I think anyone who ever went in deserves one!
11 Nov 2018
Dear LPG,
In 1952, after having left school, I worked for 3 years before I had to go into the army. Every young man had to serve two years back then, which was the only reason that I did.
My regiment was the Royal Army Signals Corp and as well as everything else, I was forced to take a cut in pay, leaving my earnings less than 10% of what they were before I was forced to go in.
I think I speak for the vast majority of the boys that trained with me, when I say that we truly hated being shouted at and talked to as if we were bits of dirt on a shoe.
We were tempted to do things but then made to work as if achieving them was a punishment. I remember being told that any member of our squad who could pass their driving test would get time off in Poole, on the Dorset Coast. I did my best and I was one of the first to achieve this. So, I was a driver; and my prize was to be one of a group to be given the job of cleaning the toilets out with a toothbrush!
During the early stages of our training we were all asked if we preferred to stay in England or go abroad, and I asked to stay, but we were all shipped off to Korea and then we were sent to a transit camp in Japan. While we were there we were sent to an R & R camp (Rest and Relaxation), but we had no pay, so we found ourselves unable to afford to really appreciate the experience.
Basically our training conditioned us to just do what we were told (whatever the Sargent shouted at us) whenever we were told. I remember once being told to drive the truck through a gate, which was possibly mined. There was no time to think, I just did it, which was pretty worrying. There was another time when someone else was sent out in my place. He died that night and I spent a lot of time thinking that it should have been me. There were also times when we laughed a little. We made the best of our situation although I have to admit to avoiding getting too friendly with the others just in case…
I left as soon as I could, having made the best of what was a really a bad experience, at the end of our tours we were each awarded a medal for our service in Malaya which I remember each November the 11th, when like many others I honour the ones that did not come back from the war.
I don’t think I did anything particularly special, and know that there are many others out there who did so much more, but I do really think that just getting through any basic armed forces training was a reason to, at the very least, get a medal.
PP, Lee
When PP talked to LPG, he mentioned that he had heard that, if a serviceman changes his mind and ‘wants out’ these days, it is now possible to ‘Buy yourself out of the army’. LPG took a look at the Internet and found the following information.
