That is pretty tough!
**British Armed Forces Discussion Thread**
- Thread starter bakes0310
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That is pretty tough!
£30 a day.
Being halved for people "inside the wire".
I understand the risks are lower, but KAF does still get mortared and rocketted. Put that with the fact that you are away from home for 4 months, living in crap conditions, away from family and friends, and £450 a month doesnt seem worth the effort!
my det has been pushed back from march to june. *shakes fist at sky*Have you joined your universities OTC?
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Reep it. £15 is still massively generous for anyone in KAF or Bastion. When I was fortunate enough to spend a day in KAF I thought I was in paradise. Facilities everywhere, other units and even some females. The safest I ever felt in Afghan, safer than civvy street even. You can't even get run over because of the snail-esque speed limit.
Go spend 6 months in some **** hole check point and you will see who deserves the £30 and who doesn't even deserve the £15 extra a day.
A bitter view point much? I disagree. My opinion is that those outside should be receiving much more than £30/day and those inside should keep at £30/day, you can't say they DON'T deserve it
When you compare us to other nations our op bonus is pitiful as it is.Im not arguing that point, if anything people outside the wire deserve more. Doesnt mean people inside the wire deserve a pittance.
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A bitter view point much? I disagree. My opinion is that those outside should be receiving much more than £30/day and those inside should keep at £30/day, you can't say they DON'T deserve it
Hedge said:
Can't help having a 'bitter' point of view but at least we can agree on people outside this wire getting more money.
Ultimately there needs to be a distinct difference in reward for the people working inside the main bases (KAF & BAS) and those based out in CP's doing the dirty work. As it stands, the £30 extra for all is a massive insult to all those on the ground solely because those based in KAF & BAS get the same. The same applies for the Afghan medal.
I did for a time, but due to the cachement area, it meant that I was travelling an enormous distance + underground to get to it. Completely impractical considering the Tuesday obligations. Weekends wouldn't have been as bad.
Oh and they never refunded my train tickets like they promised so it was hugely expensive for an impoverished student.
Do you have a disdain towards the RAF and those inside the wire?
People out in checkpoints and FOBs definitely deserve every penny they can get, but people in Kandahar and Bastion have a right to an increased wage too. Our groundcrews still ensure that we get Jets in the air to aid those on the frontline.
Bitterness should be aimed towards our bull**** governments priorities and not towards our fellow forces.
I did for a time, but due to the cachement area, it meant that I was travelling an enormous distance + underground to get to it. Completely impractical considering the Tuesday obligations. Weekends wouldn't have been as bad.
Oh and they never refunded my train tickets like they promised so it was hugely expensive for an impoverished student.
Mmm.
I'm not in the OTC, but I have many friends who are and I've been involved in some of their social events. What I do know is that their payment system does take time, and you need to chase it up. They would have refunded you, but you needed to keep at it.
It's a shame that you didn't keep up on it as it's a great foot in the door.
I'm not really into the armed forces as such, and my health condition would cause issues with joining the OTC so that's why I haven't followed in my friends footsteps. But I do appreciate how useful it is, both in general and as part of recruitment into the forces.
Or not, as the case is.
It is indeed a shame, I found the demand for attention to detail to be beneficial in more than one sphere of life.
It was a year ago in fairness, so I'm guessing the payment isn't coming. Obviously now that I've got a job etc money is less tight, but last year, without student finance, it was just to big an outlay.
If only it was slightly closer it would have been manageable, and like you said, a good foot in the door.
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Kenmare, have you considered the TA?
It's really as much as you want it to be. Some of my friends would be at the unit most nights and go away on exercises a lot, others would just turn up every week or so and go on the odd exercise. Then I have friends who are in the pipe band that only go away on band related stuff rather than the military exercises and some that do it all.
It's really up to you to take what you want from it.
If you have any more specific questions, let me know and I can ask my friends.
Nah, I haven't to be honest. I feel that it's a career which needs to be pursued almost to a vocational level, thus I'd want to concentrate all my effort on it.
You can't join again in your final year of study can you?
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Nah, I haven't to be honest. I feel that it's a career which needs to be pursued almost to a vocational level, thus I'd want to concentrate all my effort on it.
The time demand, at the most, when I was in was a couple of hours a week and a 2 weekends a month. On top of that you are expected to attend a 2 week camp a year as well.
In the training phase I did 2 weekends during which I learned the basics - drill, the basics of military law, admin, standards of dress, lots of phys including a fitness test etc. I then did a 2 week "basic training", which included lots more phys, weapon handling, first aid, field tactics and so on. I then did 5-7 weekends worth of training which really focused on honing the "important" skills, lots of range time, first aid, chem warfare.
Upon successful completion of this weekend I was considered akin to a solider who'd just passed out of basic training. Not long after this I went on a second 2 week course, which focused on our trade. Only after I'd completed this course was I considered a full member of my squadron and allowed to wear a stable belt. It took about 2 years all told.
You can do "Summer Challenge" these days (in Scotland anyway) which is all of the above training in an intense 9 week course designed to fit well into the summer holidays for students.
It would give you a very good idea of what soldiering was about, and whether the job you are doing in the TA is actually the one you'd want to do full time or whether you want to apply for a different trade when you go regular.
It is dependant on rank and time served but given an example an American enlisted serviceman of just 3 years earns about $2000/month. He will expect to earn over £3000/month on detachment, plus they pay no tax when deployed. This goes up quite a lot with time served and numbers of days away.
Having spoken to a few Aussies whilst on deployment they apparently earn a lot more, one was bragging how he would buy a nice big house outright with his wages. How true that is I'm not too sure but I think they earn around an extra $200 a day for deployment in Afghanistan.
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Going to try my 1.5 mile time again tonight, hope to be well into the 10 mins now.
Aussies get something like £15k for a detachment
Ill be on around $53kAUD a year excluding allowances after training
(It does include Service Allowance and Uniform Allowance and Thats before Tax and Super have been taken out)Only 2 weeks until I go in
Here is the Pay grades if you want to have a look/ make sense of them.
http://content.defencejobs.gov.au/pdf/triservice/DFT_Document_PayRates.pdf
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