Chris Hunter ( British Army officer ) Major Chris Hunter QGM joined the British Army in 1989 as a sixteen - year - old army apprentice . He trained initially as a Russian linguist working in defence intelligence and after four years of enlisted service was selected to undergo officer training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst . He graduated at twenty - one , and was subsequently awarded the Carmen Sword of Honour . He was then commissioned into the Royal Logistic Corps ( RLC ) – the route that would eventually lead to his becoming an Ammunition Technical Officer ( the British Army ’ s counter - terrorist bomb disposal operators ) . He served as a troop commander on operations in the Balkans , East Africa and Northern Ireland and undertook arctic warfare training in Norway , before becoming an Explosive Ordnance Disposal ( EOD ) operator . As an operator he deployed on two high - threat tours in Northern Ireland and one in Iraq , undertook EOD protection duties for the Royal Family and assisted in the planning and conduct of numerous police arrest operations involving the threat of explosive devices . He was also the designated technical Operations Officer for the national contingency response to the terrorist use of a weapon of mass destruction in the UK . He was later involved with a number of UK Special Forces counter terrorism units and saw active service in Afghanistan , Colombia and Iraq as well as on counter - terrorism operations in the UK . For his actions in Iraq he was awarded the Queen ' s Gallantry Medal . He retired from the MoD in January 2007 as the MoD ’ s senior IED intelligence analyst and has since become a writer , broadcaster and the director of a counter - IED consultancy company . Chris is also a Fellow of the Institute of Explosives Engineers , a Member of the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators and a regular contributor to television , radio news and current affairs programmes . Hunter presented the Military History Channel ’ s acclaimed Bomb Hunters documentary and was named as one of the top 5 Inspirational Speakers of 2011 by the JLA Speakers Agency . In 2012 he was selected to be one of 15 Ambassadors for Prime Minister David Cameron ’ s youth development initiative , the National Citizen Service . He is also a supporter and donator to numerous military charities including Help for Heroes , Veterans in Action , Tickets for Troops , Walking with the wounded , Combat Stress , The British Forces Foundation , Global Enduro and BLESMA for which he trained to run the 2009 London Marathon while wearing a complete bomb disposal suit , completing it in 6hrs 56mins - setting a new world record . Published work . Hunter ' s first book , " Eight Lives Down " , was published in October 2007 . It covers the four - month period he served as a Bomb Disposal Operator in Iraq . Its sequel , " Extreme Risk " - published in May 2010 - charts his journey into bomb disposal . Hunter has also co - written two teenage novels with children ’ s writer Steve Cole . The first - Tripwire - was published in April 2012 , and its sequel , Deathwing was published in July 2011 . His name ' Chris Hunter ' is a pseudonym .