Lesley, an RAF Reservist, is currently on a training exercise in the Ascension Islands:
Flying Officer Lesley Woods
This Reserves Day I'm one of the UK’s Reservists who are serving on operations or training exercises overseas. Currently, I’m 5,000 miles away from from home on a volcanic rock just five miles wide and seven miles long.
Ascension Island is literally in the middle of nowhere – a small piece of British Sovereign Territory in the South Atlantic, halfway between South America and Africa. It's the start of winter here but the temperature is still over 25 degrees and the crystal-clear ocean is as warm as a bath.
By day you can walk above the clouds through a lush forest of bamboo on the top of Green Mountain, and climb in arid craters of black volcanic rock that look like a film set from Star Wars. At night, Green Turtle hatchlings as small as the palm of your hand, erupt from their eggs and start a moonlit race for the surf.
But this isn't just a sub-tropical island full of amazing wildlife, it's also a strategic South Atlantic 'stepping stone' for military operations.
The first garrison was built by the Royal Marines tasked to guard Napoleon who was exiled to nearby St Helena after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Standing in the remains of their fort, it's hard to imagine how they survived in the heat of the day, with no fresh water or food supplies.
Today the airfield is jointly operated by the RAF and United States Air Force (USAF) as the refuelling point for military flights from the UK to the South Atlantic. Between November 2014 and January 2015 the USAF used the island to co-ordinate 47 C-17 aircraft transporting medical personnel and aid supplies in the fight against Ebola.
Their primary mission on the island however is one of Space surveillance. In the 1960's NASA built a tracking station to support the Apollo moon missions, and legend has it that the Apollo 13 messages were relayed through the island to Space Command. This week they opened a brand new state of the art telescope facility capable of assessing orbital debris as small as 10cm, moving at speed of up to 10km per second (faster than a speeding bullet).
And I was lucky enough to be one of the first people ever to gaze through it, getting a close up look at the moon, Venus and the Milky Way.
That first look, and all the others ‘firsts’ I’ve experienced during my time here...well, I definitely wouldn’t have got them if I wasn’t a Reservist.
Flying Officer Lesley Woods and Senior Aircraftsman Reece Cowlishaw from 7644 Media Operations Squadron at the newly installed NASA telescope.
