Military Veterans Discount

To Show Our Appreciation, We At Gray´s Car Hire Want To Thank All Veterans For Their Service And Sacrifice!

To Show How Much We Appreciate You, We Are Now Offering Military Veterans And Their Families A 10% Discount When You Book A Car Hire With Us.
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• Richard and Sharon Gray are the owners of Gray´s Car Hire.
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  This is Richard´s story:


• I joined the Royal Navy when  I was 21 years old and spent most of my adult working life in the RN.  I went where I was told to go and I did what I was told to do, I ate when I was told to eat and exercised when I was told do, basically my whole life was regimented, disciplined and organized.
   
  I have done disaster relief operations and drug trafficking operations in the Caribbean.
  I was on a ship that had the worst engine fire since the Falklands War whist out at sea.
  I worked alongside the Navy´s most prolific serial killer without knowing and unknowingly destroyed evidence for him.
  I served 8 months on sea and land in Afghanistan in 2001.
  I was in charge of the Thanet area in Kent for the 2002 fire strikes where I was called out to every incident as the subject matter expert.
  I served in Iraq in 2003.
  In 2006 i transferred over to the Royal Navy Police and became a strict disciplinarian and spent a year working shifts in the Portsmouth area policing servicemen ashore and assisting the local constabulary.
  At this stage I started experiencing problems with my joints especially my knees.
  In 2012 I served of the coast of Libya where we were the first Royal Navy ship to be fired upon and fire back in anger since the Falkland’s war and were we spent days at a time at action stations.  Everytime we got some relief time in Italy where the rest of the ships company could relax and de-stess I was the one that would be making sure that no one was stepping out of line and dealing with the aftermath of service men “out pinning”.
  I was flown back from Syria straight to start work as the office manager in the Joint Service Police station in Gibraltar which was a very stressful role.
   
  At no time during anything that I have done or seen whilst I was in the Royal Navy, of which the above is just some, did I have or was offered any kind of de-compression or counselling or group counselling.
   
  I was shown no gratitude from higher ranking command for anything that I had done and the medals that I was awarded for all 3 conflicts I got in the post ?
   
  Syria was the worst out of the 3 conflict zones that I had been to but it was just a case of getting to the next job forget about it and crack on with the job at hand, when it came to getting ready to leave the Navy from Gibraltar I had a massive panic attack which put me in hospital but even this was ignored and basically all I got was that I might as well leave early, so it was a case of give us your id card and off you go, and that was exactly what happened.
   
  I have been in conditions so stressful that normal civilians would never understand.
   
  After 22 years of loyal service I just handed in my id card and walked away, there was no meetings to discuss what I was doing next, no advice on what to expect, nothing at all to ready me for the what was to come next……and I could not cope.
   
  I had no warning on how hard life would be outside the military.
   
  No structure, no discipline, the caliber of people around me was far lower than what I was used to, I did not know what to do with myself or how to be.  Coming from my role as a strict disciplinarian I offended people regularly and became angry at other peoples actions or lack of action, nothing makes sense.
   
  I went to my local GP within a year of leaving and was diagnosed with depression, the next 5 years have been a bit of a blur with me getting worse and worse, angrier and angrier, more depressed, emotional and distant.  I could not keep a job and started spending more time in my holiday home in Spain where I found it quieter and could get away from the hustle and bustle of the UK.
   
  I lived with this every single day, I lived with suicidal thoughts, anger, depression, anxiety. 
   
  It got to the stage that my marriage was going to fall apart before I made the decision that I actually did need help so I contacted Combat Stress, I had a consultation over the phone were I could not even talk properly as my emotions just came gushing out.  I was asked to attend a 2 week residential course where I could attend therapy sessions and speak to phycologists, I was then asked to see a Psychiatrist and am currently waiting for another bespoke residential course with Combat Stress.  I was prescribed a form of anti-depressant drug which was something i said that i would never do, but these drugs change the chemical levels in your brain so in conditions that i would normally become angry or emotional i started feeling ok and my wife states that i have become a different person since taking them, a better person.  I also listen to calming relaxation music when my anxiety kicks in where i just grab my headphones and take myself off for 30 minutes or until it passes.
  
  ​What have i learnt ............Life does get better if you ask for help. 
  
  ​These are just a few links to charities that are there to help you:
  
  www.combatstress.org.uk
  
  https://allcallsigns.org
  
  www.helpforheroes.org.uk
  
  www.ssafa.org.uk
  
  www.britishlegion.org.uk
  
  www.veterans-uk.info

 

 

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