Private Brian Hughes is one of 125 One Scots soldiers preparing for a six month tour of duty in Afghanistan's notorious Helmand region. The 31-year-old from Livingston has previously served in Kosovo and Iraq, but admits fatherhood has changed his outlook on active service. He told STV News that he and his colleagues had to focus on the job at hand, rather than the dangers or the homesickness.

Q: Is this your first time in Afghanistan?

Private Hughes: "It's my first tour to Afghanistan, but my sixth tour in general. I've done tours before."

Q: And what's the feeling like at the moment? There must be a lot of preparation going on.

PH: "Yes, there's a lot of preparation and a bit of apprehension. I'm a bit apprehensive but I know from previous tours what it's like and everyone goes through that anyway. So there's a bit of a mixture of excitment and apprehension, which is a bit weird to describe to someone who has never been to a warzone before."

Q: And is there particular apprehension this time, to some degree, because the last few weeks for the guys in Afghanistan have not been good?

PH: "Yeah. For me, it's also slightly different to other tours because I'm a dad now. The other tours that I've done, I was a single guy without kids and I'm now a husband with kids. So I've slightly different feelings this time than I've had on previous tours as well."

Q: What does your wife say about what you're doing?

PH: "She knows it's what I love and she knows I'm good at my job. Plus, she's been through Kosovo and Iraq with me so she knows the score as well. Again, she's just focussed on the kids. And she's at university, she's studying, so she's got her own thing to keep her busy and keep her mind off it while I've got my own thing to do when I'm out there to keep my mind off things too.

Q: I suppose though, there's no better day though, than the day you come back?

PH: "Yeah, that's the day we look forward to. The day when the tour's over, the job's done and hopefully, it's been a successful tour and we're all back to our families."

Q: For those of us who haven't been in the Army, I suppose it's impossible to know what it's like to be away from your family for such a long time and in such a difficult environment. What are the biggest things that go through your mind when you're away?

PH: "For me, you're leaving one family, but you're with another. Because you're always with your mates, you're always surrounded by people you know, it's really like having two families.

"You've got your family that you won't see, but you do get to speak to them on the phone and you can correspond through letters and things like that. And then you've still got your family within the army, within your team, and everyone can help pull each other through. Everyone has to do it in their own personal way. Some will struggle, some will just thrive on it.

"For myself, I just focus on my job so when I'm out in the field, I don't think about my family at all. When I'm in camp and I've got time to relax, then I'll think about my family and wonder what they're doing, miss them a little bit. Then I just get back on with doing my job and focus on that and on getting home to them."