WISBECH soldier Eathan Nee has become the youngest serving member of his Royal Anglian Company on his first tour of Afghanistan.

Private Nee, 18, has only recently been deployed to the country but spoke to our reporter Chris Hill who is in Helmand reporting on the Royal Anglians for our sister title the EDP.

“I have always wanted to come here,” Pte Nee told Chris. “It has gone very quickly. “When we’re not on patrol or on stag (guard duty) we play football or chill out playing board games or watching DVDs.

“Thy know I’m the youngest and they look out for me”

He may be just 18 but at the other end of the spectrum and also undertaking his first operational tour in Afghanistan is 38-year-old Pte Rog Wills from Colne in Cambridgeshire.

He joined the regiment’s 3rd Battalion, which is a reserve unit from the Territorial Army (TA).

Pte Wills left his job to undertake a six-month tour in Cyprus last year, after which he deployed as a regular soldier with the 1st Battalion, known as the Vikings.

“A lot of people my age are getting older, getting relaxed and getting fat,” he said. “I didn’t achieve a lot when I was younger, and I met a guy who was a PTI in the army who said I would have made a brilliant soldier. So I joined the TA and the Royal Anglians and it was the best thing I have ever done.

“The Vikings have done four tours out here and it is just good to be a part of it.”

Pte Mee said: “Rog is really sound. I’m quite pleased someone is there to help me out.”

Pte Wills added: “He doesn’t need helping out really. He has hit the floor running.”

Pte Nee’s parents are Samantha and Ned, and he has an older brother Ayden, 22, and sister Ashton, 20.