Help me decide, please!

[AdamR]

SAS(R) is an active unit, unlike the rest of the TA. Join the SAS(R) and you will get deployed, that's a fact.

Where have you been for the last ten years man?

[minstrel]

Adam,
Sorry if you misunderstood what I was trying to explain, i'm not saying that the regular TA don't get deployed, but commitment and operational roles for 21/23 are slightly different from the rest of the TA.

[Biggles1211]

By that I meant, non-military jobs (way off-topic here I guess...) where you work hard in a team, but don't have to fill in a form to scratch your arse. Things like mountain rescue, etc. I guess I've just had enough of sitting at a computer sending emails all day.

For a start, you could take up some interesting hobbies. At least that way you will look forward to your weekends! Spending time on the hills, doing a free-fall course or learning to scuba dive will provide you with some 'release'. As you progress in skill you can turn your hobbies into a profession.

Places like Thailand are full to the brim with ex-military guys teaching scuba diving. I've never heard them whinging about the deskwork!

[Sarastro]

Places like Thailand are full to the brim with ex-military guys teaching scuba diving. I've never heard them whinging about the deskwork!

As far as I remember from working in the Caymans there is a VAST amount of paperwork involved in diving, especially running a dive house (taking people out on dives). The trick is finding ways to avoid doing it, since 99% of the dive community know it is over-regulated bollocks designed to avoid Americans sueing everyone for the fish not being the right colour, water being too cold, imagining they have DCS every time they go more than 2 feet underwater etc.

Possible Thailand is different, but I would be surprised considering how many tourists go there.

[Gazza85]

Those Americans have every right to sue if the fish dont wave little stars and bars flags at them whilst they are swimming, if not they will do a quick regime change in thailand. Not only is it the law, its in the constitution

[Biggles1211]

You can do most of the paperwork on the boat to/from the dive sites. The majority of it is simply risk assessment stuff...and that's reproduced if you dive the same sites regularly. I work over there when I'm on leave...and am dead jealous of the guys who live over there (many of whom are spending a few months in Thailand and then rotating into Iraq for a while to top up the bank accounts).

Anyone want details of some trusted ex-mil contacts out there, to arrange cheap diving/hols, message me privately.

[adj125]

[markthestab]

if you want a challange why not try being an officer in the paras or the royal marines, these WILL challenge you physically and mentally no matter how fit or smart you are, and its not just a case of running well, ive seen some fast blokes turn to rocks as soon as they have some weight on there backs and after a few nights out on exercise surviving on biscuits brown and patae and no sleep you struggle to do physical tasks that you usually manage no problem



good luck and i hope you make it, but go into it expecting the hardest challenge of your life or you might not make it, if i was you i'd join 4 para first to get a taste for it and then apply to join uksf(r) once youve past p company

and you then have the option to either try for uksfr or go on to join the regular elites such as royal marine commandos or parachute regiment, and from their the possibilities are endless for someone looking for a challenge, mountain leaders, special boat service, pathfinder etc

good luck on whatever you choose

[anglo-saxon]

All I'm going to add to this is,
this.
I wish Chunky from York could read this post.
Sadly I think we have lost him.
Wholley.

So no one's ever heard from him? I was asking after him a few months back when he disappeared off the radar. No one seemed to know a thing. I know his health was in bog order, but he vanished so suddenly!