O NLY six years ago, Steve Preisner was sitting at home in Lenton, wondering what to do with his life.

"I didn't have much confidence or much in the way of skills," said Steve, now 28.

A chance look at the Evening Post was a turning point.

It contained the obituary of Sergeant George 'Killer' Dring, a village blacksmith's son from Fulbeck, Lincolnshire, who became a celebrated tank commander with the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry during the Second World War.

"I can remember the day I picked up a copy of the Post and it showed George Dring," said Steve, now Sergeant Steve Preisner.

"I thought, if a man like him came from a place like that, I want to join as well."

He approached Sgt Dring's old regiment, now part of the Territorial Army, at its base in Carlton.

"I thought I would join just to keep me going over the summer," he said.

"I didn't know just weeks later I would be in the desert."

He immediately felt at home, saying: "I felt like I was part of something bigger than I was; everyone treated me like I was part of the family.

"But it was a steep learning curve. I had no fitness.

"Everyone was so patient with me and helped me to learn."

Sgt Preisner soon picked up a special talent for languages that would set him apart from his peers.

"For someone who had hardly been able to travel and go abroad, it was the most amazing thing," he said.

"And when I came to Iraq for that first eight months, I realised quickly I could pick up Arabic, that I could give something back.

"I made a point of practicing it, and there is a basic course that you take when you come out to Iraq.

"Then I did a more advanced course by chance, as there was a spare place."

His hard work paid off when the Iraqi people began to trust him in particular because he could speak their language.

"I once had a man come up to me with his wife – he pulled aside her burka to show me the scar left by secret police."

He also learnt more about the people of the country.

"Although they have nothing, they will offer you anythingg," he said. "They will wash your clothes and pick splinters out of you.

"I once spent a week walking through the marshes and someone told his wife to wash my clothes and another rubbed my skin with watermelon to soothe it."

On his return to the UK, he completed another Arabic course in Buckinghamshire..

"It was an intensive 12-month course, which was a lot of graft.

"The headaches!"

Sgt Preisner's new skills came into their own a few weeks into his most recent tour of duty in Iraq, which began in February.

He played a crucial role as an interpreter during Operation Saulat al Fursan, otherwise known as the Charge of the Knights, which began in March to drive the Mahdi militia out of Basra.

It involved coalition and Iraqi aircraft patrolling the skies above Basra, providing intelligence and carrying out air strikes in support of Iraqi forces on the ground.

"I was on a day off when I was told to get ready to go to downtown Basra," said Sgt Preisner.

"I can remember how nervous we were – even though I didn't realise then it was the start of this amazing chapter.

"We flew in at night, everything was pitch dark.

"The Iraqi High Command were asking for anything we could give them to help with – the terrorist group had become so strong."

Sgt Preisner used his language skills to act as interpreter between the coalition forces and the Iraqi Army, but other skills were also needed.

"All through the night, they were bringing in dead and wounded.

"We were going for hours and hours and hours.

"We went zig-zagging across a palm grove in the middle of a mortar barrage with a medic, then through an underground tunnel. It was littered with dead and wounded. I thought I had seen it all in two tours but I had never had to tourniquet someone before.

"I can remember all the blood and urine on the floor.

"A Humm V [military people-carrier] driver badly injured, screaming in Arabic.

"The medic just said, 'Can you talk and tourniquet at the same time?'"

One young child was brought in after she was shot in the head by a terrorist from the Jaysh Al-Mahdi group.

"She was only three or four," said Sgt Preisner.

He added: "This phase of the operation was ten days of being shot at.

"I did not realise how brave the Iraqis were.

"They went out to get their city back night after night."

Reflecting on his success in the army, Sgt Preisner said he could never have imagined what he would be doing years before, when he walked into the TA base.

"The people of Basra are very special.," he said.

"And while I've been out here I have even met Barack Obama [Democratic candidate for US President] ."

Sgt Preisner is so content with military life, he is set to become a regular in the Army.

"Cutting across the desert in an open-top jeep is what I was made for," he said.

clare.boyd@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk