īlunt extended his military service in November 2000, and was posted to the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment in London, as a member of the Queen's Guard. It was while on duty there that he wrote the song " No Bravery". ĭuring Blunt's Kosovo assignment he had brought along his guitar, strapped to the outside of his tank, and would sometimes perform for locals and troops. Blunt has said that he would have refused to obey such an order if General Jackson had not blocked it. General Mike Jackson, the British commander, refused the order, telling Clark that they were "not going to start World War Three for you". American NATO commander Wesley Clark ordered that the unit forcibly take the airport from the Russians. However, a Russian military contingent had moved in and taken control of the airport before his unit's arrival. On 12 June 1999, the troop led the 30,000-strong NATO peacekeeping force from the North Macedonia border towards Pristina International Airport. Initially assigned to carry out reconnaissance of the North Macedonia– Yugoslavia border, Blunt's troop worked ahead of the front lines, locating and targeting Serbian forces for the NATO bombing campaign. In 1999, Blunt volunteered to join a Blues and Royals squadron deploying with NATO to Kosovo. Blunt was trained in British Army Training Unit Suffield in Alberta, Canada, where his regiment was posted for six months in 1998 to act as the opposing army in combat training exercises. The Life Guards, part of the Household Cavalry Regiment, were primarily based in Combermere Barracks. He trained at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, in intake 963, and was commissioned into the Life Guards, a reconnaissance regiment. Having been sponsored through university on an army bursary, Blunt was committed to serve a minimum of four years in the armed forces. He also developed a keen interest in motorbikes around this time. Like his father, Blunt is a pilot and gained his fixed winged private pilot licence at age 16. He went on to study aerospace manufacturing engineering and sociology at the University of Bristol, graduating with a BSc (Hons) in sociology in 1996. He was educated at Elstree School in Woolhampton, Berkshire, and Harrow School in London, gaining A-levels in physics, chemistry, and economics. He also spent time in Cley next the Sea, Norfolk, where his father owned the Cley Windmill. īlunt grew up primarily in St Mary Bourne, Hampshire, but moved every two years depending on his father's military postings around England and the world in places such as Middle Wallop, Netheravon, York, Nicosia, and Soest. The Blount family has a long history of military service, dating back to the arrival of their Danish ancestors in England in the 10th century. His mother started up a ski chalet company in the French town of Méribel. His father was a cavalry officer in the 13th/18th Royal Hussars and then a helicopter pilot and colonel of the Army Air Corps. James Hillier Blount was born on 22 February 1974 at an army hospital in Tidworth, Hampshire, the first of three children born to Jane Ann Farran (née Amos) and Colonel Charles Blount.
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