{"id":1179290,"date":"2026-08-31T17:37:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T17:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1179290\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T17:37:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T17:37:25","slug":"from-fast-food-to-foreign-shores-whirlwind-army-start-for-edinburgh-soldier-the-nen-north-edinburgh-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1179290\/","title":{"rendered":"From fast food to foreign shores: Whirlwind Army start for Edinburgh soldier \u2013 The NEN \u2013 North Edinburgh News"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDINBURGH SOLDIER HEADS TO CYPRUS JUST DAYS INTO LIFE WITH THE ROYAL REGIMENT OF SCOTLAND<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A young soldier has had a whirlwind introduction to army life, travelling to Cyprus for overseas training less than two weeks after joining his new battalion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fusilier Daniel Collier, 24, from Tranent, had only just arrived at 2nd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 SCOTS) when he was given the opportunity to join fellow Jocks heading abroad.<\/p>\n

His deployment capped a busy first week. After arriving at Glencorse Barracks on the Sunday, Fus Collier came top of his Company in a five-kilometre best-effort run the following day, before taking part in the Highland Games. <\/p>\n

By Thursday, he was in his newly issued dress uniform for the battalion-wide photograph, before beginning preparations to head overseas.<\/p>\n

Fus Collier said: \u201cEverything happened really quickly. I had only just arrived, met everyone and started settling in when the opportunity to go to Cyprus came up. I managed to get my name down for it and on my 13th day in battalion, I was off.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely didn\u2019t expect Cyprus to be the first place I would travel to, especially so soon. The heat was definitely something different, but it was a great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Major Richard Hill, 2 SCOTS, joked that Fus Collier had probably had \u201ca better week than I\u2019ve managed in 11 years\u201d, such was the pace of his first few days with the battalion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once in Cyprus, Fus Collier joined a 2 SCOTS company supporting fellow soldiers from 4th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland (4 SCOTS), who are based on the island as the Regional Standby Battalion.<\/p>\n

During the week of training, 2 SCOTS took on the role of the enemy, using the Cypriot terrain to stay hidden while 4 SCOTS worked to locate and track them. It was Fus Collier\u2019s first experience playing an opposing force.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was completely different from a normal exercise and from what I\u2019d been used to in training,\u201d he said. \u201cWe would go out on patrol, try to stay hidden and make it difficult for 4 SCOTS to find us.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The following week, Fus Collier took part in Exercise CRONOS CLANSMAN, spending time on the ranges and firing a Glock pistol for the very first time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn training, you touch on a lot of different things, but this gave us more time on the ranges. If you were shooting too far to one side, the corporals could come over, tell you exactly what you needed to change and help you improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Away from training, the trip also gave Fus Collier an opportunity to get to know his new colleagues, with downtime spent on the beach and taking part in water sports. He also caught up with former training mates who had since joined 4 SCOTS.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good chance for me to get to know everyone because I hadn\u2019t really had the opportunity yet,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was also interesting going to another battalion and seeing how they do things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before joining the Army, Fus Collier had spent six years working at McDonald\u2019s. Wanting a change from the routine of civilian life, he decided to pursue something he had thought about since growing up in East Lothian.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI had been doing the same thing for a long time and I wanted something different. One day I just decided I was going to join the Army and I\u2019m glad I did. I wish I\u2019d done it sooner.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fus Collier joins the Regiment as The Royal Regiment of Scotland marks its 20th anniversary. Formed in 2006, the Regiment is celebrating two decades of service while looking to the next generation of soldiers who will carry it forward.<\/p>\n

With his first overseas training already complete, Fus Collier is now continuing his training and preparing for what comes next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDINBURGH SOLDIER HEADS TO CYPRUS JUST DAYS INTO LIFE WITH THE ROYAL REGIMENT OF SCOTLAND A young soldier…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1179291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":["post-1179290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edinburgh","tag-britain","tag-edinburgh","tag-great-britain","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117191342200947731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1179290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1179291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1179290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1179290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1179290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}