[pussypop]

I'll make no secret of the fact that I have been thinking about the army as there are some things that appeal to me. Apart from the "gambling with my life" aspect of it, if I was to join I would want no nasty surprises about the demands that were made of me as a person. I know the life is regimented but the kind of question I want to ask is, say when the 9-5 has finished do you get to 'clock off' so to speak and do your own thing on/off base? And how much leave do you get? And questions of that nature.

I know this might sound like I am considering it for the wrong reasons; quite the opposite infact. If I went for it there would be no messing around and 100% would be given so I wouldn't want anything to put me off once I got into it. I know they must put their needs first and would aspect a man even to hold station in the face of near certain death. But I would want to know if doing my own thing in my spare time would be a thing of the past or not.

[Drewski]

(Original post by pussypop)
x

It's a bit of a hard question to ask. It varies a lot depending on the level of the Army you're in, the job you're doing, whether you're deployed, whether you're in training or not...

Generally, yes, you'll get time off at the end of the day and end of the week, but not always. And it's not guaranteed. And it could be cancelled at any moment. But yeah, bit of a tough qustion to answer I'm afraid.

[PatrickD]

I know in the RAF if you're just based at a British base doing a day-to-day job then you will normally work 9-5 with weekends off to do whatever you like, providing you uphold the law of course. You may periodically have to work nights or weekends depending on your specific role and of course you will go on tour abroad for months at a time but any free time you do have is yours to do as you please, on or off base.

I don't know if the army is quite as free as this but any free time you do get is exactly that.

[cid]

Yea you are pretty much free to do as you wish in your own time, unless you are in training. Once out of training as long as you turn up for first parade capable of working you can do as you like, sometimes you will be 'gated' but its rare and usually only implemented when you are on a duty or visiting another camp.

You will have to provide emergency contact details to the army, i believe officially you are supposed to inform your unit if your going abroad over a leave period or weekend, a lot of people don't bother. Also you will have to get permission to visit certain countries, or you did have to in 2009, a friend of mine wanted to visit Russia (he likes random adventures) and got told he wouldn't be allowed.

Bare in mind you have your free time, however it is your responsibility to be prepared for the next day, so room inspections, kit inspections, making sure you have the right equipment ready for the next days tasks, some evenings you can find yourself working into the evening even though officially you are knocked off.

Leave is 30 something days a year, usually get bank holidays off unless you are on a duty.

also no sick days, your either seriously ill and bedded down after examination by a doctor or you suck it up and get on with work, I've had 1 sick day, 24 hours forced bed rest after passing out from exhaustion, that was on tour ...and i took some ribbing off of the other lads for that all in good fun mind you.

[Clip]

It varies wildly between a total mince (a bit of PT in the morning, an hours "work" and then knocked off for the day - half day Wednesday for sports and then early knock off Friday) and a total nightmare for things like duties, exercise and obviously deployment.

[pussypop]

I timed myself in the shower today, it took 15 minutes from climbing in the shower to drying myself off and spraying anti perspirant, is this an okay shower time? I know you've got to share the showers with other men hence why I'm asking. Also I know they are quite strict on hygiene and stuff, do they strip you naked and conduct an inspection of you're body? I must admit that would be difficult to take.

[Mickimus]

(Original post by pussypop)
I timed myself in the shower today, it took 15 minutes from climbing in the shower to drying myself off and spraying anti perspirant, is this an okay shower time? I know you've got to share the showers with other men hence why I'm asking. Also I know they are quite strict on hygiene and stuff, do they strip you naked and conduct an inspection of you're body? I must admit that would be difficult to take.

When your'e in training knock about 12 minutes off that and you will be fine

In 9 years I never had to get naked for any check, though I did get the cough test a few times, I might've liked it I cant remember.

Feet inspections were common on exercise and during training though.

[ProStacker]

(Original post by pussypop)
I timed myself in the shower today, it took 15 minutes from climbing in the shower to drying myself off and spraying anti perspirant, is this an okay shower time?

Seriously? There won't be 15 min of hot water wherever you get posted never mind you hanging around that long. During training you'd need to be a lot quicker about your personal admin than that. I don't want to know what you do in there, but it would need to be 1/3 of the time at best.
You will be sharing rooms with other blokes and living in each others pockets 24 hours a day. You need to be able to do stuff quickly and efficiently and be OK with being around other blokes all the time. If you have issues with that you need to address them or think hard about it.

[JustWonderingWhy]

That shower question is just weird. I had a few queries before joining but none related to the length of time given to washing and deodorising. Perhaps you have not grasped some of the slightly more serious consequences of military service?

[Clip]

(Original post by JustWonderingWhy)
That shower question is just weird. I had a few queries before joining but none related to the length of time given to washing and deodorising. Perhaps you have not grasped some of the slightly more serious consequences of military service?

I did my training during the Army's brief flirtation with mixed training platoons. Day 3, after kit issue and our first ever PT, one of the corporals says: "Ok, back to the block get washed and back here with the speed of a thousand fleeing gazelles,"

Much later, we're all standing around waiting for one missing girl. As we had no female NCO the DS couldn't go looking for her. They sent the others in to look for her, and she's eventually found having a Galaxy-advert-style bubble bath on one of the other floors. How we didn't laugh when we got collective punishment.

