A SOLDIER who joined the cadets while at high school in Kidderminster is running an Army operations room in Afghanistan.

Former King Charles High School pupil, Cpl Darrell Painter, was posted on a six-month tour to Kabul last month - just weeks after marrying his Chaddesley Corbett childhood sweetheart, Lindsay.

The 29-year-old is on his fifth tour of duty with the First Battalion of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment and running the Kabul Patrols Company operations room.

From his base in Afghanistan, he told the Shuttle/Times & News the tour was going "fine".

He went on: "I am enjoying the tour and the work - it's good to get out there and do your job as a soldier," adding Lindsay was fine at his Chester base.

"She knows I like my job a lot and is 100 per cent behind me," he went on.

"She's busy at work and with the boxer puppy we got before I left but is fine.

"I can't wait to get back on my rest and relaxation and see them both and take Lindsay away for a few days."

Cpl Painter joined the first battalion of the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment 10 years ago last month and went on his first overseas exercise to Canada.

The former Sladen Middle School pupil had joined the combined cadet force while he was a pupil at King Charles I School and reached the rank of sergeant major before leaving.

He went to Worcester Armed Forces Career Office and applied for a job in the Army after leaving school and worked as a barman in The Swan pub in Chaddesley Corbett before his battalion.

He went on his first operational tour to Bosnia, where he learned to how to run an operations room, and returned there for another tour of duty in 1998.

He has since worked in Botswana, Kenya and Northern Ireland and is looking forward to moving to London with his unit next August, when he will carry out ceremonial duties, including guarding Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, The Tower of London and St James's Palace.