A ROYAL Navy reservist from Wirral is using organisational skills he learned in the ambulance service as he joins a major deployment to the Mediterranean and Middle East.

Lieutenant Richard Turley has swapped his civilian carrer for life in a naval uniform and is employed as a watch-keeper on board HMS Albion, the flagship of the Royal Navy.

The 18,500 tonne ship is designed to land Royal Marines as part of an amphibious assault.

He is one of more than a dozen reservists who have taken a temporary break from their civilian jobs to sail as part of the "Cougar 11" deployment, for periods ranging from a couple of weeks to several months.

For Richard, a business consultant, there was an obvious connection with his civilian background. Richard worked for the ambulance service for almost ten years, including two years as a control room officer.

He said: “I remember at the time of the Millennium celebrations we had numerous competing emergency calls at the same time and only three minutes to dispatch an ambulance.

"It was all about multi-tasking and prioritisation, which is the same as working as a Royal Navy watch-keeper.

"The ‘can do’ attitude is something the armed forces and the emergency services have in common.”

Richard is HMS Albion’s Amphibious Operations Officer and is appreciative of the work done by reservists: “The Royal Naval Reserve is key to enabling my team to operate for an extended period of time.

"Reservists are probably among the most useful augmentees one could wish for. They step in, do the job and step out again, without spending a huge amount of time training.”

At the end of May, the task group was diverted from a multi-national amphibious exercise to the Libyan coast.

In an effort to increase pressure on Colonel Gaddafi, Apache helicopters from HMS Ocean were launched against selected military targets ashore, while HMS Albion acted as the floating command platform