[JustWonderingWhy]

(Original post by Clip)
I did my training during the Army's brief flirtation with mixed training platoons. Day 3, after kit issue and our first ever PT, one of the corporals says: "Ok, back to the block get washed and back here with the speed of a thousand fleeing gazelles,"

Much later, we're all standing around waiting for one missing girl. As we had no female NCO the DS couldn't go looking for her. They sent the others in to look for her, and she's eventually found having a Galaxy-advert-style bubble bath on one of the other floors. How we didn't laugh when we got collective punishment.

Brilliant - on a similar theme I remember one OCdt packing her pyjamas on the first exercise...

[Clip]

(Original post by JustWonderingWhy)
Brilliant - on a similar theme I remember one OCdt packing her pyjamas on the first exercise...

Amazingly, something similar happened to us. On first exercise, everyone empties out their bergans for inspection, and this one girl has brought her pillow.

Not to pick on the girls, but another time doing odd jobs driving around Pirbright, an OCdt running past tripped over and fell on her face. There was a crack and a fizzing noise, and for a second, I was afraid that she had a thunderflash or something stuck in her jacket - it turned out two of her ammo pouches had cans of dietCoke in them, both of which burst.

[Drewski]

(Original post by Clip)
Amazingly, something similar happened to us. On first exercise, everyone empties out their bergans for inspection, and this one girl has brought her pillow.

Not to pick on the girls, but another time doing odd jobs driving around Pirbright, an OCdt running past tripped over and fell on her face. There was a crack and a fizzing noise, and for a second, I was afraid that she had a thunderflash or something stuck in her jacket - it turned out two of her ammo pouches had cans of dietCoke in them, both of which burst.

I only got through IOT on the strength of the many Boost bars I'd hidden within my webbing...!





If any of my DS are about then obviously I exaggerate

[Clip]

(Original post by Drewski)
I only got through IOT on the strength of the many Boost bars I'd hidden within my webbing...!





If any of my DS are about then obviously I exaggerate

On Commando course, that's kind of recommended (or at least it used to be). For the 30 miler, get chocolate bars and chop them up into cubes and put them in the pocket of your windproof to eat on the way. Maybe fallen out of favour since the advent of Celebrations.

[Drewski]

(Original post by Clip)
On Commando course, that's kind of recommended (or at least it used to be). For the 30 miler, get chocolate bars and chop them up into cubes and put them in the pocket of your windproof to eat on the way. Maybe fallen out of favour since the advent of Celebrations.

We had the usual "all your bags will be searched at the start of the exercise, don't pack anything that isn't issue" chats everytime. Not once did they find what was basically the sweets aisle of Tesco in amongst my various bags and pockets.

[c471]

(Original post by Drewski)
We had the usual "all your bags will be searched at the start of the exercise, don't pack anything that isn't issue" chats everytime. Not once did they find what was basically the sweets aisle of Tesco in amongst my various bags and pockets.

rowntrees jelly, pack of was the hot tip of p-coy.
like litterally the stuff you water down for trifle, stick it in your pocket, smash some down with a tonne of water, works pretty well.

Although avoid lemon flavour if you get sick of strawberry. It does not go down half as well, i had lemon repeating on me for the best part of 4 miles.

[pussypop]

JustWonderingWhy, what are these "more serious" issues you speak of? The reason I would be worried about the shower thing is because I wouldn't want an embarressing situation, like the instructor kicking the door down because I am taking too long or something.

Prostacker, don't worry, if I was pleasuring myself in there it would take closer to 20 minutes!

I timed myself again and it took 10 minutes. Don't forget that includes drying and anti pirspirant spraying time so it's about 7:30 minutes in the shower and the rest drying myself.

Also I have another question, when I take a sh1t I like to wash my arse out in the shower (after having wiped it of course!) so would I be able to do that? Or would they think I was weird? I could use wet wipes afterall.

[Drewski]

Stop trolling.

[cid]

(Original post by pussypop)
JustWonderingWhy, what are these "more serious" issues you speak of? The reason I would be worried about the shower thing is because I wouldn't want an embarressing situation, like the instructor kicking the door down because I am taking too long or something.

Prostacker, don't worry, if I was pleasuring myself in there it would take closer to 20 minutes!

I timed myself again and it took 10 minutes. Don't forget that includes drying and anti pirspirant spraying time so it's about 7:30 minutes in the shower and the rest drying myself.

Also I have another question, when I take a sh1t I like to wash my arse out in the shower (after having wiped it of course!) so would I be able to do that? Or would they think I was weird? I could use wet wipes afterall.

I wouldn't want an embarressing situation, like the instructor kicking the door down because I am taking too long or something.

door? half the showers don't even have curtains, and you will be wedged up against at least 2 other men in that shower, 30 men trying to wash and change with 4 showers and be back on parade in under ten minutes, you do the maths.

We used to splash ourselves with the sink, lather up, jump in, avoid eye contact, rinse off and jump back out drying ourselves as we ran back to our rooms.

what exactly is taking you 7.30 minutes? wet soap wet done.


Also I have another question, when I take a sh1t I like to wash my arse out in the shower (after having wiped it of course!) so would I be able to do that? Or would they think I was weird? I could use wet wipes afterall.

They will think its weird, but they've probably seen far weirder, we had a guy who liked to take off all his clothes fold them up and place them on the cistern before he took his sh!t

Bigger things to worry about, would be the contents of your course, despite what many a common folk would believe its not an attendance course, people can and frequently do fail to measure up and find themselves on a train back home, try not to sweat the small stuff, 90% of the time its just a case of copying what everyone else is doing, if 9 men in your section are doing one thing and your doing something different ask yourself why.