Latest Blog posts from GeminiForces.co.uk

2 weeks until I leave HM Forces

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I have been on termination leave for nearly 2 weeks now, 15 days and I shall be Mr Civilian. My last week was fantastic, free and I shall never forget it, another bag of memories to add to those gained over the last 20 odd years.

I have started working for a communications company, which offered me a job after I completed a 4-week work placement with them. They have just asked me to help run a project in South Africa for 12 months, starting in November. This means a big pay rise and a chance to see a country I have never been too. Any advice on working in South Africa would be very much appreciated by anyone reading this?

To say I am over the moon is an understatement! I thought once I left the forces all adventure would be over. I thought as a civvy I would lead a normal mundane working life and the best days of my working life were behind me. I know I have landed on my feet with this one and not everyone is this lucky. This is going to create a number of positions, I just hope I can introduce a couple of ex-military personnel and help secure them jobs. So watch the Gemini Forces job boards around October time for telecomm jobs.

Unfortunately all those due to leave the forces will not be as lucky as me. Many Service leavers will be faced with rejection and the prospect of months of unemployment and those with a pension will not get any help. A number of friends with families can’t even get on council lists for housing and private renting can be expensive.

The point is; those of us who land on our feet and are in a position to help those Service Leavers who not so lucky, we need to network and point them in the direction of a job. Some just need a break not a hand out; all they want is a chance to show their worth. I got the help I needed through a networking contact and I hope I do the same in October.

Resettlement…..

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I left HM Forces over 14 years ago when resettlement was very different! The course I was to undertake at a college in Grantham was cancelled on the morning I turned up, reason; not enough people to make the course financially viable! (Some things never change!) So due to the late cancellation I took some very seemingly pointless courses at short notice, I bet that is a tale that could be repeated over and over by our ex-military members here!?

So for Service Personnel that are coming up to their transition period or are preparing in advance, what advice, tips or guidance would you offer? E.g. Preparation, courses, CV, training etc.

Or if you are coming up to your transition why not post a question or query, as many of our members and colleagues at Gemini will have encountered, understand and gained experience from their own resettlement and perhaps guide you in the right direction or enlighten you with the positives / negative they met.

6 weeks until I leave HM Forces (Last Week)

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I return to my unit on the 28th June for my last week. Finish my clearance-chit, de-kit and too say farewell to friends and get ready for my dine-out. Looking forward to them all. Not looking forward to the leaving-do arranged by the Ladies & Gents of the Bty. Not looking forward may be the wrong term, scared should sum it up.

The Dine Out

Tradition is such an important part of military life and carries HM Forces from strength to strength. Sadly some of those traditions are being lost. For my dine out the mess will be suited and booted in George Boots, Mess Dress and miniatures.

A 5-course meal prepared by some of the best chefs in the world, with lots of wine followed by several rounds of Port and Speeches. Mr Vice will be my younger brother and it will be his first time in the mess as Sgt. I just hope he has to buy, as many
bottles of Port as I did, as MR Vice. It should bring many memories flooding back as he gives the Loyal Toast.

Then stood around the bar reminiscing over last 22 years and listening to some of the funniest stories you will ever hear, to the early hours.

The Leaving Do

Moral is also key for any unit; any all-rank do, helps a unit to gel and always increases moral. Except for any BSM (CSM), who has to deal with all the mishaps that always occur on these occasions? It not often the leaver makes it through half night, we have all seen the amount of drink consumed. I am not as young as I used to be, it will take me days to recover.

De-Kit

I have accumulated 3-4 times the amount of kit that I have on my flick. I still have my Chinese Fighting Suit that I have never worn. Most of the kit will go to others in the Bty, apart from the boots etc (Ammo boots, 2 x CBH boots, Cold weather boots, jungle boots, 4 sets of various desert boots, a pair of Warrant Officer shoes, George Boots, Army trainers, Black plimsolls), I don’t think I shall have to wear a varied amount of footwear again. It will be a sad day handing all my kit in, only in the fact that it will make feel real at last. I don’t think any other company will come close in providing personal kit as HM Forces.

Clearance-chit

It is a pain in the ar##, but how many try to leave without handing over properly or still in debt with a mess bill etc. It just makes life harder for those who are left trying to do a job, plus why burn bridges and ruin a reputation that you have spent all your career building. Values and standards don’t just stop because you are leaving the Forces, I plan to take mine with me and continue to use them for the rest of my life.

The Last Day

All though it will be a sad day, I am leaving without regret. I have made some fantastic friends and gained experiences that will live with me forever, some good and some bad. It should be a positive day, because it will be the start of my civilian life. I just hope I can have the same success as I had in the forces. I will wear a uniform again in 25 years when I hope to become a Chelsea Pensioner.

Marketing campaigns don’t have to be expensive, but you need to get it right.

