Cilpot
Pretentious Schmuck
stormbind said:The draft does not exist in the UK, it is barbaric, and it is too European
I agree that it may be old-fashioned now, but when the big red dog was lurking around it was perfectly understandable.
If Drafted, Would You Serve?
- Thread starter GerrardCapashen
- Start date
I agree that it may be old-fashioned now, but when the big red dog was lurking around it was perfectly understandable.
nonconformist
Miserable
SuperBeaverInc. said:
Sorta like saying you're part of the Swiss navy.
Bozo Erectus
Master Baker
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2003
- Messages
- 22,389
If I got a draft notice I'd blow my nose with it and toss it over my shoulder.
Some interesting responses. For those who answered no, is it specifically to do with
iraq, or would you refuse doing military service altogether??.
Because someone has to do it.
For some, it seems nothing will stop them serving. I have a friend who went through royal marine selection (and failed) so this article amazed me.
__
Captain has his leg amputated to stay in Marines
By Richard Savill
(Filed: 26/05/2004)
A Royal Marines officer who was badly injured in a 1,000ft climbing fall has become the first Commando to return to operational service with an artificial leg after he asked doctors to amputate his limb.
Capt Jim Bonney, 26, faced having to leave the Royal Marines and the loss of an active life, including a love of canoeing and climbing, after the fall while on an adventure training exercise in Alaska three years ago.
Fighting fit: Capt Jim Bonney completed the annual combat fitness test, with 25kg pack, in under two hours
After various operations his right ankle had degenerated to an extent that further surgery would have meant fusing his foot and removing all movement.
When he realised his life would be greatly enhanced with a prosthetic leg he told doctors to remove his real one below the knee. Following the surgery, he has fought back to full fitness and has resumed the military career he chose when he was a boy.
Capt Bonney, who is married to Kirsty, 28, a trainee doctor, and has a four-month-old son Zak, is due to go on a landing craft officers' course in September. He is expected to specialise as an officer responsible for planning and co-ordinating the deployment of one of the Royal Marines raiding squadrons.
"I've got my life back," Capt Bonney said yesterday at the Royal Marines Commando Training Centre at Lympstone, Devon, where he has undergone intensive rehabilitation. "It has been worth all the effort.
"When I had the accident I thought like any Royal Marine it was a broken ankle and it would mend. But it became clear over time that it was more complicated than that.
"The reality was that my ankle was destroyed. It was never going to work properly. I was going to have to have it fused and fixed at 90 degrees.
"I went to my wife and told her my ankle was in bits and it was not going to get any better. I had come to the end of the road. There were lots of tears. We did a lot of research and decided amputation was the way forward.
"Doctors took more persuading because it is not every day that a surgeon is asked by someone in his mid-20s to have his leg cut off."
Capt Bonney said he had wanted to be a Royal Marine since the age of 12, when his grandfather took him to a Commando museum.
"Throughout my life I haven't looked at anything else," he said. "It hasn't been an easy journey but any Royal Marine would have reacted in the same way as I have. It is the way we do things. We have an ability to get through problems. The journey has required determination and focus. The banter in the Royal Marines has kept me going at times. Climbing and canoeing are the things that make me tick and I faced losing them."
Capt Bonney said the part played by his wife, whom he married two years ago between the accident and the amputation, had been "pivotal". "It is difficult to overstate the amount of support she has given."
Mrs Bonney said: "Initially I was just glad he was alive. As time went on it was obvious that it wasn't getting any better. We couldn't even walk hand in hand because he was reliant on crutches.
"I knew that if he set his mind to getting his life back as an amputee he would do it."
The operation was carried out in December 2002 and 14 months later Capt Bonney, from Petersfield, Hants, passed the annual combat fitness test. He completed an eight-mile run in boots and full kit, including 25kg in a bergen rucksack, in one hour 53 minutes. Royal Marines have to do it in two hours.
In April he took part in a 24-hour canoe race over 125 miles that involved lifting his kayak around 79 hazards.
Since his operation, Capt Bonney has been in charge of recruits injured in training.
Lt Col Nick Arding, Royal Marines Commanding Officer at Lympstone, said: "Capt Bonney epitomises the qualities expected of a Royal Marines Commando.
"His drive and will have been inspirational not only to injured recruits under his command but to all ranks under training."
iraq, or would you refuse doing military service altogether??.
Because someone has to do it.
For some, it seems nothing will stop them serving. I have a friend who went through royal marine selection (and failed) so this article amazed me.
__
Captain has his leg amputated to stay in Marines
By Richard Savill
(Filed: 26/05/2004)
A Royal Marines officer who was badly injured in a 1,000ft climbing fall has become the first Commando to return to operational service with an artificial leg after he asked doctors to amputate his limb.
Capt Jim Bonney, 26, faced having to leave the Royal Marines and the loss of an active life, including a love of canoeing and climbing, after the fall while on an adventure training exercise in Alaska three years ago.
Fighting fit: Capt Jim Bonney completed the annual combat fitness test, with 25kg pack, in under two hours
After various operations his right ankle had degenerated to an extent that further surgery would have meant fusing his foot and removing all movement.
When he realised his life would be greatly enhanced with a prosthetic leg he told doctors to remove his real one below the knee. Following the surgery, he has fought back to full fitness and has resumed the military career he chose when he was a boy.
Capt Bonney, who is married to Kirsty, 28, a trainee doctor, and has a four-month-old son Zak, is due to go on a landing craft officers' course in September. He is expected to specialise as an officer responsible for planning and co-ordinating the deployment of one of the Royal Marines raiding squadrons.
