Recruitment Drive For the British Army

Zambia

MacBuster wrote: »

Thats fine when your 18 or 19 and I agree but getting down the road money does talk

Agree totally

CZ 453

Does anyone know what the irish results requirements are for the british army officer entry are???Thanks

flyingoutside

iwishicould wrote: »

Not atall, happy to answer any questions.

Well I've been over to UK to visit both infantry and signals corps and have chatted to Officers and Soldiers, played with their equipment and subsequently got drunk in their mess'. Pro's and Cons are difficult to say so I'll just tell you what I know, make your own conclusion
I can't speak for the Royal Irish as I haven't visited them yet but I have had a general Infantry visit. Got to see they're equipment (SA80, LAW, GPMG, BOWMAN, Bergans, Javelin etc), got a ride in a Warrior and got beasted through an assault course. From what the Officers I've been talking to, out of the 3, one has had a tour of Iraq as a Mechanized Infantry Platoon commander, one had a tour of Afghanistan as a Rifle Platoon Commander and the other a tour of Iraq as a Rifle Platoon Commander and susequently attached to a Colonal.
Each Officer has had different experiences, the first two were only out of Sandhurst, done their Platoon Commanders course and then sent abroad. These were young lads, 20 - 23 years old. The third fella was 25 when he joined and now at 30 is a Captain. If you join Infantry older they will give you shorter stints abroad as Platoon Commander and try to push you up the ranks. He was attached to some Colonal for 3 months over there and then to intelligence. Far quicker than you normally would be.

For Sigs the two Officers (Captains) I chatted to lived very different experiences. The first once he finished Sandhurst was attached to the Gurkhas and sent to Nepal for three months. Then came back and sent to Florida for a year attached to USCENTCOM. When that tour finished he was sent to Afghan with his Gurkha Squadron.

The second chap came straight out of Sandhurst and headed to Iraq, spent 6 months there setting up comms between battalion HQ's. When he came back he was given 10months to get his squadron ready for Afghan. They went out with Landrovers with the objective of driving into far mountainous areas to draw out the Taleban. Very interesting!

It's difficult to draw pro's and cons between different Reg or Corps, the Sigs guys were doing very "SAS" style stuff with the landrovers in Afghan while the older Infantry Officer was more of an assistant to a particular Colonal - although he did say that he got to sit in very interesting meetings...

Being an Infantry Officer will more likely see you action on frontline in Afghan, while Sigs you may not be on frontline but the chances of you going to USA, Nepal, Germany, Cyprus etc is very high. All in all from what I have learned, joining as an Officer, even for only 5 years, you will experience much more than you would ever in a lifetime in Civvy life.

Hope that makes some sort of sense....

Honest question why the british army?

iwishicould

shezer wrote: »

Does anyone know what the irish results requirements are for the british army officer entry are???Thanks

Minimum pass leaving cert I think. Results usually don't matter aslong as you do well in both selection tests (Briefing and Main Board).

iwishicould

flyingoutside wrote: »

Honest question why the british army?

Action, adventure and the thrill of doing something completely different. Look at the opportunities you get in the BA, you won't find a quarter of them in the PDF.

neilled

flyingoutside wrote: »

Honest question why the british army?

Any number of factors I would guess, its presumably easier to join the BA than the defence forces - the defence forces take around 35 cadets for the army and have something like 900 applications for those places. Larger numbers go to sandhurst so the numbers are more in your favour. If you had laser surgery its banned by the df but accepted by the British Army

wider choice of roles in the british army eg. you won't be commanding main battle tanks in the defence forces or taking part in large scale airborne/helicopter ops. In short more toys for the boys.

More and faster promotion ops - Their Majors are always seem a fair bit younger than our Commandants - with a larger force there are presumably more avenues of promotion.

Iraq and Afghanistan. Mad as it sounds, some people will want the stuff that involves bringing wholesale quantities of death and destruction upon the enemy as opposed to peacekeeping or peace enforcement with the defence forces. The BA go on more operations with "the gloves off".

blade796

MacBuster wrote: »

The Pay and Conditions here is now one of the Highest in Europe bar the Scandinavians, people in the BA have their families on income support and some are on the breadline...Poor Ba5tards

<Snip> All links/referrals/encouragements to join removed - Hagar <snip>

MacBuster

blade796 wrote: »

Not true BA squaddies start on 16k sterling per yr Sgts are on around 27 plus perks.

During basic training squaddies are on around 12k sterling.

I have two younger brothers in and the pay is crap...They are on income support for their families, dont try to Bullsh1t a Bullsh1tter

Zambia

MacBuster wrote: »

I have two younger brothers in and the pay is crap...They are on income support for their families, dont try to Bullsh1t a Bullsh1tter

With all due respect Mac for a single bloke the pay is all right for a family I can see where they would struggle.

