Like Coming to Mars

Abstract

For a civilian, encountering the different traditions and cultures of army life is strange enough. ‘But for someone from a Commonwealth country to come here, it’s like taking a human being to the moon or putting a person on Mars.’ Salote was well-placed to understand the fate of a service family living far from home. She had left Fiji to join the British Army eight years earlier. Her husband and children followed her once she was settled in her post as a regimental clerk.