What are the positives and negatives of National Service?

[just_words]

If national service were to be introduced nowadays, it would not mean national military service as it did before. (Maybe it ought to have a new name, so that people who remember the old form of National Service would not automatically assume that the suggestion is to bring back conscription.)

 

Whether the OP intended to mean conscription, I don't know. The biggest single opponent of national conscription nowadays is the Armed Forces themselves, chiefly for the reasons already mentioned about training. A two-year tour in the Army isn't even long enough to become fully trained and do anything useful.

 

Yes!

 

We (I) are generally proud of 99.9% of our armed forces because they are responsible and dedicated individuals who understand why they are they in the first place. No way should we be forcing those who don't understand to join the forces and represent our country and allies.

[callippo]

Last time there was National Service the country wasn't filled with subversives and malcontent's.

 

oh yes it was, compared to what it was like before. There was a massive increase in crime, and especially youth crime, during WW2, that they kept quiet about so as not to lower morale.

[Bassman62]

No I'm not. What I'm saying is that the amount of training a soldier gets nowadays tends to be rather more than was given to National Servicemen and tends to take rather longer.

 

If you are only going to keep your conscripted soldiers for (say) two years, then by the time they've finished their training, they will be on their way home.

 

Basic infantry (not specialist) training took 10 weeks with a further 5 weeks when you reached your regiment.

Naturaly technical trades in the military took longer as they do anywhere. one course I attended lasted 12 mionths.

When Northern Ireland kicked off there weren't enough on the ground soldiers then let alone today, in march 69 they'd just disbanded mine and seven other infantry regiments so craftsmmen were often used to do footsoldier work.

[Bulgarian]

The UK has all-volunteer Armed Forces and has done so for many years.

 

And thats how it should be, you want people who want to do the job.

If you force people to do it they won't put the effort in, then what do you do, keep them in training until they do pass, regardless of how long it takes ?

[crookesey]

I missed it by 5 years, but would love to have done my 18 months. All the guys that I know who did it, thought that it was very character building. However I never fancied signing up for a 9 years stint, you have to be really committed to do that, and I wasn't.

[just_words]

My kids will do cadets anyway!

[Harleyman]

I was among the last to be called up for national service in mid 1960. By that time men reporting for national service were close to their 21st birthday instead of 18 which had been the age two years earlier.

 

What were the advantages on an individual basis?

 

For me it taught me to be independent and by the time I had finished basic training I was as physically fit and strong as any young man could ever hope to be. I'lll never forget my mother's reaction when arriving home on leave after finishing training I made up my bed first thing in the morning, brewed my own breakfast tea, ironed my civvy shirts before going out for the evening, polished my civvy shoes until they shone like mirrors. In short, 12 weeks in the Army taught me to think and do things for myself instead of relying on others to do it for me.

 

I was posted to Malaya to 26 Field regiment, Royal Artillery which was part of 28 Commonwealth Division composed of British, Australian and New Zealand army units based at Terendak camp, Malacca on the Straits

 

Despite being Gunners (Fireside Snipers as the infantry guys referred to us) we were often on jungle training exercises on the northern Malaysian border with Thailand. It was no picnic. Snakes, poisonous spiders, leeches and tigers were critters that were around us all the time and it would always mamage to pour down with rain at the unsociable hour of around 2:00 AM for an hour. We lost a man to Lepto, a germ transmitted into an open cut from a rat's utine in the water. The man had ignored the rule never to shave while on jungle patrol. We had to drop Paludrin pills into our water canteens to purify it and take anti-malaria pills the whole time we were in that country. We also lost 2 men to drowning.

When I returned to England for demob I felt I could handle anything that life could ever throw at me

 

What were the disadvantages on an individual basis?

The disruption of life for two years. The National Service pay which was lower than that of the Regulars even though we were doing the same job and exposed to the same hazards

 

What were the advantages on a nationa basis?

 

In the cold War years the country had a very large reserve of trained manpower to be able to quickly draw on in times of emergency. Every NS man had to serve 9 years in the reserve if I remember right. There was no need to go through the process of medically examining these men or spending 12 weeks of basic trainig in drill and the use of firearms.

 

National Servicemen came from all walks of life. We had several university graduates amongst my intake. Others had worked as surveyors, junior architects, chartered accountans and the army was able to take advantage of their higher education to be able to place them in trades that demanded a level of higher intelligence

 

What were the disadvantage on a national basis?