Personnal factors like what are my bills should be considered before taking any job.

The BA takes unqualified people and trains them up from scratch. and after basic pays them 16,000 a year. Thats not bad to be fair, granted you risk your life but its not like anyone forces you to join. its a bit like what neilled has stated there are other factors.

MacBuster

Zambia232 wrote: »

With all due respect Mac for a single bloke the pay is all right for a family I can see where they would struggle.

Personnal factors like what are my bills should be considered before taking any job.

The BA takes unqualified people and trains them up from scratch. and after basic pays them 16,000 a year. Thats not bad to be fair, granted you risk your life but its not like anyone forces you to join. its a bit like what neilled has stated there are other factors.

Correct and Right but it is not all roses and chocolates...

flyingoutside

iwishicould wrote: »

Action, adventure and the thrill of doing something completely different. Look at the opportunities you get in the BA, you won't find a quarter of them in the PDF.

i understand the more oppertunities, the PDF is a bit of a joke but why the british exactly?

do you any grief for being irish?

flyingoutside

neilled wrote: »

Any number of factors I would guess, its presumably easier to join the BA

How come people from the republic join? can anyone?

MacBuster

flyingoutside wrote: »

i understand the more oppertunities, the PDF is a bit of a joke but why the british exactly?

do you any grief for being irish?

Sorry Mister Expert the PDF a joke please enligthen us all on your extensive Military knowledge as it seems you have F*ck all....

iwishicould

flyingoutside wrote: »

i understand the more oppertunities, the PDF is a bit of a joke but why the british exactly?

do you any grief for being irish?

From old colonial days Britain still has a law declaring Irishmen can still serve in the British Army as they have done for hundreds of years.

Why the British exactly? Sure why not?

Any grief for being Irish? No I have never gotten any grief for being Irish in Ireland.

And the PDF is not a joke, they just don't have as much opportunities as are available in the BA. You'll find some of the finest Officers and Soldiers in the PDF.

Any chance this thread can go back on topic, I'm offering ADVICE to anyone even thinking of going over. Stop asking me mong questions.

Riddle101

flyingoutside wrote: »

i understand the more oppertunities, the PDF is a bit of a joke but why the british exactly?

do you any grief for being irish?

Have you ever seen what the PDF are like? have you worked with them or trained with them? I don't know where people get this notion that the PDF is a joke, it's far from it, even better maybe you should check out the ARW and see if that is a joke

Dub13

Riddle101 wrote: »

Have you ever seen what the PDF are like? have you worked with them or trained with them? I don't know where people get this notion that the PDF is a joke, it's far from it, even better maybe you should check out the ARW and see if that is a joke

Why are you assuming he has not checked out the PDF...?or maybe he is just not interested in joining the PDF.

minidazzler

May I ask why this has gone so off topic...It was simply put here cos a Guy knows a guy who can help with BA Recruitment.

There is no real need to compare the PDF to the BA....There are so many reasons that people would choose to go to the BA that it is pointless to argue the whole "But Ireland..."point.

Can we please just get on with the thread. Let people ask questions about the recruitment process and let it lie????

Well thats it. Personally, since I can't join the PDF for certain reasons (Relating to the DF's slightly Backwardness) I will be applying for a US Green Card at the end of this year. and Failing that I will probably apply for the BA or RM.


So back to the topic please, Thanks lads!

blade796

Riddle101 wrote: »

Have you ever seen what the PDF are like? have you worked with them or trained with them? I don't know where people get this notion that the PDF is a joke, it's far from it, even better maybe you should check out the ARW and see if that is a joke

What has the ARW ever done ? Not being disrespectful, but reputations are actually won on the battlefield.

Until that time there will always be a question mark.

zig

blade796 wrote: »

What has the ARW ever done ?

oh no here we go again

back on topic, what is the upper age limit for the BA?

Hagar

Let's keep this on topic.

If you want to go off on a tangent, start your own thread, thanks.

iwishicould

zig wrote: »

oh no here we go again

back on topic, what is the upper age limit for the BA?

28 for Officers, 33 for Soldiers.

Zambia

iwishicould wrote: »

28 for Officers, 33 for Soldiers.

Corrrect again.

RexMundi

Ok I have no military involvement whatsoever but even I have heard that our PDF are one of the best peacekeeping units out there and the ARW are the best that the PDF has to offer.

Dub13

RexMundi wrote: »

Ok I have no military involvement whatsoever but even I have heard that our PDF are one of the best peacekeeping units out there and the ARW are the best that the PDF has to offer.

