A SOLDER from Alloa returned home for Christmas after a lengthy training exercise in the Far East.

Corporal Fraser Hall, 32, was one of 16 soldiers from the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) who became the first British Army troops to embed with Japanese forces last month.

The battalion, based in Fort George near Inverness, operated as part of the 11th Security Force Assistance Brigade during Exercise Vigilant Isles in Japan.

Fraser and his personnel trained alongside approximately 400 Japanese troops from B Company, 1st Battalion, the Royal Gurkha Rifles and 16 Air Assault Brigade.

During the opening ceremony of the Exercise Vigilant Isles, Fraser played the bagpipes to accompany Scotland the Brave.

“We find that the bagpipes and music break a lot of barriers down,” Fraser. “It was a good route in that helped us to talk to the Japanese and have a bit of banter with them.

“It’s been eye-opening to work with the Japanese. I’ve worked with foreign nations in the past but never on their home turf like here.

“We were embedded with the Japanese recce forces and giving them drone capability on the ground.

“We’ve had to get used to their tactics and how they do things differently. It’s been a really good experience in a beautiful country.”

Fraser was stationed at Sekiyama, 180 miles north of Tokyo, where he embedded with a Japanese recce platoon where they operated a Parrot Anafi drone to locate hostile forces.

3 SCOTS provided observer/mentor teams and a liaison officer network across the Japanese battlegroup during Exercise Vigilant Isles.

Fraser returned from Japan to be reunited with his wife Andrea, from Stirling, and their three children Ava, Lewis and Eilidh, aged 9, 6 years old and 10 months old respectively.

“I joined the army in 2007 soon after becoming 16,” Fraser continued. “I went to the Army Foundation College in Harrogate for a year before going onto the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick.

“I was born in Romford, Essex and grew up in Brentwood before moving back home to Scotland aged 13.

“Scotland’s always been home to me, with my parents coming from Alloa, and I’ve always had a Scottish accent from my parents.

“After being a piper, I moved more to the soldiering side where I’ve done deployments to Afghanistan, the Falkland Islands and Kenya and exercises in Europe and now Japan.

“I left the army in 2014, when my oldest daughter was born, but re-enlisted after 18 months because I thought I had unfinished business.

“My wife knows how it works with me having to go overseas but the kids are still adapting.”