In 1982, as a young officer in the 1st battalion of the Welsh Guards Owen Edmunds was part of the task force sent to recover the Falkland Islands after the Argentine invasion that April. While serving as a rifle platoon commander with No 3 Company he survived the bombing of the RFA "Sir Galahad" by enemy jets during the Battle of San Carlos, which killed 32 of his fellow Welsh Guardsmen. In the aftermath of the war he continued in the Welsh Guards as Intelligence Officer; a Temporary Equerry to Prince Charles in 1985, and then, from 1987, an Adjutant with the British Army of the Rhine in Bergen-Hohne, where he served under Christopher Drewry.