Rusty Firmin was born in Carlisle in 1950. He joined the Royal Artillery at an early age and was then posted to 49 Field Regiment RA and subsequently to the 29 Commando RA. Getting a taste for commando ops, Rusty passed the SAS gruelling selection and joined B-Squadron 22 (SAS) Regiment in 1977.  
There were numerous desert training trips to the Middle East, four tours in Northern Ireland on both covert and overt operations, the Falkland Island conflict (image top right), four tours on the counter terrorist team and was heavily involved as a Blue Team leader as a lance corporal at the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege in London where he was directly involved with the incidents inside the embassy