Meet the team: Les Carroll

How did you start your career?

I started my career at 42 after I left the military. I applied for a job as a tanker driver and worked for this company for 20 years. I started at REDS after a colleague and good mate gave me a call about a job opportunity. I had a chat with the owner, Lloyd Burnard, and was taken on to help with a big PPM contract REDS had recently won.

What skills or lessons from your time in the military have stayed with you and still help you in your role today?

Being in the military helped me learn to accept what is in front of me, understand the challenges ahead, and work through them without getting frustrated. It taught me leadership skills, how to deal with situations, assess them properly, and work through them step by step. It also taught me the importance of teamwork and comradeship. You work alongside people who have your back and you have theirs. You learn to work as a unit, and many of those people I still keep in touch with to this day.

You joined REDS in 2022. What attracted you to the company?

When I found out I had been accepted at REDS, it was great, as most of the workers were my old colleagues from previous jobs. Also, the owner, Lloyd Burnard, had his first job at our old company working under me as a labourer. The way to make him work hard was to let him sleep, feed him, and give him the odd pint!

You are known as a man of many talents on-site. Can you tell us a bit about the type of work you do, from tank cleaning and tank decommissioning to PPMS?

I run jobs and have worked across all departments at REDS, from Fuel and Power to Surface Preparation, Decommissioning and Installation. This comes from experience I have gained over the years working in different areas of the industry.

What does a typical day look like for you at REDS?

It is varied. No one day is the same. It is interesting and a pleasure working with the Operations teams behind the scenes who organise the paperwork. The variety of jobs means I get to know the whole team across the business.

Outside of work, your passion is accuracy landing. You hold several British records and have been the Overall Champion on many occasions. How did you first get into the sport?

When I joined the Army and my airborne unit, there was a two-week gap where nothing much was happening. The Sergeant Major asked if I wanted to do a free-fall parachute course, and that was where my love for parachuting began. I have been jumping for 50 years now.

For those who are not familiar with it, what exactly is accuracy landing, and what does it take to compete at that level?

Accuracy landing is basically landing on a target with an electronic scoring pad that reads to 16 cm. The centre of the target is a 2 cm yellow dot. If you hit that, it reads zero. Anywhere outside that is measured in 1 cm increments. You can compete individually or in teams of five. The jump altitude is normally about 3,500 feet, and you land with around 200 feet between each person. Your score is added up as both a team score and an individual score. The person with the lowest number of centimetres overall is declared the champion.

What keeps you motivated to keep competing and maintaining that champion status?

As an individual you always want to strive to be a champion, whether that is a world champion, European champion, or in any competition you enter. When you compete, you are competing against everyone else, but it is also like a family. We all support each other, but in the back of your mind, you are there because you want to win.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not working or jumping out of planes?

I like to keep fit. I am a member of a gym and also have a small gym in my garage. My second passion is my custom Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which brings me a lot of relaxation. I also enjoy spending time with my family and just trying to enjoy life in general.

What advice would you give to someone starting out in the industry today?

This industry is a tough one. It is demanding and challenging, but if you are up for it and want to progress, learn from the older guys (and the younger ones). The opportunities are there, but you will only achieve what you put in.

Find out more about our Decommissioning and Installation services >

0333 444 0004 / contact@redsgroup.co.uk