The Parachute Regiment is often discussed in slogans: the best, the toughest, the most ready. This section is about the harder questions behind those claims.
These articles examine selection, identity, history and what remains after service. They are written from the perspective of a former Paratrooper, but they are not recruitment copy and they are not an attempt to knock the Regiment for the sake of it. The aim is evidence, context and an honest account of a culture that has inspired enormous pride and, at times, serious scrutiny.
Start here
- What Does P Company Actually Test? — what selection can show, and what it cannot predict.
- Why Do Paras Think They’re Better? — the belief beneath the maroon beret.
- Why Did Britain Keep the Parachute Regiment? — why the capability survived after the last battalion combat jump.
- The Weight of the Maroon Beret — the pride, expectation and burden that come with the identity.
- The Last Combat Jump: Why Suez 1956 Still Matters — the operation that changed the argument.
What Manner of Men Are These?
What Manner of Men Are These? takes the same questions further. It asks why Britain kept the Parachute Regiment, what selection and battalion culture genuinely create, and what happens to the men the system produces when service ends.
The book does not assume that Paras are better, nor does it treat military identity as a pathology. It tests the claim against history, evidence and the lived consequences of belonging to the Reg.
After service
The questions do not finish at the gate. Running on Empty explores life after service, identity and recovery.
THE PARACHUTE REGIMENT: BORN, MADE OR SELECTED?
Read What Manner of Men Are These?
A former Paratrooper examines what selection, identity and history genuinely create—and why Britain kept the Parachute Regiment long after its last battalion combat jump.
Military stories without the myth.