Shirley Tart talks to county TA soldiers who have returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan

Front left: Corporal Lee Wickson with parents Phyllis and Tony Wickson and wife Nancy; Rifleman Scott Empson, Mark Francis and Sergeant Gordon Kaye, front right, with his girlfriend Kate Oen

Policemen, bus drivers, footie fans and farmers, all familiar sights, and all very much part of our communities.

Put a group of them into combats, organise ongoing training, fly them to the world’s number one hotspot then drop them somewhere near a front line and what do you have?

You have the incomparable Territorial Army.

Tried, tested and true, these brave and well-trained men and women may be labelled part-time soldiers in as much as they have other jobs as well. But that also means that they have added skills to support the military and are as professional and as committed as any regular. The blunt truth is that once in a war zone, the enemy doesn’t know the difference between them.

A gritty TA group from Shropshire has just arrived back from Afghanistan after a six-month tour of duty in one of the most dangerous places on earth. And today those men of the 4th Battalion The Mercian Regiment were at Clarence House to be presented with their Operation medals by their Colonel in Chief, The Prince of Wales.

A formal welcome takes place at Shrewsbury’s Copthorne Barracks next month but, most of all, it was coming home to their families which was most precious of all.

Lee Wickson from Telford is 43 and this was his third overseas tour of duty ­ in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the youngest of the group, 20-year-old Scott Empson, also safely home from the hot-spot front line, is now looking towards a regular Army career as a rifleman.

Lee’s mum Phyllis didn’t have a decent night’s sleep while Lee was away. And with her husband Tony and Lee’s wife Nancy, is understandably relieved that this was his final TA tour of duty.

Though you somehow know that if he was needed, Lee would be there. Just two stories of civilians backing our military in the most positive way, ­ alongside them in the harshest war zones, a seamless team.

The “difference” comes once the deployment is over and the TA men and women go back to their day jobs. So Lee Wickson is now driving his minibus again while Scott from Bicton Heath and a former student at the Priory School, previously worked in litigation management. As a fan of Shrewsbury Town, he also had a Town shirt with him in the unlikely desert setting of Afghanistan!

Old hand Lee joined the TA when he was 27 and has served for 16 years. Gordon Kaye is 37 and back on duty as a Telford police sergeant. But he came home from Afghanistan with a medal, a commendation and photographs which tell a very different story.

He received a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal and a certificate from the US department of the Navy. The citation is for Gordon’s “professional achievement in the superior performance of his duties while serving as platoon commander 3rd platoon, Normandy Company, 4 Mercian Regiment.”

It says his actions contributed greatly to the security of Camps Bastion, Leatherneck and Shorabak life support infrastructure. And that “Sgt Kaye’s initiative, perseverance and total dedication to duty reflected credit upon him and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.” Gordon was the first British soldier to receive the award from Brigadier General Nicholson, commanding general of the US Marine Corps.

No wonder girlfriend Kate is not only pleased that her man is safely home but is so proud of him.

Tall and quietly spoken, Mark Francis, aged 27, is a farmer and has also spent much of his time working with children in care. As a TA regular, he is now hoping for an officer’s commission in the Army.

The Territorial men and women may be thought of as part time soldiers but, once in uniform, all those serving their country in combat are the same, to the enemy in particular. Apart from other dangers, Improvised Explosive Devices or IEDs are the same threat to everyone. The weapons can be assembled anywhere from easily available materials and a terrorist can then walk away from a highly destructive device which may claim many casualties.

Talking to some of our TA soldiers, each has a story of a near miss, of searching for or investigating something else only finding yourself tip-toeing through IED country. Indeed the lives of many of our brave young men and women have been claimed in exactly this particular, random way.

Yet survivors are so often dismissive of the grave dangers in which they might have found themselves. Their overriding concern is to help with the protection, training and structure of a devastated Afghanistan, which for so long has had the international support of nations around 40 at the moment who have counted the cost in lives.

On December 12, there is the formal welcome and thanks at the barracks for the men from 4 Mercian who have already done us proud and more than played their part.

Yet incredibly, funding for training was recently going to be slashed.

Protests led to a swift change of mind on that one with funding for the full £20 million cost of training our reservists, protected for the next year. If we want our TA in action, that money must also be in the budget for all the years ahead.