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If your leaving the forces and setting up your own business, get ahead of the game and start planning your marketing campaign.

Have you ever wondered why some companies always seem to be in the news gaining positive publicity? It’s often because they make a conscious effort to contact the media with stories they think will be of interest to their respective Customers. This sort of coverage need not cost anything.

Getting it right can:

Generate thousands in business.
Enhance your brand and corporate image.
Create awareness, interest and fantastic PR.

Getting it wrong Can:

Destroy your brand and corporate image.
Create even more interest for all the wrong reasons and bad PR.
Cost you thousands trying to rebuild your business, brand and image etc, etc.

Why not get it right every time and look into hiring a Fantastic PR & Media Services company, they can break new and open new doors by providing innovative marketing communication solutions developed specifically to meet your goals and in turn this can help you meet the goals of your clients.

Marketing campaigns don’t have to be expensive, but you need to get it right.

Bridge PR have helped Gemini Forces get it right.

www.bridgepr.co.uk

Nearly 2 and half months until I leave HM Forces. (Don’t dread the next step always embrace it).

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Been on gardening leave for 6 weeks (Bored, Bored and Bored!!). I feel like I’m in limbo waiting for one part of my life to finish and waiting for the next part to start.
I had been thinking about which part I was dreading the most, until I bumped into an old BSM.

When I was a young Sgt he took me under his wing and gave me hundreds of new jobs each month and tripled my workload. I lost count of the number of rollickings and extras that came my way. It was his strong recommendations that helped me pick up my third and now he was making my life a living hell. I felt like the Gunner who had just joined and knew nothing, I felt in limbo.

It’s a transition moving from the JNCOs’ Mess to the WO & Sgt Mess, nothing can prepare you for the excitement and the trepidation of joining a club filled with history and traditions. You don’t want to let anyone down and prove they made the right choice promoting you.

3 months down the line the BSM called me into his office and I was thinking here we go again, until he told me to take a seat. He asked me how I thought I was doing as a SNCO?
I told him it had been a hard pushed and felt I was a JNCO with 3 tapes and felt in limbo between a JNCO and a SNCO.

He told me it takes time to become a Sgt, you wear the tapes and accept the pay, responsibility and whatever else is thrown your way. You don’t just change over night; it takes time and experience to make that next step. Keep looking forward and things should be fine. There was a lot more to the chat, but it helped to relieve the pressure and helped me move forward.

Sat in the pub with my old BSM, discussing my transition he reminded me of that chat. Don’t dread the next step always embrace it.

See related BLOGS:

3 and half months until I leave HM Forces (why should Service personnel vote)

(Hanging On or Moving On) 4 Months until I leave HM Forces

(Cultural Differences) 4 and half Months until I leave HM Forces

5 Months until I leave HM Forces (Duty of Care)

There have been 2 other Blogs, if you would like to read them please contact the Gemini Team.
This Blog will last a year and started in Feb. It is to highlight the transition from military to civilian.

What has been your greatest achievement since leaving the Military?

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Has it been work related, educational, charity work, overcoming possible barriers?
Life can provide many different opportunities that we can exceed in, have you since you left HM Forces?

For myself it has been going back to education and earning a degree, plus securing work through sheer determination in a recession, all due to the discipline and self-respect of being an ex-military member that was installed in me when I proudly served.

We all come from different backgrounds and ranks when we delivered for Queen and Country, but lets share the positives since leaving, whichever service you came from, Navy, Army or RAF.

Have politicians and the media forgotten about our Troops?

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The key factor to form the next Government seems to be an alternative voting system and not our Troops fighting & dying or the economy, jobs, immigration, the list could go on?

Is our voting system in the UK such a priority to reform that we are risking our Servicemen and women’s life’s, plus the economy’s recovery, for certain political parties to gain standing and use it as the major stumbling block in agreeing and forming the next Government? Is it me or am I missing something?

3 and half months until I leave HM Forces (why should Service personnel vote)

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Voting for the first time

It was with great excitement that I went into a Polling Station at 0700 hrs and Voted for the first time in my life yesterday, I am 40 in 3 month’s time. I know I feel quite ashamed to be honest.

Whenever there was an election on, I always seemed to be on Ops and never bothered to use my proxy vote or postal vote.

To me there was never any real need to vote

The way I saw it, the country is always going to need a defence force. I was always paid at the end of every month without fail. I always had a roof over my head even if it was a poncho at times. Free medical and dental and a pension plan. If I had kids I would of received an allowance to send them to a private school.

I spent most of my time in foreign lands whilst serving nearly 24 years in HM Forces as a single soldier. So I never needed to worry about who had the best education, immigration and health policies. I didn’t require any benefits.

So as a member of HM Forces what did it matter if I voted or not, sure there have been a lot of defence cuts and it has been frustrating at times with the lack of kit on Ops.

