A LOCAL soldier is getting ready to be deployed to Kuwait with a battalion of soldiers who fought in the last Gulf War.

Corporal Simon Cooke, from Walton-le-Dale, is training in Germany with an armoured infantry unit.

He is part of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers who have been withdrawn from their regular duties to stand-by for the Gulf.

Now the 28-year-old, stationed in the small town of Celle, near Hanover, Germany,is going through training.

He would leave for the Gulf along with the troops' Warrior armoured vehicles.

Corporal Cooke said: "At times it is like being a sardine. It's not one for claustrophobics, being cramped in one of those for 18 hours.

"Especially with the heat, people can have panic attacks and in the worst cases try to climb out over everyone, but most people just get used to it."

The Fusiliers, made up of troops recruited from Northumberland, the West Midlands, London and Lancashire, lost ten soldiers during the first Gulf war. Members of the third battalion were killed by 'friendly fire,' and a number of survivors are now serving alongside Corporal Cooke in the first battalion.

Captain John O'Grady, Regimental Area Secretary for the Fusiliers in Lancashire, said: "They have been under training since December last year ready for going to the Gulf.

"They have been part of the brigade that has been stood by to move. Corporal Cooke would probably be a section commander with that battalion."

An Army spokesman said: "They haven't even left Germany yet. They are training in prudent preparation for deploying for the Gulf."