Britain's, Territorial Army

BullyBeef

Listen now pod cast. For part 1 & hear part2 on BBC LW radio 10th Feb at 11am
Martin Bell investigates how the part-time Territorial Army is surviving full-time warfare.

The TA was at one time dismissed as 'weekend warriors', but now the military admit they couldn't do without them. Martin finds out what makes ordinary people want to give up their civilian life to fight in Afghanistan.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qcjdn

OS119

its not RDF bashing - though it might be DoD/PDF bashing - to note that with employment protection, funding and training, reservists can do anything that regular troops can do.

there's nothing intrinsicly 'second rate' about reservists, indeed the effect of funding, training and 'parity of esteem' can be seen in the fact that 21 and 23 SAS have made up the bulk of British Special Forces in Afghanistan for years - and that SAS (v) officers take turns with their regular counterparts for command the deployed force.

while many SAS reservists will have ex-regular and TA backgrounds, very few will be ex-regular Special Forces, and significantly more will be civilians with no previous military experience whatsoever...

just shows hat funding, training, employment protection and a willingness to take reservists seriously can acheive...

twinytwo

OS119 wrote: »

its not RDF bashing - though it might be DoD/PDF bashing - to note that with employment protection, funding and training, reservists can do anything that regular troops can do.

there's nothing intrinsicly 'second rate' about reservists, indeed the effect of funding, training and 'parity of esteem' can be seen in the fact that 21 and 23 SAS have made up the bulk of British Special Forces in Afghanistan for years - and that SAS (v) officers take turns with their regular counterparts for command the deployed force.

while many SAS reservists will have ex-regular and TA backgrounds, very few will be ex-regular Special Forces, and significantly more will be civilians with no previous military experience whatsoever...

just shows hat funding, training, employment protection and a willingness to take reservists seriously can acheive...

In the Uk there are companies that encourage involvement in the reserves... could you really see that happening here?.. By anyones standards the TA and other reserve units are very well trained. Take the RMR for example they have to pass all the commando tests the same as the regular RM's.. the training is just done on a weekend basis thus takes longer.

iceage

Same goes for all the Regiments, Para's etc.

As a point of interest, anyone got accurate no's of TA that are in Afghanistan at the minute?

OS119

not sure of the exact numbers, but it floats around the 10% of deployed forces mark - for some roles (Med Spt, CIMIC, SF) its much higher, but it'll be lower for 'line' infantry and aviation. some theatres are almost entirely reservists - Cyprus, Balkans etc...

there's no reason the employment climate for reservists couldn't change in Ireland, it just takes legislation, a good argument (that reservists make good employees) and publicity. i'm quite sure that companies aren't that enthusiastic about corporation tax, but the state gives itself big, heavy sticks to ensure their 'co-operation' in that that matter and they comply - no different from employment protection legislation.

iceage

Cheers.