---

Focus on... Staff Sergeant Will Craig

I am Staff Sergeant Will Craig. I'm 36 years old and hail from Sulby, on the Isle of Man.

Currently I work at the Defence Media Operations Centre at RAF Halton where I am in charge of eight photographers in a busy operational and training environment.

What does your job involve?

My job is to ensure the photographers' careers are managed and task accordingly.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Managing photographers from three services, passing my knowledge down to the younger keen members of the team. I still have the opportunity to go to theatre when called upon, which is often.

How long have you been an Army photographer?

Nine years

What made you decide to become an Army photographer?

When I left school I worked for a photographic agency and completed my apprenticeship after three years. Then I went to work for a couple of newspapers, one being the Blackpool Evening Gazette, as a press photographer before joining the Services.

It’s only through the battalion photographer that I ever found out anything about Army photographers.

I had an interview first, to see if I was suitable for the trade, and I was asked to come back and sit the photographic selection, which was a week long.

The competition was tough. Four out of eight passed and I was one of those lucky few. Since then, I never looked back and it was the best decision I have ever made.

Explain some of the different types of assignments you have covered?

The tasking can be very varied. I was once asked to cover a Cypriot service for The Lion newspaper (Forces run). It was a traditional event involving a local priest throwing a cross into the sea, whilst men of the village stand on the shoreline ready to swim out and collect the cross in the icy water. There is a lot of pride reaching that cross first!

I was serving in Northern Ireland and was asked to cover the towers being dismantled G40 at the time. We had arranged for a Lynx helicopter to take us up to get aerial and ground images of the process.

When we were airborne we completed a 360 of the area. The problem was that I couldn't photograph through the Perspex window, so I was allowed to open the door. When I did the wind was strong and cold, moving the aircraft around in mid air, it took my breath away.

I managed to get the images that were needed but the adrenalin was pumping through my veins. Looking down it was a drop of 1000 feet to the ground with the door wide open! It's something I won't forget in a hurry.

What is your most memorable assignment and why?

At the beginning of Op Telic I was allowed to go out on a plane called the Greyhound, which is one of the planes that stops and starts in a very short distance on landing - mainly designed to land on aircraft carriers.

I was in the plane getting ready to go out and cover a feature on the Theodore Roosevelt (a massive ship like a floating city housing 5,000) and I  had to wear a cranium helmet before take-off, which didn’t fill me with confidence.

We made our approach, even though I could not see anything, and were warned by the crew to brace for landing as we hit the landing spot and stopped within a couple of feet.

The reporter and I then had the pleasure of covering the ship as part of a feature for the newspaper, enjoying in the facilities around the ship. It had multiple gyms, church, mess halls, a library and many floors with aircraft rotating from the top deck.

I had the chance to photograph the fast jets going out; with a bright glow from the engines they would be up and away into the skies above. While one was going out, another one would be coming into land, all controlled by the deck crew being defined with multicoloured visible bibs.

The time had come and gone and we made our way back to the Greyhound for another fun trip off the deck. We were catapulted, reaching a speed of 0-85mph within seconds and then up and away, heading back to Cyprus.

It was a really enjoyable experience, not to be forgotten.