What are the positives and negatives of National Service?

[Bassman62]

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 ?

They didn't want the job in WWI & WWII but they did it along with Korea, Malaya etc.

[Harleyman]

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.

 

There was a 200 pound bonus offered sometime around 1961 to all NS men if they signed up for an extra year as well as subsequently receiving Regular's pay of course. I declined to take it. I was fed up, homesick and tired of sweating bullets in the humidity and being eaten alive by mosquitos. My trade as a Technical Assistant Royal Artillery was in short supply and high demand at the time and I was subjected to a certain amount of pressure and bullying from my Section Sergeantt and the Battery Sergeant Major to take the offer. He even called me into the Battery office one day and said "'For a big strong bloke like you I never thought you might be a pansy"

 

That crack made me more determined than ever to be on that troopship back to England in June 1962

 

Another NS man named Jock McPhate who had boxed as a heavyweight for the Army took the offer. Jock was from the bad part of Glasgow and as tough and rough as they come. He had served so much time in the guardhouse that it had been added on to his two years as punishment.

Anyway after he signed up he was told that he had signed up past the expiration date of the offer and wouldn't be eligible for the bonus but would still be in for the extra year.

 

Jock went quietly crazy, went into Malacca that evening and after getting drunk smashed up a bar completely, tossing the juke box out into the middle of the street

 

He was court martialed, fined, dishonorably discharged and to serve sixe months in a military prison in England.

 

He was put aboard the same troopship as me and confined to the Brig for the three week voyage from Singapore to Southampton. I saw him up on deck one day taking a one hour breather under the supervison of an MP.

He told me "I may be inside for six months but I still cheated the ba*ards in the end like they cheated me"

 

I always remember that character. He was a complete reprobate as a soldier but the type who would have won the VC in any battle.

[crookesey]

There was a 200 pound bonus offered sometime around 1961 to all NS men if they signed up for an extra year as well as subsequently receiving Regular's pay of course. I declined to take it. I was fed up, homesick and tired of sweating bullets in the humidity and being eaten alive by mosquitos. My trade as a Technical Assistant Royal Artillery was in short supply and high demand at the time and I was subjected to a certain amount of pressure and bullying from my Section Sergeantt and the Battery Sergeant Major to take the offer. He even called me into the Battery office one day and said "'For a big strong bloke like you I never thought you might be a pansy"

 

That crack made me more determined than ever to be on that troopship back to England in June 1962

 

Another NS man named Jock McPhate who had boxed as a heavyweight for the Army took the offer. Jock was from the bad part of Glasgow and as tough and rough as they come. He had served so much time in the guardhouse that it had been added on to his two years as punishment.

Anyway after he signed up he was told that he had signed up past the expiration date of the offer and wouldn't be eligible for the bonus but would still be in for the extra year.

 

Jock went quietly crazy, went into Malacca that evening and after getting drunk smashed up a bar completely, tossing the juke box out into the middle of the street

 

He was court martialed, fined, dishonorably discharged and to serve sixe months in a military prison in England.

 

He was put aboard the same troopship as me and confined to the Brig for the three week voyage from Singapore to Southampton. I saw him up on deck one day taking a one hour breather under the supervison of an MP.

He told me "I may be inside for six months but I still cheated the ba*ards in the end like they cheated me"

 

I always remember that character. He was a complete reprobate as a soldier but the type who would have won the VC in any battle.

 

In 1961 you could buy a brand new semi on Fidler's field at Gleadless for £1700.00, so £200.00 would make a very satisfactory deposit, for the sake of another year's service.

[Shogun]

National service would not work now days the army is to professional,there is no place any more for thickos and wasters,they need educated people, the equipment used is a lot different from say 50 years ago ,the army know is a highly trained professional organization not a boot camp.

[Dress4Less]

In principle I think national service is a good idea but in the state this country is in and the cuts to the military is is an impossible thing to bring back. The army really has not got the time and money to train thousands of extra people that don't even want to be there in the first place.

[Harleyman]

In principle I think national service is a good idea but in the state this country is in and the cuts to the military is is an impossible thing to bring back. The army really has not got the time and money to train thousands of extra people that don't even want to be there in the first place.

 

Some kind of national service wouldn't be a bad idea for unemployed youth. Community service work with trade training in their spare time.

If they're drawing unemployment then they should have to give something in return