The TA Question

[Tab]

Over the last few days there has been a lot of discussion about what is called the revamp of the TA. What they plan to do next year during the latest reorganisation of the Army, is that when the Army forms it's new mutli regional battailions, that a TA battalion should be attached to it.
Now these TA battalions which would be expected to spend one year in three on tour,like Iraq or Afghanistan. They could also be expected on the other years to deal with what they losely call Homeland Security, which means theycould be called on to go to Northern Ireland or on riot control in England, now those that do not agree with this new idea will be asked to leave the TA.
This in my mind raises some questions, just how many men could cope with sort thing financialy and how many employers would think of employing some one who is in the TA. Now what would happen to your firms pension pay out if you where killed or badly wounded while in the TA, do you think that the firm would pay out or would they say it's a government problem.
Now I feel strongly that the Government is trying to cover it's defence obligations on the cheap, and I wonder just how long the TA would last ubder this form of stress. When they started the TA I thought the Governments idea was to have a pool of fairly well traind men and women who in a time of crisis could take up some of the slack while the rest of the country mobilized, and not be used to cover cuts in the regular Army.

[lew]

Tab this is the first ive heard. I know my det would end up being shut down if this is to be what the TA are used for as most of them are self employed.

I dont see why the goverment cant just give the armed forces that little bit extra cash and not do our defence on the cheap .

[Tab]

There was a large article on page 8 of The Daily Telegraph on Monday 30th August, plus there have been letters and further articles every day since.

[Vladek]

So if (or when) this happens what kind of employer is going to be prepared to only have you there for every 2 out of 3 years??? If this is going to happen people may as well give up their job and join the army or just give up the TA cos its unreasonable to expect someone in a small or large company to hold your job open wilst you're in another country.

Isn't it the Territorial Army? Not a part time "lets occupy another country" army.

[owdun]

As Tab said, the original idea for a Territorial Army, was to have a nucleus of trained civilians who could be mobilised when the country was under threat. It was not raised to supplement the Regular Army in times of peace. This shite government is using it for the wrong reasons, so that it can run down regular forces, and save money to waste on its battalions of lawyers and judges via legal aid for the world.


Aye Owdun

[Pasha]

There was once a body called the Emergency Reserves, which functioned in much the same way as the Regular Reserves, i.e. trained soldiers ready to be mobilised on individual basis to augment regular units. In the mid-late 1960's this was combined with the TA under the unwieldy title Territorial Army Volunteer Reserve, though that was later changed back to TA. It was a silly move and probably one that will be reversed. Since the mid 1990's it's been pretty obvious that the primary requirement from the TA was for it provide a pool of individual augmentees.
Regards all

Pasha

[bigbart]

And when you say one year in three in tour, does that mean they spend the full year on tour? How many people would volunteer for that? The TA volunteers are TA volunteers because they don't want to be regular soldiers. Usually because of work or family commitments, or maybe because thay simply don't want to be spending months on end overseas.

Personally, I think if they carry out these plans, they won't have much of a TA left.

[Tab]

Bigbart, from the the article read, that is what I took it to mean, up to a full year oversea's. Also reading between the lines you could also get called out for duty in the UK on the other two years, it appears to me you would only be part time when they did not need you. As I said it appears to defence on the cheap.

[AC]

As usual the Government seem to be trying to take the "el-cheapo" route in sorting out the countries Military. Many T.A Soldiers are family men/women - and also a fair number are self-employed. The way I see it is that if this 1 in 3 year tours come into effect, the T.A are going to lose a lot of these people.

Simply put, if it comes into effect, I can see T.A numbers and recruitment dropping off in a big way! When I joined, it was explained to me that I could be deployed overseas at some point in my career. However, being told that you will be deployed overseas for a years tour every three years is a different story entirely - and as has already been said - some people simply can't just take a whole year off.