"I've got my life back," Capt Bonney said yesterday at the Royal Marines Commando Training Centre at Lympstone, Devon, where he has undergone intensive rehabilitation. "It has been worth all the effort.
"When I had the accident I thought like any Royal Marine it was a broken ankle and it would mend. But it became clear over time that it was more complicated than that.
"The reality was that my ankle was destroyed. It was never going to work properly. I was going to have to have it fused and fixed at 90 degrees.
"I went to my wife and told her my ankle was in bits and it was not going to get any better. I had come to the end of the road. There were lots of tears. We did a lot of research and decided amputation was the way forward.
"Doctors took more persuading because it is not every day that a surgeon is asked by someone in his mid-20s to have his leg cut off."
Capt Bonney said he had wanted to be a Royal Marine since the age of 12, when his grandfather took him to a Commando museum.
"Throughout my life I haven't looked at anything else," he said. "It hasn't been an easy journey but any Royal Marine would have reacted in the same way as I have. It is the way we do things. We have an ability to get through problems. The journey has required determination and focus. The banter in the Royal Marines has kept me going at times. Climbing and canoeing are the things that make me tick and I faced losing them."
Capt Bonney said the part played by his wife, whom he married two years ago between the accident and the amputation, had been "pivotal". "It is difficult to overstate the amount of support she has given."
Mrs Bonney said: "Initially I was just glad he was alive. As time went on it was obvious that it wasn't getting any better. We couldn't even walk hand in hand because he was reliant on crutches.
"I knew that if he set his mind to getting his life back as an amputee he would do it."
The operation was carried out in December 2002 and 14 months later Capt Bonney, from Petersfield, Hants, passed the annual combat fitness test. He completed an eight-mile run in boots and full kit, including 25kg in a bergen rucksack, in one hour 53 minutes. Royal Marines have to do it in two hours.
In April he took part in a 24-hour canoe race over 125 miles that involved lifting his kayak around 79 hazards.
Since his operation, Capt Bonney has been in charge of recruits injured in training.
Lt Col Nick Arding, Royal Marines Commanding Officer at Lympstone, said: "Capt Bonney epitomises the qualities expected of a Royal Marines Commando.
"His drive and will have been inspirational not only to injured recruits under his command but to all ranks under training."
This I don't understand. The Canadian military may be small, but it's not much of a challenge to coast allong with group mentality.SuperBeaverInc. said:
I would rather be in a small elite military than a big stupid one
test_specimen
hope lost
- Joined
- May 20, 2002
- Messages
- 2,200
You've got to show me a military that is not stupid.
Hitro
Feistus Raclettus
I live in Germany and as Adler already mentioned we still do have conscription (a remnant of the past...) and thanks to being male I was drafted. I then had to write a laughable essay to get accepted as a conscietious objector.
Which meant that they made me do social work for that year. Now the positive side of that is that it at least contributed something to society compared with the joke that basic training is these days. The negative side is that it still was government infringement on my freedoms.
Which meant that they made me do social work for that year. Now the positive side of that is that it at least contributed something to society compared with the joke that basic training is these days. The negative side is that it still was government infringement on my freedoms.
thestonesfan
A Client of Ron Kuby
test_specimen said:
I'd rather just put in my time and go home. I have faith in my ability to survive.
Besides, the government exists to push citizens around. You guys are okay with forking over a significant percentage of your livelihood in taxes(or at least, okay with everyone else doing it). How is military service any different? At least you get paid for it. Would I like it? Hell no. Is not going to war worth leaving the country or going to jail? Not to me.
I see some hypocrisy here. Socialists proclaim they would run from a draft, yet they continue to pump votes into making the government bigger and badder.
At any rate, I'd feel like a sissy if I ran and hid.
thestonesfan
A Client of Ron Kuby
stormbind said:Good! That's the spirit... to the front line with you...
Avoiding the front line would be one of the abilities I want to become adept at.
thestonesfan
A Client of Ron Kuby
stormbind said:
Bah, I'm officer material. I've played most of the Command & Conquer games.
Hayek
Old Whig
I'd flee (I'm not particularly keen on staying in my country anyway, so I wouldn't feel as though I'm losing anything) or - if my chances of escaping were too small - fake severe ignorance.
In WW2, officers were often shot by their own troops who didn't want to follow insane orders. It became so bad that the requirement to be an officer was (1) knowing left from right, (2) being able to properly set a table, and (3) being inherently stupid enough to want the jobthestonesfan said:
We are talking about lowly officers here. They aren't exactly going to conscript generals!
Laughing Gull
charts, graphs, databases
nope because they wouldn't take me. i'm a reject. 
nonconformist
Miserable
One of my teachers, who is in the TA said that the army needed more intelligent people nowadays. They don't need people to run up and absorb the bullets anymore.
I heard that too, but that's a very British idea and we don't have draft anyway so the point is mute.nonconformist said:
The emphasis in British military seems to be on small (professional) units where any member could find command thrust upon them.
samildanach
Necrophile
Given the low numbers of coalition combat casualties in the recent war. I wouldn't mind being drafted and put on the front line - bouncing along in my MBT taking small arms and rpg fire. I'd rather being doing that than being two hundred miles away from the front sitting in a cafe, crapping my pants realising a suicide bomber has just walked in and is about to do the whole place.
If I wasn't given an MBT to tool about in, then I would conscientiously object on the basis that war wouldn't be fun and I would take my chances with the cappucino and the suicide bombers.
If I wasn't given an MBT to tool about in, then I would conscientiously object on the basis that war wouldn't be fun and I would take my chances with the cappucino and the suicide bombers.
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