A Soldiers Tale

I recently met an old School friend, whom I'd not seen for at least 20 years, apparently he'd been in the army, and done all the tours Germany, NI, Iraq etc. He went on to describe how he's been treated since retiring from the army, bear in mind this guy is no older than 45, when he went to the local job centre and was asked what his last job was he dutifully told them he'd had a career in the army, "what qualifications do you have ?" he was asked, " I'm a qualified small arms instructor" he replied, stony silence greeted his answer. " What are you skilled at ? " was the next question, to which he answered " Umm, instructing soldiers in how to handle small arms".
" Ok, we can send you on a computer course " he was advised.

Makes you wonder what procedures are in place to help our ex army personnel when they leave the army, and at quite a young age too.

This friend of mine went on to describe things about army life that we never hear like how bombs are concealed in cigarette packets, and how LSD's (light Sensative Devices) were used to blow up patrolling vehicles, very nerve wracking stuff I can tell you. He says it makes you paranoid, and this is a feeling amongst soldiers serving today. Hope to have a few more chats with this fellow, I'll keep you posted.