Very miffed to say the least

Oh, and

 

Tell her she gets the thumbs up from para as scouts,cadets,brownies,boys brigade etc all provide a wide range of good experiances

As a lad i was a scout and to be honest thats probably what moulded me to cope with the forces crap

Dude you over the time you have been on this forum have been one of the types of bloke that ive looked forward to meeting round the campfire one day

 

Fair dues to you Zed
And I think you just hit the nail on the head (as they say)

 

Look forward to it

 

...and I've started back at the bottom yet again, but this time I'm staying there, I rather like it.

 

Spot on again and without making me feel small or useless

The time is now and all i have is who i am plus my experiances and learnet skills and knowledge


To be really honest im probably concentrating too much of what other people expect of me despite being a house husband

Up here women look after the kids while blokes work so im allready strange in most peoples eyes locally

As long as i provide for my family thats all that matters and thankfully ive a small war pension that does

I need money for myself though so i can explore my own life outside of being a father and a husband


All this mindset will dissapear when im busy with my new job

I am driven and ive got get backup and have anothergoability

The thing is round here steve you cant get £15 for a days work no matter how hard you work

I know a lot of people are wondering why im moaning but yet i pop to the pub once a week
Its because i cut hedges and mow lawns for a few beers put in the tap at the local
Id rather have the cash and it would probably work out cheaper to give me cash than buy me beer but its old country ways

 

Yup i understand that ive had a carreer once and i dont want another

Id just like a job i remotely liked doing that covered the household bills and if i got praise for doing that job well that would be enough as a bonus for me

I miss my dad he would have the answer and send me in the right direction

 

I certainly can't knock the forces. I work In A team of engineers and most are ex navy/raf one army. All are top people and great at there jobs. Time saved in forces made them this way. EXCELLENT engineers and and great with customers.

We had a new guy join our team from uni with a masters in computer network management and lasted two weeks as he thought he knew it all from books and uni assignments. He knew sod all and had to show him everything 4 or five times.

The boss got him off our team and now will now only take on ex military guys because they listen and take it in and will tell you if they don't understand instead of nodding there head and agreeing with every thing you tell them.

BIG thumbs up from me for our excellent service men and women.

Rant over.

 

You get all sorts here...I never really mixed in England...

Last week I met a ex major [signals] ,he had been in the forces 45 years and worked up the ranks ,he had come up to chat to me to congratulate me for bringing up a good and solid son [obviously my son had been biting his ear off] i remember majors as been far away and distant but this one was great.....

he started talking about his overgrown garden ,of course my business card was already clenched in my hand I started talking about gardens and now he is on my client list...

I never felt the need to talk about when I was a infantryman because we had a lot in common anyways,the ex forces is always the "joker" if I feel I am losing the sale.. I certainly would not show it if I was talking with someone with no forces background...I thought with the major he top trumped me already...

I have worked with ex forces before and lots I have not liked ,they seam to have a certain something [maybe chip on the shoulder]that makes them behave odd...

 

We all get tarred with the same broad brush, that if we are ex military we wee soldiers, but like I said there are very few that are actually soldiers, ie infantry.

Look in my area (aviation) in the army, navy or Air Force and there are thousands of us, all highly trained in either fixed wing or rotary, or in some cases both!!!! British airways have recently started a program to train service leavers from aircraft background to replace their aging maintenance staff.

All over the military there are many folks with many skills above the running around with a gun that is the stereo type

And we can look smart, be on time and professional, its just what we all have drummed into us!

 

Im absolutely amazed that there is prejudice against ex-forces personnel. Anyone who has taken the oath and provided any kind of military service have made a commitment to protect the country and do the will of our democratically elected representatives and potentially committed to making the ultimate sacrifice. We could, and should treat the "victims" of combat a damned site better and their rehabilitation into society should be a priority for us all. Many service personnel dont see active service but may still be traumatised by association with colleagues who are killed and injured.

Its amazing that those who potentially would have found themselves in "protected occupations" during the last war, who dont give a monkeys about the country other than themselves who more than likely support UKIP might employ migrant workers rather than an ex British serviceman.

I could rant all day. The mental health support for ex services isnt very good and if this is the way they are treated then gawd help us. I have to say my bias is the other way when im employing and I find ex services to be reliable, hard-working, competent... I could go on and Im sure there are expetions but less so than in the general population.

Rant nearly over but all services are "proper" whether they fly a desk, wield a spanner or go into combat!

 

Bit different these days though owing to the fact that we havn't actually had the threat of invasion since ww2. Many people's attitudes are completley different about the "Forces" now in relation to those in the past.

 

Yeah reading that back this morning i sound like an arse

 

Your opinion may be similar to those of 40 - 50 years ago but there are alot whose isn't. As I said, when people can't see any iminent danger from invasion or direct threat, they don't really know what the forces do especially when posted overseas in conflicts that are politically motivated by other governments. And as for " having the balls" to go into situations, well, thats their choice. It certainly wasn't the choice of my father unless he was to chose to be a concientious objector, which he wasn't. Given the choice, he wouldn't have gone.

 

I agree with paras comments, and have been told to expect some wariness because of many of the things he highlighted!!

Many employees are scared of the professional approach of ex military and the can do mentality so won't take the ex military because they don't want to be made to look bad and then passed over for promotion, if someone is good at their job, they will have nothing to fear, but just speaking to mates that are already out, they see so many in civvi street that are what we class as bone idle and lazy, compared to what we consider the normal approach to work!!

Not surprising many industries ( gas and oil, aviation, trucking) are now targeting ex military for the exact qualities that others are wary of

Oops, that too went on a bit. I'm just starting my transition, and so far during my work placement I am seeing the good workers do things the same as the military, others try to " pull the wool" as we say!!