Anne-Marie Whitehead who prefers to be known as Ammy, joined the army in 1995 and was a tank transporter driver in the Royal Logistic Corps. Later in her career Ammy served in various RLC training establishments and particularly enjoyed leading the new soldiers on the various exercises during their basic training.

When Ammy was based at the Defence School of Transport in Leconfield near Beverley, she continued to teach the phase two soldiers’ new skills and enjoyed being a mentor for the females.

Ammy spent the majority of her career moving armoured vehicles and large pieces of equipment around the world. She was based in Sennelager in Germany and Catterick in the UK and deployed to Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq on several operational tours and on many exercises across the UK, Europe and Oman. She particularly enjoyed being part of the tank transporting family and believes that the camaraderie amongst her fellow soldiers was second to none.

Ammy made the most of the sport and adventure training opportunities the Army had to offer and played squash, football and hockey at a high level. She went to Australia scuba diving the length of the Great Barrier Reef gaining diving qualifications whilst there. She also sailed around the British Isles and gained the RYA Competent Crewman qualification. She enjoys mountain biking and completed the Mountain bike instructor course.

She represented the Army and Combined services at squash and the RLC at football and hockey. She has completed a number of triathlons and duathlons and has represented her unit on several occasions in cross country. Whilst representing the Combined Services at squash, Ammy again went out to Australia and competed in the Arafura Games winning a bronze medal with the team.

Her sporting prowess also took her all over the World and she has played squash in the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Australia, Cyprus and South Africa.

Ammy says that the army gave her the confidence that she draws upon all the time. She says: “Having the confidence to challenge myself to do things that I probably would not have done is a real bonus and doing the job I do now as an Authorised Firearms Officer in the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) is proof of that.”

Ammy says that teamwork and comradery are the two main similarities between her army career and her new career in the CNC and says: “The army has always encouraged me to push myself to the best of my ability, and I have always believed that the right mind-set will stand you in good stead for almost everything that you want to do in the future.”