My boy wants to join the army.any advice please.

[Cynic]

If you join the army can you guarantee from the start that you won't end up with someone pointing a gun at you? Do you just have to sign up and then see what happens or can you apply for specific positions from the start?

[BettyBooHoo!]

Oh gosh! I can't say i'd be too excited if it were my son! Scary, i'd be worried sick.

However, on the good side, unlike so many kids these days, your son clearly has thought about his future and has ambition. That is something you can certainly be proud of.

Although i'd be worried, i'd still support my son in his decision (whilst secertly hoping he changed his mind!)

Good luck. x

[Agent Orange]

However much the recruiting adverts make it look just like a video game where you have unlimited lives, the army is all about killing people. Killing people because they belong to a different country or have a different coluor skin to you. And every time a british soldier kills someone that means some child loses a father, a wife loses a husband and a mother loses a son. Is that anything to be proud of?

 

It's about being told what to do and just mindlessly following orders. There's nothing glamourous about being sent to interfere in another country's internal conflicts and getting blown up in a conflict that is none of more about capitalism and oil than freedom.

 

If I had a son who wanted to join the army I would urge him not to. If he wants to make the world a better place I would tell him to find a career that involved saving people's lives rather than taking them. And if he then ignoring my advice and joined the army anyway I would disown him.

 

You really have a simplistic view on matters, don't you?! The armed forces are about more than just war, they have in the past and continue to provide vital humanitarian work. They provide vital search and rescue services and have helped in many natural disasters to save people. The list goes on and on...!

 

Anyhow, back to the OP. A career in the armed forces can be very rewarding despite what people, such as Gordon, have said. I would not stand in the way of my child if they so wished to sign up.

[harvey19]

From my experience as an ex soldier I would advise him to join a corps and learn a trade if he is determined to join the army.

If my son had wanted to join the forces I would have directed him towards the RAF.

It must be his choice though, when I joined up my mother told me, you have made your bed now you've got to lie on it.

[Alien]

Its a good job not everybody thought like that in past times we would have been speaking German now and calling each other Hans or Heinrich

 

 

But...If you read the statement from the viewpoint that if all thought and acted upon those views wars would become obsolete? So, in effect if everyone "thought like that" there'd be no wars...you think?

 

We tend to use the excuse that there are many nutters out there ready and willing to sacrifice it's people in the name of <chose whatever you want>, but in effect they only have the power because we give it to them.

 

I would strongly advise my kids against...I certainly wouldn't disown them.

 

I agree with many that the services will give an excellent level of training probably second to non. There is a price though...your neighbour would sacrifice your child rather than theirs, but at the same time defend the war machine by telling everyone how heroic and brave your dead son was.

[mystes]

hi there my boy whos 16 leaves school next month..he is very interested in joining the army i have sent off for a free dvd from their website. .does anyone out there think its a good idea for him to join and can anybody give me some advice as a parent.he does seem pretty keen on the idea.

 

As a parent I Should be worried coz for the best thing u wanted from your bloodline is a peaceful thing but then if your child is so much interest of it, then have a heart to heart talk with it....

 

He is young and still very young and maybe someday he will have a change of heart. Army is not an easy thing.. the only guarantee is their LIFE. One life. One boy u had..

 

Sorry but I will be frank to you, call me selfish. but Id rather be my future son will be a businessman/musician but not in a field of war. Cause everytime my son will be in that situation as a mother..u cant help but always pray for safeness's. Sad but true

[PuressenceUK]

At the end of the day it's his life not yours - all the advice in the world won't change that. You'll have to let him make his own path in life.

[Harleyman]

There's always a price to pay for those who've had the experience of being in a war. You dont forget it easily. It has a nasty habit of creeping back on one for some time afterwards.

 

Just a comment meant in a well meaning way.

[Agent Orange]

If you join the army can you guarantee from the start that you won't end up with someone pointing a gun at you? Do you just have to sign up and then see what happens or can you apply for specific positions from the start?

 

A recruit chooses a trade or whatever before signing up. After basic training, which covers weapon handling, drill and adjusting to army life, recruits then go on to their specialist training. After that, it's pot luck where they go. As for guarantees, there is no such thing.

[Frazer1974]

Tell him to go for it, grab it with both hands. Yes it's a risk, but if we didn't take any risks in life we wouldn't achieve anything.

 

I'd rather have a headstone that read "Here lies Frazer, he tried his best and made a difference" than one that read "Here lies Frazer, Left school, got an ordinary job like everyone else and didn't really make a difference."

 

He will make friends for life, and will have support for life. Service personnel stick together whatever happens, and both he and his family will have support and admiration of the whole country and comradeship from the several armed forces associations, British Legion, etc...