When Lance Sergeant Lucy Heddington chose a career in the British Army, it was because she wanted to feel a sense of achievement.
Recognised for her dedication and talent Luc, as she is known to her friends and colleagues, was awarded the Society of Operations Engineers Award for the REME’s best Junior Non-Commissioned Officer.
As a keen horse-rider Lucy manages to combine her work with a place on the Army Dressage Team.
The skilled vehicle mechanic is one of a handful of experts who work on Ajax.
The Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers (REME) mechanic, serving with the Household Cavalry Regiment (HCR) in Bulford, Wiltshire wanted to gain a trade and be able to travel.
Joining the Army changed my life and allowed me to achieve more than I ever thought I could
"Being in the Army has given me purpose, and the chance to do and learn things I would never have done in a civilian job,” said Lucy who has more than fulfilled that goal in the six years since she enlisted.
The skilled vehicle mechanic is one of a handful of experts who work on Ajax, the Army’s newest armoured fighting vehicle, and her knowledge recently took her to Swedish Lapland, where she was part of the team involved in the tracked vehicle's cold weather trials.
Lucy whose role in the REME has also seen her deployed to Germany and Estonia, exercising on the Warrior, and a six-month stint in Canada working with Challenger 2, the Army’s main battle tank, is where her ‘love for armour’ began.
She said:
“Sweden has been my most memorable overseas job, I really enjoyed it.
"It was a huge challenge working in temperatures that fluctuated between minus 36 and minus 2 Celsius.
“My job took a lot longer in the arctic weather than normal, having to warm up inside, then out again to do ten-minute stints to tighten one bolt.
“It was quite difficult to use spanners with gloves on, and six or seven hours cold exposure was extremely tough."
The 28-year-old Bristolian who attended John Cabot Academy, said working on ‘something brand new’, such as the Ajax family had been incredibly rewarding.
“No one in Field Army had fired an Ajax until the cold weather trials, so for me to have seen it has given me huge professional satisfaction.
"Maintaining the vehicles and watching a vehicle that you’ve fixed drive out of the hangar and ensuring that the crews can do their job is satisfying.”
Recognised for her dedication and talent Luc, as she is known to her friends and colleagues, was awarded the Society of Operations Engineers Award for the REME’s best Junior Non-Commissioned Officer.
“I worked hard for the award. I did a lot of training, learning something new was amazing. This has been the highlight and biggest achievement of my military career.”
Her passion is not only for ‘armoured horsepower’ it also includes the living, breathing four-legged type.
As a keen horse-rider Lucy manages to combine her work with a place on the Army Dressage Team. She says:
“I’ve been lucky enough to be part of the team since 2018. It can be challenging to fit it in at times, especially when you are working on a newly introduced platform, but I’ve always found time to train and compete for the team.”
Lucy, who worked in insurance before joining the Army, followed her father into the Armed Forces, so she already had an insight into the type of life she wanted to be part of.
“I got to see first hand how rewarding the job could be,” she said. “Joining the Army changed my life and allowed me to achieve more than I ever thought I could.”