Ok for The Last Time this thread is not about the PDF or the ARW.

Publius Scipio

OK, this guy is obviously trying really hard to get people to join the British Army. Why? What's in it for him? And why are people so interested in joining the British Army anyway? These people would happily have seen us wiped off the face of the map up until they lost the war in the North. Not an IRA supporter, before you ask, but I have a lot of military experience and have fought in a couple of wars and I can tell you that noone I have ever met who was in a proper firefight has come out of it wanting to boast about it or even repeat the experience anytime soon. A good friend of mine was killed near me in Afghanistan at the age of 19 and I was the one who had to sit with his family at the funeral and comfort his hysterical mother and sister. For any of you to think that your death will make one iota of a difference in any war shows a complete naivete that frankly boggles my mind.
Anyway, yes there is a recruitment bonus for every friend of yours that you get to join the Brits. A mate of mine recently tried to get me signed up and was going to get a 200 pound bonus if he could. I declined obviously. The Brits are only looking for bullet catchers in Iraq anyway, so why the hell would I want to do that? The Royal Irish Regiment is full to the brim with staunch loyalists so if you want to be called a fenian and a taig for the rest of your lives, then sign up and have at you. I have experience dealing with those bastards as a translator and they despise the Irish. I remember talking to one guy from Dublin and he couldn't wait for his tour to finish so he could go AWOL when he got home. Anyone who joins the Brits, or the Legion or the Marines or any other army in this day and age needs to have their head examined. Thats my two cents anyway.
By all means, reply to me and tell me that I'm an idiot and that I haven't a clue what it's like and that I have a yellow streak or whatever. Work all that latent anger out now and maybe you won't feel the need to go to the Middle East and have your brains splattered all over some road in Iraq, or have your arms and legs blown off in Afghanistan and end up having to have your parents change your colostomy bag every few hours. Or maybe you'll be lucky and only have to kill a few people. Then in a few years as you are doing something like walking your dog or picking your child up from school, out of nothing, their faces will pop into your mind and you will start blubbing like a baby or maybe become physically sick with guilt. Won't that all be so ****ing exciting. Sorry to the moderator for swearing.

Hagar

May I ask who you fought for?

Leadership

Royal Signals or Royal Irish........

It would be a no brainer for me, the Signals is one of the most boring roles out there. If you like the idea of being a REMF and sitting in a tent for 6 months at the time on ops then its a great role. Signals is also up there as having the most bullsh1t for the sake of it. So join the army and sweep the world, paint grass green and trees brown (I kid you not). On the plus side the training in telcoms is good and jobs after service are generally easy to find. Also monthly mess bills can often be more than your monthly salary especially after you buy your number 1 dress and crates of Port for the rest of the mess as signals are known for high mess bills. The only higher ones I know are the guards and the old Blues and Royals (well most cavalry units). SAS type activities in land rovers are not exciting you will only relay the coms or fit out the special forces radios. The Signals SAS troop is a joke of the Regiment BTW.

I was an officer in the Royal Engineers but went through the ranks, at Sergeant I did the late entry commissioning course. I actually left school with no qualifications and I was well on the way to getting in to trouble with the law. The army straightened me out and I was also well educated. Royal Engineers was a good role, you are all over the world and the best job in the world is a 6 month construction tour with the Royal Engineers!

Pay is fine, ok you will never be rich but you will have roof over your head and three cooked meals a day even if you are broke. If your married then rent on the married quarters is competitive. If your stationed in the UK without the overseas allowances then it is tough going financially so expect the spouse to work as well to make ends meet. If you are posted to Germany for instance with the allowances and semi tax free status (cheap petrol, cigarette's, booze and a tax free car) its a comfortable life.

Lastly cushy trips to florida and like are extremely rare and are limited to just a few percent of people in the forces.

Zambia

Publius Scipio wrote: »

OK, this guy is obviously trying really hard to get people to join the British Army.

Incorrect I am not even trying at all, it makes no odds to me who joins. I have stated that.

With all due respect if someone wants to join that is there decision everyone knows full well the chance of major injury or death. Together with all the other factors you have mentioned including PTSD , which is not nice.

The last post however gives a fair view.

Hagar

Zambia232 wrote: »

The last post however gives a fair view.

The last post gives one man's experience, another man's can be very different. Don't allow yourself to think that everyone in the BA will greet you like a long lost brother.

Zambia

Hagar wrote: »

The last post gives one man's experience, another man's can be very different. Don't allow yourself to think that everyone in the BA will greet you like a long lost brother.

This is true but its still a fair view re a lot of the questions posted wages etc