Exclusive:The Scot who joined US military after watching Edinburgh Tattoo

Airman 1st Class Crisdean Langan, 21, from Edinburgh, saw the Tattoo in 2022 and opted to join the USAF Honor Guard, using his joint US citizenship.

He is now performing in this year's Tattoo.

A1C Langan, who grew up in Edinburgh where he attended the Gaelic School and James Gilespie’s High School, said he had been influenced by his grandfather on his American mother’s side, who had previously served in the US airforce.

He said he had been undecided about whether to join the UK or US military, but chose the US after watching the Tattoo three years ago.

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He said: “I was born and raised in Edinburgh. My grandad was in the US airforce then and I was always on the fence about which to join. I saw a bunch of videos online of the US Honor Guard and they were awesome. Then when I saw them at the Tattoo, I was amazed. Watching them throwing up the rifles and then catching them was incredible. There was something about it that just stuck out to me.”

He added: “One of my draws towards the US military was definitely my grandad. He has always been such a solid role model in my life.”

He signed up and started to train towards joining the Honor Guard. After completing Basic Military Training and Honor Guard Technical School, he served at Arlington National Cemetery, providing military funeral honours.

“I went to Washington DC then afterwards to training in the US Drill Team,” he said. “I did my evaluation and passed that and joined the drill team.

“I was training to be able to do the performance at the Edinburgh Tattoo.”

This year, he stepped out onto the Castle Esplanade on the first day of the Tattoo with the rest of his team in front of family and friends.

“I loved it,” he said. “It was a lifelong dream of mine to one day be part of the Tattoo. It was a long couple of years working towards it and to get to this point was such a dream.”

He has travelled extensively since joining the team, including a visit to Japan. However, he has enjoyed being back in Scotland.

“I speak Gaelic and it has been really nice to chat to my friends from primary school in Gaelic since I’ve been back,” he said. “Gaelic is hard to find in America.”

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which features performances from British military groups, as well as international performers, runs nightly on the Castle Esplanade until 23 August. Last week, it was cancelled on 4 August due to high winds which sparked a string of cancellations across the festivals.