I saw a special on TV that implied you guys over there let guys join at 16? Is that true? We have 17 year olds but very few, it wasa good show and I only caught the end where these soldiers climbed a mountian and graduated their training.
Do you guys really graduate at 16 or do you continue on till you hit 18 like here?
Is College available to everyone and if not does the military send you after you finish your time?
Do your officers have to have degree's like ours or is there a selection of the fittest like in other countries?
Does your Navy supply the RM's with medics like ours does or do they have their own?
How long must you serve to draw a pension?
I always have a line of questions, but you all seem to give me answers on the things I've always wondered.
Oh yeah, Mc Donalds or Burger King, which do you think Brits like best or do you have your own fast food chain's? We have alot of B/P fuel stations springing up here, do you have Texaco?
Let them call me a rebel and I welcome it, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of demons were I to make a whore of my soul. (Thomas Paine)
Yes you can join at 16, but you aren’t allowed to go to war until your 18 so the two years are just training and more training...
By college do you mean university??? We have a different education system to you here, it starts off generally at 4 and you spend 6 years in junior school qand complete your SAT’s, then you move to secondary school and spend a further 5 years there, being 16 and having got your g.c.s.e's when you leave, you have then completed compulsory education and can go and get a job if you wish, although 6th form or college are free if you stay in full time education, here you will work towards either, A levels of some other type of qualification, i.e. national diploma, G.N.V.Q, city in guilds etc... After this you then move onto university if you wish, where you earn your degree... everything after 16 is voluntary...
I don’t think so but I was told it will help you allot, one of the others will be able to give you a better answer...
Don’t know, a serving or ex royal will be able to tell you this, I would assume they have there own medics, and they carry a rifle unlike your core men...
Not to sure, but I think it can be carried on if you leave the forces and go into another line of work, again someone else will know...
Neither, I don’t think our maccy D's or burger king would even resemble yours, the food is like eating cardboard, and the name fast food is defiantly a cliché, it takes to long to be given cold tripe that you wouldn’t let your dog eat!!!
Yes there are Texaco garages here; I’ve got one 2 mins away form where I live...
Hope that helps
lew
All I want in life is a cold beer, a fast car, a big F**King gun and a hot woman to fetch the beer, and clean the car! is that really to much to ask? - Quotes by a redneck.com
recruit test 21 march - PASSED
medical 30 march - PASSED
interview 30 march - PASSED
PJFT - 11 april - PASSED 9:18
PRMC - 7th - 10th JUNE. PASSED
foundation - 29th August
Not all officers have degrees, they are not essential entry requirements, although most do have them.
In my time the navy did provide our medics, iyitially called Sick Berth Attendants (SBA) and then Medical Attendant. Subsequent to my time I believe there were problems in getting sufficient volunteers from the navy because of limited promotion prospects and, possibly a desire for the greater comfort of having your home (ship) carry you rather than you carrying your home (pack).
Pensions, you need to complete 22 years to be paid a service pension but lesser numbers of years can now be transferred to other pensions on leaving (sore point with me because it was not always the case and my service of less than 22 years has not counted towards any pension at all.
We do not have anything like the GI Bill and unless a person gets sponsorship to go to university (officers only) then there is no help available. You may note on another thread that the general view is that once you leave, the forces just wash their hands of you. Generally whilst you are serving they take quite good care of their investment and any family but once you leave you are on your own. There is more support from friends on this forum than is available from any official source.
Do your officers have to have degree's like ours or is there a selection of the fittest like in other countries?
Most do but its not compulsory, generally if you join up straight from civvy street then a degree is necessary but it is possible to get a commission from the ranks - so as long as you have the minimum educational requirements.
Does your Navy supply the RM's with medics like ours does or do they have their own?
Yes, although they have to do the RN Medics Commando course which is 26 weeks long - they basically join a RM recruit troop at Lympstone but miss out the induction and Kings Squad weeks. Just before I lwft they were talking about opening up medic training to RM's - don't know whether this actually happened though.
How long must you serve to draw a pension?
Not too sure on this, I think its whatever your minimum return of service is (4.5 years) but obviously its not going to be worth much -and you'll have to wait until your 65 to draw it (i think)
Oh yeah, Mc Donalds or Burger King, which do you think Brits like best or do you have your own fast food chain's?
I think you'll find Burger King is a UK company. I can't speak for anyone else but I personally prefer Fish and Chips to a piece of mascerated Cows spinal cord.
We have alot of B/P fuel stations springing up here, do you have Texaco?
