Herman

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Yep, that's one tough guy. I was 16 when I signed with the Royal Navy for a professional contract for 4 years with tacit renewal. I served on the ships pictured to the right. Calculated in miles, I've been around the earth at least 4 times if it isn't more. Over the equator a number of times ( I'm baptised named Red Poon) and the Arctic Circle, and that's cold, very cold.
I enjoyed serving and it was an honour to have been in the Royal Navy for over 12 years.

aaahhhh..... Look at me.... 1½ year old or something like that and already walking like a "big" fellow. Ok, without my mother holding my hand I probably would fell on my bum but who cares. I got a big candy stick and I gone eat it all by myself, like a big boy. Not that I can remember this picture being taken....

But as a proud descendant of the Pouls family line I will fake it. You know that my name goes back as early as 1565? And that our family name probably comes from the apostle Paul? Old church documents say a much. Alas during several wars lots of documents got lost but some have survived and so I have a confirmed great, great etc grand father that goes back to 1788. That's not too bad. Anyway the surname Pouls isn't really a common name. Most people with the name Pouls you find in Midden-Limburg, in the middle of the province Limburg in the region around the city of Weert and Ell.

I was born on a Wednesday the 24th, January 1962, in the municipality Beesel, more specific in the parish Offenbeek. Closed in between the German border and the river Meuse. A small rural village with some industry but mostly farmers. In the woods nearby was some heavy fighting during WWII and as kids we often found stuff like dead soldiers and military stuff like weapons and gear. Very exciting years!

Kindergarten... playing with blocks for the camera. My kindergarten then were 2 wooden sheds called emergency buildings then. Build after WWII and had several purposes through the year like a church, storge building and in the end Kindergarten. Our group in 65 were the last ones after that the shed were tear down because of safety issues.

Like a good Catholic boy you do your first communion when your in 2nd class of elementary school. You do your first confession (only after we got bribed by our teacher with a Mars bar). The priest asked me if I had commit a sin and my answer was "only the ones of today or all of them?"....

Don't let that angelical look fool you. I was by times a naughty boy even at that young age. Stupid stuff with sometimes unwanted consequences. Things like setting live stock free by opening the gates, joy-riding tractors, pissing on electric fences... that really hurts... Like I said stupid stuff, mischief that little boys do in the country side.

And when you get home, there's gramps waiting to twist your ear and give you a good talk. Like "What did I tell you...." etc. No supper and strait to bed. But not really. Mum will always overrule gramps. But what ever "good talk", tomorrow we're at it again, me and my friends. Always finding something new to explore, to break, set on fire or whatever comes to mind at the moment.

16 years now, smoking and drinking like a Templars knight. Having fun is TOP priority, more important then anything else. Driving your bike, do silly stuff and chasing girls. Last year of 4 years of Secondary Education and the year you going to make choices for your future. I still had no idea yet what to do. One thing was very clear for me, I hated school and the prospect of 4 or more years education, sitting in the bench, reading books I don't want to and learning stuff I don't want to was a horror for me. A nightmare.

I was thinking like becoming a policeman or joining the military. Didn't know then I would end up in the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN).

And then 1 year later I was in. I joined the Royal Navy. Operational Service. Ain't that cool? Me in my sailor suite? Handsome young fellow. But the time of making fun, riding my bike and chasing girls was over... more or less.

First we going to be trained. That means... back to school... damned it. So the first 4 month it was sitting in the bench reading books and learning stuff. Thank God this time it was stuff that is wanted to learn and you needed to learn. Without proper training you cannot function aboard Hr.Ms ships.

After the first trainings you get assigned to your first man of war. In my case it was the ocean going mine sweeper Hr.Ms. Onbevreesd. A class of sweepers also being in service with the Belgium Navy and the US Navy, where they come from.

I've been to the East and I've been to the West but the girls I like most are the ones undres..... Well you get the idea. It comes from a song, it's not my own text but I like it and it fits the picture. Taken in the West, on the Isle of Curaçao. Sun, sea and way to much free time on your hand. Time you fill up with drinking because there is really noting else to do.
The sun comes up at about 6 in the morning and goes down at about 6 in the evening, every day. There is only 5 minutes of dusk and that's it. Lamp on, lamp of. Boring! The only options you have are bear or rum mixed with a little bit of coke.
And of course Hazes, lots of Andre Hazes... You are living in a nightmare for 9 month. 9 month.... 6 o'clock light on, 6 o'clock lights off.... day in, day out.... You work 6 hours after that it becomes to hot... lights out... rum on the table... lights on...
Day in...., day out...

Highlights were flights with the old Neptunes. The last ones of the Navy were stationed in the west soon to be replaced by Fokkers from the Airforce. The Neptunes were really fun planes to fly with. Their roaring engines, the speed of the plane. It was just an old very cool plane making trips to Florida and Venezuela, and fly to the other islands. Just for the fun of it.

Making dives at Russian trawlers in the neighbourhood, scarring the living daylight out of them and of us. I mean just a few meters above them??? Like I said FUN.

All

"God knows what happens in those far away ports..." and now you know to. Like I said nothing. It's pure coincidence that this Sheila has her arm around me while someone was taking this picture. I'm not mad about it and I even show it to the world... nothing happened here... I've always been a good boy in far away ports. This picture was in Melbourne, Australia if I remember correctly. Very far away and long ago. Can't even remember the name of my colleague on the picture.

Some years later... I left the Royal Navy behind me. After a lot of years and politics cutting the military more and more I decided to leave on my own and find me a job that I want. So I ended up at the KLM, the dutch airliner. A 2 and a half year training was planned to become an air plane technician. For me everything was new because in the Navy I did operational work not technical work. Working on the bridge navigating you only use a pencil nothing more. No nuts and bolts or screws for that matter.

But I successfully completed the training with a nice diploma in my pocket. If there wasn't the second Golf war...

July 2002... Everything changed...

48 days in an induced coma...