John Brackpool

John Alan Brackpool was born at Crawley Hospital West Sussex on 11th July 1981. His was the second
child to proud parents Carol and Alan and younger brother to sister Kim.

John attended West Green First School, Ifield Middle School and Ifield Community College. School was
not destined to be Johhny's passion. Although he did complete his GCSEs in 1997.

John loved his movies and television. He was influenced by the programmes and films he loved.
Amongst the careers he considered were a bobsleigh rider (Cool Runnings)and a policeman (The Bill).
However his love for the army was sparked by programmes such as Soldier Soldier and Tour of Duty.
When asked by his head of year why he wanted to joining the army his mother dreaded his answer as
she expected him to reply with "cause i want to be like Tucker".

After leaving school John tried a variety of jobs. I think he was a Scaffolder for about a month,
until he realised that he was scared of heights.

He finally joined the army.

Johnny joined the Princess of Wale's Royal Regiment. I remember his passing out parade. He never
looked so proud and boy did he love that uniform. During his time in the full time army Johnny
accomplished two tours of Kosovo.

However for Johnny the grass was always greener and he returned to civvie street. He joined the
company G4S and carried out security operations at Gatwick Airport.

However the call of the army once again proved to strong and he rejoined as a reservist and went to
Iraq for a tour. We are lucky enough to have sevral albums of 100s of photographs of Johnny's time
in Iraq, one thing was evident he was in his element.

After Iraq Johnny went back to the airport.

Johnny loved his friends and his family and his x box. But he had a need to do what he called one
last tour. Afghanistan was to be his farewell tour to the army and unfortunately this proved to be
to true.

Johnny passed away on 9th July 2009, two days before his 28th birthday. He leaves behind him so many
that will never forget him. And how could they, he was Johnny Brackpool.