After joining the Royal Navy in 1977, Colin Towell qualified as a Combat Survival Instructor with 22 Regiment SAS, and has spent over 30 years teaching Land, Sea, Desert, Jungle and Cold-Weather survival skills – as well as Survival and Conduct in Captivity – to UK Army, Navy, Royal Marines, and Air Force personnel. He was the Royal Navy’s Chief Survival Instructor and also served three years as Chief Instructor at the US Navy SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) school. He provided the survival training, equipment and rescue co-ordination for Sir Richard Branson’s balloon global circumnavigation attempts, and also trials, evaluates and instructs in the use of specialised survival equipment, both in the UK and abroad.