research questions

[davidcm1991]

as ive said in introductions, im currently writing a film about the early stages of the iraq war, but theres a few questions i need to ask to make sure im getting my facts right.


if you joined the army (passed selection and all training and stuff) in say march 2001, what would you be doing before the iraq war began? obviously youd probably be training, but what would it include?
there were rumours that the iraq war was going to happen before it did, would this have changed the training in any way? if so, what would happen?
what date would you be told your going to fight?
how would you be told your going to fight?
how long would you have to say goodbye, pack your things, etc?
what date would you leave?


most of them probably have about 20 different answers, and if so, id like the average answer, based on how most soldiers were told.

thanks a lot for the help.

[ofens]

Hi davidcm1991,
Sounds like an interesting project.

I think a lot of the basic information you're looking for about the protagonist's army training and early career experiences might be found on the Army website http://www.army.mod.uk .
Have a look through it, search under training and lifestyle.
Try similar searches on Google.

In the meantime hopefully you'll get some info and/or contacts from people on here, many of whom are either about to start training (so should know about some of it) or are in or recently completed training (so will know a lot about it!).

I'd also suggest you have a thorough search of the forums here, you will pick up a lot of info and start to build a picture of things.

Best of luck with your project and career.

ofens

[ofens]

A short answer to start you off:

there were rumours that the iraq war was going to happen before it did, would this have changed the training in any way?

Basic training would not be altered.
The activities of trained ranks probably would be...

Do any of your mates at school/college have relatives in the forces?
They might be able to help, and also they'll be able to explain further any info you collect but don't understand.

[MSI64]

If you passed Basic in March 2001, you would not have gone out to Iraq you would have been on Rear Party.

It also depends on your age Under 18 and you would not have gone.

I was posted into a Unit that had already deployed out to the Sand in 2001 I had 10 days to pack kit, get my jabs, have a tooth removed and fly out to meet my unit. Oh and had no pre deployment training.

But I had been in since 1993!

[davidcm1991]

ok, thanks. were there any people who would have went straight from england to fight in iraq? if so, when would they have passed? what rank would they be? (something i hadnt thought of yet) how long would they have to say goodbye? etc.

[MSI64]

Probably not straight from training
the Orbat is normally done about four weeks befroe deployment, am sure some people went straight out.
The Infantry guys on here would know more about instant deployment?