I was told if you serve 12+ years you get a pension when your 65, and if you serve the 22, you get a pension from the day you leave (even if your only in your late 30's early 40's)
And burger king is wayyyyyyyyyyyy better than maccy D's!
Don't mean to be picky mate but, just in case there's any soldiers thinking of going a commission who think they can't because they left school at 16 - people commissioning from the ranks...in that they attend RCB and then have to complete 44 weeks at Sandbags....don't need the minimum academic qualifications as far as I'm aware. I may be corrected on that but I'm positive we had people in my intake without A-levels. They do send you on a pre-Sandhurst course to learn 'etiquette' and go and see plays etc...(all a bit farcical if you ask me!) But the full education reuirements for direct entrants don't apply as far as I'm aware.
People commissioning from Warrant rank direct to Captain as Late Entry Offficers certainly don't need the full acadmeic quals.
On degrees, as many have pointed out, not all officers have them. Your academic studies are not what interests Sandhurst. It is purely a year of intensive military training. At West Point (or ROTC) you spend 4 years combining the two. The Sandhurst principle works I think because the year of training is very intense and you've had plenty of time to 'let off steam', get wasted and sleep with fat women at University (of course I only ever pulled nice ones).
We did an exchange with West Point (as well as the 'Sandhurst Cup' which we've won 11 years in a row - gloat, gloat) and their guys would have much preffered to do an intensive course rather than have it dragged out trying to combine the two.
PS We also have many NCOs with degrees and A-Levels!
At the very tender age of sixteen years six months and four days I left my family & friends to join the Royal Marines, My mother had forgoten to teach me how to wash socks, clean my room or dust to any standard at all, this was immediately rectified by a team of monsters call The Training Team, Deal in Kent the days of sunshine and roses or was that shingle and speed marchs. Good Question Sisyphus, do the corp still have Junior Marines.Anwsers on a post card to..............
"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough."
Ginge... I beat you! 16 yrs 1 month and 4 days old My oppo beat me by 2 days!
There are now RM Medics. They do CTC and then go on to become fully qualified MA's, they also cover paramedic type things of First Aid in the field. It is looking like it is not very popular though, very few volunteers that I have come across but there was one in Nelson SickBay and a few in Haslar last year..
Drums beating, colours flying and bayonets fixed...
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Sorry to correct a member of the site, but the British Military allow its servicemen to go to war at 17.5 and not 18 as stated. After a public outcry following the murder of young soldiers in Northern Ireland the MOD has enforced a policy of preventing soldiers under 18 from taking an active part in operations there ( but not from being posted there), but general war continues with the 17.5 minimum age limit, hence the number of very young soldiers killed in places such as the gulf. Perhaps some on the site will remember the young British soldier (RRF) who was singled out by the media during Gulf 1 because of his young age, ie, 17.5, and who was subsequently killed in action. I am fairly certain soldiers of this age served in the Falklands too. For the record I joined aged 16 years, 6 months, 5 days.
Regulations must have changed since my day, 6 January 1959 to 28 January 1982. I was under age when I joined and I was not allowed to serve in a commando unit until I was 18 years and 3 months old. Albeit we had people in commando units younger than 18 years and 3 months, later in my career, we were not allowed to take them into active service situations.
I can recall having to weed out the under age guys before we undertook a Northern Ireland tour and the same regulations would have applied for any other active service situation.
We do take under 18s on tour in NI now but the poor bloke can't deploy until his 18th b'day. So CCTV.....stag on. Maybe the regs have changed on that?? I suppose the threat is now reduced somehwat as well so the risks of something happening in transit are far less as well.
In answer to Whitey's educational question. It may have changed since I left the UK, but unlike the North American system. The UK system requires children to go to full time school from the age 5, 4 in some cases. They have a longer school year than does North America, hence the leaving at 16. Once one had left school, one went into an aprenticeship. In my region that meant the shipyards, but that has all changed now.
It is now being considered in British Columbia to allow non academic students to leave school at 16. My daughter, a school teacher, views the proposed changes as supplying McDonald's with a never ending work force.
No worries, I don't know what the score with the Army and commissions through the ranks I can only speak for the RN/RM angle.
The minimum educational requirments for an RN/RM officer is 5 GCSE's C passes or above. The only reason a degree has become a sort of de-facto requirement is due to the high number of applications.
Sandhurst and the Army may be different I don't know, but then I would expect that its probably easier to get a commission in the Army than the Corps
My oppo beat me by 2 days!
