‘Being a reservist is an incredible buzz’
actually quite enjoy it but, as reservist Lance Corporal Jim Smith, 37, a selfemployed electrician from Mansfield, Notts, tells me, it gets much more exciting than this.
Smith spent eight years in the Royal Engineers and found he couldn’t get the same buzz anywhere else. So he came back as a reservist.
He says: “The best bit is jumping out of a C130 Hercules from just 800-1,000 ft! There’s no room for error at that height and on night jumps you can’t even see just how close that is. It’s an incredible buzz.”
As Smith knows from his previous experience in the Army, the reserves are tested just as hard.
“You are set a standard and are expected to keep it by yourself,” he says. “This regiment is one of the best in the Army – if you’re not up to that standard all the time then questions will be asked.”
Corporal Tom James, 26, from Hull, says he was hooked after seeing a demonstration in his home town and signed up while working in a packing plant.
“I always loved crosscountry running so my fitness was almost there but it’s a lot of things beyond that too,” he says.
“I like telling my mates what I have been up to – the wow factor of it.”
Many former soldiers are being enticed back as reserves – they can get a £10,000 incentive over five years alongside their normal reserves pay.
Ex-squaddie Cpl Purvis admits the money, as well as the excitement, is hard to refuse.
He says: “I left the Army in 2008, went backpacking around the world and then I thought, ‘What do I do now?’
“The Army was all I knew. You get £200 once you pass your selection, £300 for training, then £1,000 for passing your Royal Engineer training.”
He says the bonuses of being a reserve don’t stop there. “I’ve just come back from the Isle of Skye with an Army group,” he says.
“You get paid to go and learn skiing as well as mountain biking, skydiving and climbing. That’s incredible.”
Even though reservists are part-time, full-timers don’t view them any differently, says L/Cpl Smith.
He says: “I’ve never heard any of the soldiers talk differently to me. They accept you as one of their own so long as you can do the job they can.
“When I left the Army first time I missed the crack the most. You won’t get that banter anywhere else – certainly not being a self-employed electrician anyway!”
With a commitment of as little as 27 days per year you can fit more adventure into your life in the Army Reserve. For more details, visit www.army.mod.uk/ armyreserve.