What is the youngest you let people be soldiers?

[GINGE]

In 1977 myself and about 20 others were sent from 41 CDO Deal out to 41 Cdo Salerno Company Group, 41 Cdo were on there way to Belfast and the 20 or so of us were all under 18, never mind Turf Lodge or Paceville, I'd sooner have Chisk and Hopleaf before baton rounds and verbal s##t. Happy days

[sp10122]

Gash - Ouch


Hehe, you're probably right but then again it'd be like the Paras only selecting officers compared to the rest if the Army.

There are some very tough units to get into in the Army to be fair. We have 240ish in an intake and the AAC in my lot had 76 apply and they took 6. The RM lads, as I understand it, have to pass AIB and then theyre on the course (subject to Marine POC). So yes, it's tough to get in to the RMs and if you're joining the RLC you won't have to acheive the same standards but remember they have 7 months or so to look at you at Sandhurst so if you are going for one of the more select Regiments, by the time the board comes round you can't bluff it. You're putting yourself up against some pretty good blokes in the areas that count - soldiering, leadership, fitness and so on.

On quals you used to be able to get a direct entrant Short Service Army Commission with 5 GCSE A-C grades but I'm not sure if this is still the case.

[gash-hand]

Sorry mate - couldn't help myself

To be honest I'm not too up to speed regarding the whole commission thing anymore - the general impression I get is because all the school kids are girly swats these days and they all have loads of gcse's and A levels a Degree becomes the accepted norm, so if you're applying for a commission straight from civvy street it limits your chances/choice of regts.

Its all b*llocks though - i once had a harrier pilot tell me a trained monkey could do his job - they just specify a degree education as a minimum entry requirement to keep numbers down.

[Sisyphus]

Sticky

Yah boo!! I was 16yrs 1 month and 2 days old!

Mind you I was born on the 10th day and joined on the 12th of the following month. So, if you like, we can have an argument about whether the month in question had 30 days or 31 in it?!???

Weren't we so young! And stupid. Just lucky things turned out as well as they did, really! I'd like to claim it was an intelligent decision based on in-depth knowledge of all the facts - but I can't [not completely, anyway] - at 16 who knows diddly squat about the real world??? Even if we all think we do/did!

[Sticky Blue]

Sisyphus... you git!, 2 days!
What did we know... errm... grass was green but not as green as us.
As my old man was an ex matelot he did his best to put me of with stories of korea, nothing worked. He told me that he knew that some buglers had served out there and it made me even more determined to join. I suppose I had a little knowledge before going for it and the whole process only took 5 months from careers office to getting on the train to Deal.

[Sisyphus]

Most of my info came from glossies which flooded through my letterbox for months on end.
Mind you, as I've mentioned before I didn't realize RMs wore green uniforms! The only uniforms in the brochures were Blues! Doh!

My first choice was to fly Buccaneers from Carriers, but even at that tender age I realized a scouser from a working class council estate probably wouldn't fit in, in the Mess at Dartmouth. (plus a ceremonial sword was reported to cost c.£300 - bit beyond my means!)

[sp10122]

I really hope people don't think class is an issue in becoming an officer - I understand why that perception persists (and some officers unfortunately like to promote it).

I'm from a normal middle class family and I'm certainly not well off. One great guy I know is a 'working class' guy from Toxteth

RCB is completely egalitarian and in fact the guy who did fail in my group was this mega rich guy who was always in Hello!

At Sandhurst the instructors couldn't care less what your background is.

The sword thing...you don't have to buy your own and you get a grant for your uniform.



I just really hope that no one is put off from applying as an officer because of their background. Some regs (Guards/cav) it is a slight issue but any other it's not. I'm sure some people are unfortunately put off.

[lew]

Could someone please give me the current definitions of the different classes please, as I seem to be a little confused as to where I would fit in

Personally I think class is a load of bollox...


lew

[voodoo sprout]

There's no real definition of a class, sometimes it depends on your salary, your job (manual labour = lower class, managerial and intermediate public service = middle class, government, land owners etc = upper class for example), though in this case I think background such as what your parents did, where you went to school etc is an issue. Overall I think it varies depending on what people notice. If someone sees you went to a particular school, they might see that and brand you upper class, similarly if you're heard to say "ey up yer ********* gayboy, that's me drink that is!" then you might be accused fo being lower class ignoring other factors.

If you think the above is meaningless jibberish, then I think Lew's second statement is perhaps accurate .

[Sisyphus]

sp

I think you're right, at least these days.

However class was certainly an issue at the time I was talking about (mid-60's). I was one of only a handful of kids from our school who passed the 11 plus and went to Grammar school. So even having the chance to get the necessary academic qualifications was a major hurdle for the vast majority of the "working classes". I think class was particularly an issue in the Navy at the time. I suspect there are lingering elements of this in the Guards' regiments and the Cavalry to the present day; but I'd be happy to be corrected on that point.

As you say, there's a much broader spread of backgrounds in messes these days. And the Services are much the better for it.