Armed forces day

I have a lot of respect for the men and women who serve in the forces. They have to put their lives on the line and are integral to this nation

I do think they are used by our politicians in the wrong way but it is not their place to question they must trust that our leaders tell the truth alas this does not seem like the case these days.

So I wrote this thread to honour the brave for their sacrifice. I am not a big supporter of heaping celeb like praise on the armed forces like doctors I feel some people should remain un-sung heroes because of the importance of their work so please if you like leave a comment to commemorate armed forces day.

Yes.....Hats off to these people prepared to put their lives on the line to keep us safe...

Totally agree - they deserve our respect.

However I totally agree they are being totally buggered about by the Govt (past and present).

The belief that you can get rid of loads of regular soldiers and replace them with reservists just boggles the mind.

Nothing against the reservists here, most are very capable people (I was in the TA for 20 years - although not sure if I fit into the 'capable' bracket), however if you are trying to hold onto a job, or get a job and expect your employer or prospective employer to accept you will disappear for months at a time - and still expect your job when you get back - madness.

One fine recruiter for the TA was unemployment, but now if you are unemployed and expressing an interest in joining the Reserves, don't expect the Dole people to make things easy for you, no idea how they are going to recruit the numbers they need.

Bloody Politicians.

The TA do a half decent job (and i know some are more than capable) it only takes 1 bad apple to ruin the cart though. Especially if that someone is a 'higher up' and doesn't understand actual respect. On a side note, all the regular lads and lasses i've sailed with have been excellent and understand that a lot of the time they're treated like trainee's.

The whole every armed forces person is a hero is a problem for me as then how do you measure those that do something truly heroic. They all deserve our respect for doing a job that most wouldn't/couldn't do but at the same time I think too much praise is a bad thing (although i do like how it's shining a light on some of the homeless issues).
If any of you are someplace where their's something going on then go for the day out, it's normally a good laugh with lots on. Same goes if you get the chance to go to Navy Days or IFOS. Cracking days out

How long have we been "celebrating" Armed Forces Day? Seems to be a relatively recent phenomenon and I wonder why we've suddenly decided it needs to be pushed to the forefront of public consciousness.

I'm not sure to be honest Dave, I know IFOS has been going for ages (did my first one when i was a nipper) and Navy Days as well (pulling them flags up is a pain).

I think we have been pushing it a lot more to the front lately and not quite sure why either. Especially as they always look hypocritical when they start cutting funds or making people redundant (and then hiring more later)

We have plenty of people that make our lives infinitely better but I'm yet to see a day celebrating the tireless work of those people in, say, sewage treatment or refuse collection.

It's a tough one definitely Dave and i get really uncomfortable with all the talk of ALL of our Military are heroes etc as I don't see it like that but in this climate, quite often you can't say that. As it's automatically you putting them down

They signed up to protect the Country and they do a tremendous job no doubt but they we're forced to and I'm sure they had a vague idea it might involve at some point, bombs and guns fighting so why are we being asked to put our hands in our pockets to pay over and above what already comes out of our taxes? Isn't it the Govt/MoD's responsibility to take care of them, not people shaking tins everywhere and treating you like a c*nt because you don't want a wristband.

I'm also uncomfortable with the idea that we should have extra collections for nurses and donate a day's pay for them (like they ask footballers to do). Again our taxes are being mis-spent by the various authorities and the public are expected to pick up the shortfall. What's the big idea with having these pay-as-you-go TV's at each bedside on certain wards. Used to just be a telly on the wall or in the patients day room but no, now countless millions are being sp*nked away on this sort of thing.

Countless military personal and healthcare professionals are being let down by the Govt but then so are countless millions of people who do a job that may not be as "sexy" as soldiering or nursing but we'd be in a pretty pickle without them.

I must be sexy as hell. Was the former and now the latter.

To paraphrase Bill Hicks - I'm for the war but against the troops.

aja424 wrote:I must be sexy as hell. Was the former and now the latter.

I also used to work in the NHS, but never saw myself a worthy of special treatment. My mate's a paramedic and he's forever on C***book talking as if Paramedics should be given tickertapes parades every lunchtime.

I'm basically a penpusher and keyboard noodler and make no bones about it. I'm pretty good at what I do, it's a relatively specialized "field" but nothing someone couldn't pick up in a few years (they wouldn't be as good as me but then again I've been doing it nearly 20 years). However, even though what I do is "important" from some perspectives I'm less important than the guy who makes sure we have enough toilet paper to wipe our ar$es with. Ask people if they'd prefer a niche clerical job to be done to a high standard of have the facility to wipe their sh!tty backsides and I think I know what the answer would be

Good point. Not gonna give up my gold plated pension and lump sum voluntarily, almost 38 and counting down the next 17 years so I can retire at 55. Probably won't happen though, Canada beckons just waiting for the paperwork to go through and all possibility of going at 55 goes out the window along with the generous pension.