(Service men and women do die due to the lack of the right kit, but who is to say they wouldn’t have died anyway. Not a very nice thing to say I know, but I was leading a Patrol in Southern Iraq in 3 soft-top Landrovers when my vehicle broke down.
10 mins later 3 armoured vehicles drove past after stopping to see if we were ok.
500m down the road they were hit by an IED, the commander and one of the top-cover died. Speaking to the agencies on site after, they said if it had been my rover I would of died but the top-cover would more than likely survived.)

The point is I did not have the right kit, but they did. I shall leave you to ponder that statement.

Learning Curve

As you may know, I am on leave until my dine out. Which has left me with a great deal of time to follow this year’s election.

I have watched the debates and have tried to learn as much as possible about each of the political parties’ manifestos leading up to Election Day.

Having spent all my adult life protected in a bubble from the outside world, I find myself now having to face issues such as employment, health care, immigration.
I feel I have a vested interest about who I feel best represents the UK needs.

For me one of the biggest issues facing the UK has to be immigration. Immigration has knock-on effects with employment, health care, crime and the economy.
I happened to be in a hospital in Birmingham the other week. The thing that shocked me was the welcome message in about 10 different languages. Don’t even get me started on being able to understand what the doctor said to my girlfriend.

How does this help the cohesion of this GREAT country? I served this country for 24 years and what for? I feel I am partly to blame, for not taking a greater interest on who should be running this country. How many people should accept the blame with me?

To say I am disappointed today is an understatement, I now feel my vote meant nothing. I shall now have to read and find out what these results really mean and watch with everyone else how it all unfolds.

Is electoral system out-dated?

Is the UK a sinking ship?

Should I jump ship and head for greener pastures?

St. George

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Saint George is perhaps most famous for slaying a dragon. This is obviously a fictitious story and very little is known about the real St. George. The little we do know is as follows:

· Born in Turkey (either Anatolia or Cappadocia)
· Lived in 3rd century AD
· His parents were Christian
· Later lived in Palestine
· Became a Roman soldier
· Protested against Rome's persecution of Christians
· Imprisoned and tortured, but stayed true to his faith
· Beheaded at Nicomedia in Palestine

St. George is probably England's most successful immigrant. Born in a foreign land, welcomed by the English and has worked hard for over 800 years in his adopted country. He has integrated so well that he has come to symbolise the very essence of 'Englishness'.

The story of St. George and the Dragon dates back to the Middle Ages when the dragon was commonly used to represent evil, so it's an excellent tale of good triumphing over evil.

Since then St. George has been popularly identified with English ideals of charity, chivalry and courage (now known as the 3 C's)

Why would anyone want to join HM Forces?

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Why would anyone want to join HM Forces?

Particularly in an age where most other jobs offer comfortable offices and the stay at home option in case of a cold, (and all you need to do, is provide a fit for work chit from the doctors). You have the opportunity to lunch on exquisite food and spend the weekend sipping Chardonnay at a stylish pub. While members of the forces gulp down water and sit down to a boil in the bag.

On the face of it, a career in HM Forces doesn’t pay too much. Your can be called on 24/7 365 days a year, spend the best years of your life in places the rest of the world has never seen. You stay away from loved ones for months at a stretch. Miss your children growing up and break endless promises due to work commitments, you miss birthdays and holidays.

It feeds you on the cheapest foods provided by the lowest bidders. It wakes you up at unearthly hours and makes you sprint in the biting cold in shorts and tucked in T-shirts.
The training is gruelling; the instructors break you down to the point where you wish you were dead and you feel you can’t go on any more. Young men and women quit everyday, for those who continue they can only expect more hardships and tears.

You work in blistering desert heat in heavy combat gear that can exceed your own body weight. You will never comprehend what’s it like to serve in places like this; nothing prepares you for the smells, the infrastructure in places like Afghanistan. All this hardship and the only things HM Forces asks from you is Loyalty, Discipline, Selfless Commitment, Courage (moral and physical), Respect for others and that you will unquestioningly give, when required, your life for your country.

Who wants the good life?

You don’t join the Forces for money; you join it to be part of something bigger. Maybe you join because you want to be apart of history; maybe you join because of family tradition. People join the forces because they want to go on operations and see the world. People no longer join for dignity and honour that comes after when you have earned the privilege to wear the uniform.

You will find friends willing to live and die with you, and at the very least, friends for life. It also provides you with experiences you could only dream of, like riding on horse back through the Rockies, Canoeing through the Austria surrounded by the Alps. Exercising in far off countries like Canada, Belize, Kenya, Poland, Cyprus to name a few.

What the Forces will give you is a career and a life that you can be proud of. Your family, friends and country will be proud of you and will respect you. You can look back on your life and know you achieved something with your life. It will install values and standards and an ethos that will serve you well in years to come.

I would do it all again, only better this time