In message , Styx
Lawyer writes
In article ,
says...

In article , Sacha
writes
NS is often touted as a solution and I'm sure it would be a very
effective one. But the truth is that the services really don't want to
have to train a whole load of young people for two years and then lose
them back into civilian life.

They don't want to have to train and take care of a load of ungrateful,
ill adjusted, uncooperative yobs either. They have serious work to do

Surely, during conscripted National Service, that must have been
exactly what the services
did have to deal with? Even though they had serious work to do.
Janet.

Most were just anxious to get it over with and get back to normal life,
IME. There were graduates and apprentices snatched after
deferment, for 4 years in my case. There were also a few
"characters" in our billet.

One lad was built like a gorilla, and I remember him bringing back
several trophies after a drink in the village pub.

A weighing machine appeared outside the fat sergeant's billet, carried
from outside the chemists' shop, - try lifting one. :-)

On another occasion he carried a kerb stone on his shoulder from the
other side of the camp, into the billet, and dropped it on someone's
bed.
It stretched the springs down to touch the floor, and took four of the
lads to lift it out and hide it somewhere outside.

Then there was the half-rotten railway sleeper he carried in and dropped
on the floor in the middle of the room, that made quite a mess and took
some removing!

Yobbish, yes, but he was never violent, and gave us some laughs until he
failed to return to camp after a day's volunteer spud-picking in the
fields had stretched to a fortnight. He then had 6 months in the
'glasshouse' to add to his service for AWOL.

I got on well with him, because we were both trad jazz fanatics at that
time.
--
Gordon H
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