Today’s Forces recruitment crisis follows yesterday’s redundancies
SIR – We are told there is a crisis of recruitment in the Armed Forces. Six years ago, I was invited to an open day at our local Army base, where I spoke to several young soldiers who had just been made redundant because of cutbacks. They were all heartbroken; a couple said that the Army was their family, another young man said that it was all he’d ever wanted to do.
The Ministry of Defence never ceases to amaze.
Maggie Hughes
Gnosall, Staffordshire
SIR – Surely someone within the MOD can see that there are young people willing to join up who are put off by the long recruitment process.
May I suggest that we reopen traditional Army recruitment offices in county towns, manned by veterans who will sell the military life to the young, and that the process of joining is reduced to one month.
Mothers who take their offspring to sign on could be paid £1,000 once the recruit has successfully completed training. It would be cheaper than the proposal to pay £10,000 to ex-soldiers dismissed for drug offences to rejoin, and far more positive in improving the current recruiting mess.
Gavin Howard
Warminster, Wiltshire
SIR – The announcement that military recruiting from across the Commonwealth is to be increased may help to solve the staffing challenges of the Armed Forces in the short term.
It will, however, do little to resolve the frustration faced by hundreds of young British men and women who aspire to join the military. The current Uk-based digital application process, which is run by a private contractor, can leave potential recruits waiting for up to 10 months. As a consequence, some find alternative careers.
I joined the Royal Marines aged 16 and, at my medical, it was discovered that I was a colour blind. Thankfully, my enthusiasm had already convinced the recruiting sergeant. Had I applied in today’s system I would never have got in. Recruitment needs a human touch, not an email from a robot. Colonel David J Reynolds (retd) Plymouth, Devon
SIR – There is nothing new about joining the Armed Forces without having UK residency.
In 1967, having never left New Zealand, I replied to a Fleet Air Arm recruiting advertisement in an Auckland newspaper. I joined the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, in 1968 and, after 40 years service with the Royal Navy, retired in 2008.
Commander Theo Ballance
Somerton, Somerset
SIR – The recruitment crisis is another example of how out of touch politicians are. Unsurprisingly, young people are reluctant to join the Armed Forces if they believe that on return from a war zone they will be prosecuted in a civilian court for doing their duty.
Sue Crouch
Eastcombe, Gloucestershire