Benefits of Joining the British Armed Forces: Why Would You?

In a nutshell... why on earth would you join the Armed Forces? It's rubbish pay, and you could get killed.

Not only that, you're a bit left wing and believe in a protest against imperialism (you might even be one of those nutters from Muslims Against Royal Familes or whatever nonsense they are called) and speaking out for the British common man, therefore you don't want to join the UK Armed Forces. You could be a disaffected former member of the Or you might not believe in war at all despite the UK Armed Forces being primarily an expeditionary defence force for at least the past 250 years. It hasn't embarked upon any sort of conquest for centuries (you might argue Empire existed BUT that was started by trading companies NOT the Armed Forces).

Whatever your objections, and they are many, they'd be against everything you believed in.

Besides, you never voted for the ConDem government nor even deputy Nick Clegg nor even the PM David Cameron. So why should you join?

Well, to put it into perspective - your oath of alligence is to the Head of state, in this case the Queen and your Regiment not to the government. Utter tosh you might say as the British head of state is powerless. The Commons runs things. True.

But none can deny that indeed you do swear your Oath of Allegiance to the Squadron or regiment, most of whom are your fellow Britons; and often in the case of the Army people from the same town or county. These are the good folk that you back and protect in a conflict. Most of which are common men and women. The heart of industry of this country.

Secondly - the money is not THAT poor. It's lower yes initially but not in the long term. Look for an equivalent job as a civilian that has the benefits of the military equivalent and pound to a penny you actually WON'T find one.
A Chef on a cruise ship won't earn £16k PA when they start but one on a Royal Navy ship will - but that's just one insignificant example.

The basic benefits included in most armed forces jobs are:

1. Free medical and dental care

2. Good rent for often decent accomodation

3. Job security which is poor in the private sector. Albeit until 2011 the public sector was safe but ride out this financial storm and things should be right again by 2013.

4. 6 weeks paid holidays plus bank holidays. You'll never find this in a civilian company (maybe if you work in a highly paid financial job in the city or are a banker however).

5. Despite the public sector cuts, Armed Forces still has of the best pension plans on the market.

But be realistic

The UK's Armed Forces are one of the largest in the world in terms of power projection. Deployed in a number of serious armed conflicts throughout the globe, it's likely that you might find yourself in one of these conflicts.

Which you may not take to as much as the next person...

Harry Will eventually go back to Afghanistan

Prince Harry has been promoted to captain after completing five years’ service as an officer in the British Army. 

Harry's serving in the AAC and has voiced his desire of returning to Afghanistan. No doubt when he does, none of us will know about it but for how long the Royal family can keep it quiet is unknown. Not for long one would imagine. As soon as Harry disappears off the media radar people will begin wondering "well well well, where is he then?". Maybe a 2-3 months stint will do him rather than the normal 4-6 months?

Mad Mullahs will ask Harry to be killed

Despite all that, he definately deserves to go. It's what he wants, and regardless of the danger that he'll be a high profile target. After all what's the point of the state spending all that money training him up for nothing, which he has admitted himself - "I’d just be taking up a spare place for somebody else if they didn’t have me going out on the job." He's following in footsteps of his Dad, Uncle, and Grandparents et al in placing Military service as a normal but significant part of his life. We all know the Windsors have various faults but we cannot fault them on their distinguished military service (Prince Edward the exception). Something our politicians have a distinct lack of experience of.

Cameron, Obama, and Sarkozy vow Gaddafi must go - Regime Change then?

Looks like it's back to business once again for our Armed Forces.

Althought not quite sure we've quite got the logistics to just do it this time round. It's just been announced on BBC News that Cameron, Obama, and Sarkozy have said in a joint letter that there can be no peace in Libya while Gaddafi stays in power... mmmmm, looks like blatant regime change is on the cards then; despite a UN resolution clearly stipulating the contrary.

2003

The last time the UK got involved in regime change we got stung well and truely, and lambasted by the international community.
Funny too how the French have suddenly changed their foreign policy. Wonder why that is...? They were no where to be seen when we went into Iraq.

It's business at usual with Libya

Gulf War... we've been there and done it time and time again.

Yes we know it's getting a bit boring and most of us don't want to be involved in this conflict (afterall we've been involved in every major conflict this past 25 years AND had the Falklands War and Northern Ireland campaign at the same time) - our feelings are a conpunction not from left-wing political views nor dreamed up neo-socialism, but plain and simple weariness. The public, at least supporters of the armed forces and their familes, have suffered enough. But that's a whole different issue and debate.

The current one is that like it or not, we're involved in Libya and can't let the French do it (even if they did surely they'd make a mess of it at some point?) with the Austrians and Dutch. Not a great sound that is it.... Austrians and Dutch.

Foreign ministers from NATO countries are currently meeting in Berlin, amid differences among members over the air campaign to protect civilians in Libya. The UK and France have been pushing for other countries to increase military pressure on Col Muammar Gaddafi.

And rightly so. Basically for the things pointed out above - war weariness. Lets get other EU and NATO countries participating more and providing more logistics.

Let's just wait and see what transpires at this summit...

A Show of Gratitude to our UK Armed Forces

Well, it's about time we got started on this - long over due indeed.

But firstly, a big thank you to all the troops round the world, all the services for the work they are doing - it's a mostly thankless task mainly appreciated by close friends and family, and a few in the media. Other than that, the UK Armed Forces acts with what it can and with what it does, depending on the need and requirements of the time - Whitehall and the Treasury hold the purse strings and it just never seeems enough.  And in this time of cuts to the defence budget and commitments just about on every major continent - our troops need your support more than ever before.

Not only those that come back home but those that continue to suffer and those that never make it.

Thanks