 

An all volunteer army is better motivated than an army composed of a high percentage of conscripts including better morale and dedication to getting the job done. Many NS men were not motivated as such although some of the biggest moaners and malcontents I knew were Regulars serving anywhere from 9 years and up.

 

I imagine that having to foot the cost of training, housing, clothing and feeding hundreds of thousands of two years conscripts must have been a burdensome cost on the national defense budget

 

Compared to what I experienced in Vietnam a few years later this was all something of a picnic by comparison however.

[crookesey]

I was among the last to be called up for national service in mid 1960. By that time men reporting for national service were close to their 21st birthday instead of 18 which had been the age two years earlier.

 

What were the advantages on an individual basis?

 

For me it taught me to be independent and by the time I had finished basic training I was as physically fit and strong as any young man could ever hope to be. I'lll never forget my mother's reaction when arriving home on leave after finishing training I made up my bed first thing in the morning, brewed my own breakfast tea, ironed my civvy shirts before going out for the evening, polished my civvy shoes until they shone like mirrors. In short, 12 weeks in the Army taught me to think and do things for myself instead of relying on others to do it for me.

 

I was posted to Malaya to 26 Field regiment, Royal Artillery which was part of 28 Commonwealth Division composed of British, Australian and New Zealand army units based at Terendak camp, Malacca on the Straits

 

Despite being Gunners (Fireside Snipers as the infantry guys referred to us) we were often on jungle training exercises on the northern Malaysian border with Thailand. It was no picnic. Snakes, poisonous spiders, leeches and tigers were critters that were around us all the time and it would always mamage to pour down with rain at the unsociable hour of around 2:00 AM for an hour. We lost a man to Lepto, a germ transmitted into an open cut from a rat's utine in the water. The man had ignored the rule never to shave while on jungle patrol. We had to drop Paludrin pills into our water canteens to purify it and take anti-malaria pills the whole time we were in that country. We also lost 2 men to drowning.

When I returned to England for demob I felt I could handle anything that life could ever throw at me

 

What were the disadvantages on an individual basis?

The disruption of life for two years. The National Service pay which was lower than that of the Regulars even though we were doing the same job and exposed to the same hazards

 

What were the advantages on a nationa basis?

 

In the cold War years the country had a very large reserve of trained manpower to be able to quickly draw on in times of emergency. Every NS man had to serve 9 years in the reserve if I remember right. There was no need to go through the process of medically examining these men or spending 12 weeks of basic trainig in drill and the use of firearms.

 

National Servicemen came from all walks of life. We had several university graduates amongst my intake. Others had worked as surveyors, junior architects, chartered accountans and the army was able to take advantage of their higher education to be able to place them in trades that demanded a level of higher intelligence

 

What were the disadvantage on a national basis?

 

An all volunteer army is better motivated than an army composed of a high percentage of conscripts including better morale and dedication to getting the job done. Many NS men were not motivated as such although some of the biggest moaners and malcontents I knew were Regulars serving anywhere from 9 years and up.

 

I imagine that having to foot the cost of training, housing, clothing and feeding hundreds of thousands of two years conscripts must have been a burdensome cost on the national defense budget

 

Compared to what I experienced in Vietnam a few years later this was all something of a picnic by comparison however.

 

National Service ceased in 1960 and all National Servicemen were demobilised in 1962.

[Bassman62]

I missed it by 5 years, but would love to have done my 18 months. All the guys that I know who did it, thought that it was very character building. However I never fancied signing up for a 9 years stint, you have to be really committed to do that, and I wasn't.

Ypu would done 24 months National service at the end as you were talking about.

If you signed on for three years you were paid regular soldiers pay.

[Harleyman]

National Service ceased in 1960 and all National Servicemen were demobilised in 1962.

 

 

Correct. I entered the army for NS in July 1960. The intake of NS men stopped a few months afterwards when NS was abolished.

 

In 1959 I was ordered to take a chest X-ray examination and for months afterwards heard nothing more. Then in early spring 1960 I was told to report for a full medical examination. Heard nothing more for three months, half convinced that I wouldn't be called up then at the end of June 1960 suddenly got a call up notice along with a one way railway ticket to the Royal Artillery training regiment in Oswestry, Shropshire along with a notification that my medical grade was A-1 and to be at Oswestry railway station on July 20th, 1960 to be picked up by army transport.

 

Those who entered the army at the same time as me and were posted to West Germany were held back for a further six months at the end of their service in 1962.

I got a choice of posting to the far east due to coming in the top 7 in my trade training class so escaped that