MARCH 6: A SOLDIER serving with the Swindon-based Wiltshire Royal Yeomanry has spent £800 kitting herself out for duties in Iraq.

Sarah Jane Masters bought a new pair of desert boots, a camp bed, water bottles, a rucksack, sunglasses and toiletries because she thought standard army issue equipment was not up to the job.

And Sarah Jane, who serves with nuclear biological and chemical decontamination specialists A Squadron of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, based at the TA Centre in Church Place, has taken a respirator that does not fit properly, according to her boyfriend.

Sarah Jane, 27, a project administrator with Newbury-based Vodafone, qualified as a member of the TA in August last year and was among 116 members of her squadron who flew out to the Gulf on Tuesday as part of the British Army's preparations for any possible war against Iraq.

But Steve Pennicott, her boyfriend for three years, said: "The organisational skills of the army beggars belief. I was absolutely amazed they were happy to send her out with a respirator mask that didn't fit properly given that Sarah serves with the NBC unit.

"Sarah Jane had to buy a new pair of boots because the standard issue pair apparently melts in the heat and the army doesn't supply toiletries so the soldiers took a load with them, including toilet rolls.

"The British Army is the best in the world, but many soldiers have had to beg, borrow or steal."

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "Soldiers are issued with respirators and these are fitted to the individual by trained personnel, a process that takes a matter of minutes.

"If an individual is deployed without a personally fitted respirator they should inform their chain of command. The army issues full kit, but soldiers have always sought to personalise their equipment and this comes down to personal preference as long as it meets health and safety requirements."

n Claims that Army personnel are having to deal with substandard kit were made before soldiers began arriving the Gulf.

As well as complaints about food rations, squaddies have also complained their boots melt and their SA80 rifles don't work in the desert heat. Many have spent hundreds of pounds customising their kit from army surplus stores ahead of being deployed to the Middle East.