Graduate entertains troops in Afghanistan and Germany

“I could never have imagined I would one day be hosting a breakfast show in Afghanistan but that is exactly what happened.”

Hal Stewart, BA(Hons) Film, Television and Radio Studies graduate

A Staffordshire University graduate has returned to the UK from a whirlwind tour of Afghanistan and Germany presenting radio shows for UK troops.

Hal Stewart, 29, a BA(Hons) Film, Television and Radio Studies graduate, now with the British Forces Broadcasting Service, jumped at the opportunity of a six-week tour to Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.

Hal attended Staffordshire University from 2001 - 2004 and has been able to put those acquired skills to good use as a professional radio presenter for the past six years.

Hal said: “I could never have imagined I would one day be hosting a breakfast show in Afghanistan but that is exactly what happened.”

His wife of one year, Maria, wasn’t as ecstatic, but as chance would have it Hal’s cousin, Major Mark Dornan was in Afghanistan at the same time and promised to look after him.

Upon seeing his cousin for the first time in several years, Hal joked: “It says a lot about our family that it takes a war zone to bring us together.”

During his six weeks in Afghanistan, Hal took part in a number of morale boosting activities with members of Staffordshire’s own 3rd Battalion the Mercian Regiment.

Upon returning from Afghanistan, Hal was informed that he was needed in British Forces Germany, where he served a further six weeks.

“On one occasion I was in Munster, Northern Germany with families of 1st Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, I was collecting messages from families to send out to Afghanistan, and it dawned on me that these would be heard by the very same troops I’d spent time with only weeks before, that was an incredibly sobering experience.”

Hal is now back on the airways for BFBS in Perthshire, as a UK based presenter, broadcasting to British troops all around the forces world, as well as on DAB Digital Radio.