan can sharpen your thinking, and why choosing based on one “legend” instructor can send you to the wrong place.

We also bust a common myth: Royal Signals is not just the CIS wing and radios. We dig into what communicators actually do, how technical soldiers become SMEs, why officers must translate complex kit issues for non-technical commanders, and where cyber, electronic warfare, and emerging AI work fits. Some of the most important moments are personal: building trust with a sceptical soldier, leading through vulnerability, and handling mental health crises with care and professionalism, plus a candid view on serving as a woman in defence.

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One moment you’re pushing a team over a high pass in Nepal, the next you’re struggling to breathe and waiting on a helicopter because your lungs are filling with fluid. That’s where Major Tori Allison takes us, and it’s only one part of a bigger story about British Army leadership, resilience, and the quiet competence that keeps people safe.

We start at the beginning: choosing the Army at 14 with no military connections, failing Regular Commissions Board at 17, then rebuilding through university, the Officer Training Corps, and hands-on army experience that makes Sandhurst click. From the Royal Logistic Corps training pipeline to leading a troop in Germany and supporting operations, we talk about what the job really demands: trust, emotional intelligence, and the willingness to handle welfare problems you never see in the glossy recruiting videos.

We also tackle the realities of serving as a woman in a male-dominated organisation, what has genuinely improved, and what still needs moral courage from leaders. Then we go inside AOSB with an ex group leader’s eye: the red flags, the behaviours that show real influence, and how to recover after a bad serial instead of spiralling.

If you care about Army careers, Sandhurst, AOSB preparation, women in the military, adventure training, expedition planning, or how to lead under pressure, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share it with someone who needs it, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

The moment you realise it is not “a big adventure” anymore can arrive fast: a new job title, a live threat, and soldiers looking at you for decisions you did not expect to be making. I sit down with Owain Mulligan, a reservist officer whose winding path through a gap year commission, the OTC, and the Army Reserve turns into operational tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and a career shaped by responsibility.

We unpack what it is actually like to mobilise as a reservist, including the strange incentives around volunteering, the intensity of pre-deployment training, and the brutal jump from training theory to troop command. Owain talks candidly about Basra on Operation Telic, the shock of a Lynx shootdown, IDF, and the hard-to-explain anger that can surface when you face mortality for the first time. We also dig into leadership where it really counts: NCO trust, competence under pressure, and how good seniors respond when a young officer makes an error on a strike op.

From there, the story moves into specialist capability and the Defence School of Languages, including 15 months of Dari and Pashto and how language skills can shape an Afghanistan deployment. We finish with Owain's book The Accidental Soldier, why the ending turns reflective, and why he sends his royalties to War Child to support children affected by conflict.

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