Anyone In or Joining the Army?

I am willing to die for my country, as much as I may disagree with it, and I would be willing to kill somebody if it came to it, also. That's pretty much the first question to ask yourself, really.

I'd love a more frontline combat role, but not full-on combat training. It's a shame I can't mix the two, really.
 
ScottehBotteh said:
Aren't you getting on abit to be thinking about becoming a Pilot ? Always thought you had to start really early ( Air corps ) or be very lucky. Goodluck with that though, I've been thinking about joining the RAF for years but keep putting it off.
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According to the RAF recruiters round here, 25 is the cut off, so it'd kind of be a drop it all and go now type thing.
 
I'm joining the Army as a Officer when I finish 6th form to gain my A Levels for entry. I'm joining for the 'Platoon Commander' for Infantry. I started training to get myself fit a week ago, to reach the fitness levels needed.
 
Scythe said:
I'm joining the Army as a Officer when I finish 6th form to gain my A Levels for entry. I'm joining for the 'Platoon Commander' for Infantry. I started training to get myself fit a week ago, to reach the fitness levels needed.
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why don't you go to Uni, then join, you can get paid whilst at Uni and you will get paid more when you join and promoted quicker.
 
dsb said:
why don't you go to Uni, then join, you can get paid whilst at Uni and you will get paid more when you join and promoted quicker.
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Plus you can join the Officer Training Corps at your Uni of choice and find out if its 100% "for you". The army may even pay for some of it, but that has a few conditions, such as minimum time commitments to the Officer Corps training etc if I remember. As said though, qualities over qualifications.
 
Personaly, I would love to join the army when i finish my degree, the signals would provide me with so much experience in the fields of IT im interested in, and i can pick up a fair few qualifications along the way which is a great bonus. If i do manage to get into the army, i plan to try and join the 216 parachute signals sqd, that way i will be able to do the job i enjoy doing (IT) as well as the excitement/adventure of supporting the paras, as well as parachuting myself.
 
This is dirrected to anyone that thinks or says it will change you.


Well your right, it will but not in a bad way.

Down here Army guys can choose to use Defcom, which is a bank set up for people in the military and they have there own Visa card etc.

When i worked in retail, any one that had one of those cards were the most Polite and respectfull people out of every single customer. I never had a single problem with any of those guys.
And the guys that did come in with there uniform on they were exactly the same.
In my experiance i have found most people in or have served in the Military very nice people.
 
A couple of my friends are in the Army, one of the main things they talk about is being bored.

For the first year or so it was great, loads of training and stuff being done but once you're more settled and over the basic stuff they said everything seemed to slow down.

When you're not on exercise or at war a lot of the stuff you do is pretty repetative and tedious.

I think you have to have a certain mindset to be in the army. The regimented order of everything would drive me nuts but a lot of people find it helps them as being told what to do is a lot easier than working it out for yourself.

And remember you may be called on to fight, it may sound glamorous and heroic but the reality is a lot different.

One of my friends was on patrol in Iraq when they were ambushed. The guy sitting next to my mate took a round to the head and died instantly :(. They managed to get away and back to base for debriefing.
Three days later an IED killed a guy in the wagon behind my friends. :(

When he came back to the UK you could see the difference in him straight away. I never understood what they meant by "The 1000 yard stare" but I saw it instantly in him. It's aged him well beyond his years and even now he won't talk about what happened fully.

I'm not saying this to scare you, more to highlight the fact that it's not all fun and games.
 
Maybe the best thing for him would be to get some Counsiling? :(

There is a good image on Wikipedia of what the 1000 Yard stare looks like if people want to know
 
Andy100 said:
We've brought it up but he always changes the subject. He's from a family of military men and I recon he thinks it would be a sign of weakness.
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I bet if he spoke to his dad then he would find out his dad would understand the best out of everyone:(

Maybe you could have a word to his family secretly?
 
I was in the army for 6 years and loved every minute of it, and the only reason i'm not in the army now is because i was injured and unfourtunately medically discharged.

Training can be tough but a lot of fun, everyone completes the same basic training and then you go on to your trade training. As everyone has said first and foremost you are a soldier but people are exagerating it a lot on here.

After 12 weeks basic training there is absolutely no chance whatsoever of you going to a war zone without going to do you trade training, for the simple fact that you are no where near trained enough. Infantry men do a much longer training at catterick to properly prepare them for battle.

As a dentist your training will be long and when complete your probably will got posted on operational tours but you will be far from any combat.

But don't get thinking that mortars won't land in your camp and set the petrol point on fire and surrounding vehicles because it WILL happen and it may be daily (i have first hand experience of this), also don't get thinking that someone won't try to drive in to your camp with a car full of explosives they seem to like that too.

Army life is awesome and i loved every minute of it and if you have your heart set on it then go for it. I don't think asking for peoples opinions on here is a good idea and it may put you off. Asking are you prepared to die and are you a killer etc. is slightly over the top and from people who don't know what army life is like.

You can be messed around a lot with leave and work etc, most likely you will find out your leave dates a few days before goig on leave so don't book any holidays, work can die down and then you may have a lot and be told you are working weekends and lates possibly most of the night etc.

But so what, what you get in reutrn is very good and you will enjoy it, just don't give up during training, enjoy it!
 
Zip said:
Because if you are thinking of joining its one of the first things that go through your head and you will have already made that postion.:)
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Perhaps that might be the case, but when it actually comes down to it and one is forced to kill someone then I don't think many people would be able to say it didn't affect them, adversly so.

The enemy they may be, but they're also just like us. Might be leaving young children without fathers etc. etc.
 
Andy100 said:
It's aged him well beyond his years and even now he won't talk about what happened fully.
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The stories that he has told you probably illustrate exactly why he doesn't talk about it. Everybody grieves in their own way, and only if it seems to have affected him dangerously (in the realms of PTSD) should you be really worried.
 
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