26 years service gone! Where did it go? Looking back on it I have no idea, but how is this for a start:
- 2 Gulf wars.
- 2 OP Telics.
- 3 Northern Irelands.
- 2 Kosovo’s.
- 1 Bosnia.
- 1 Cyprus.
- 4 Canada’s
- 6 month tour in Belize.
And to think I escaped the Afghanistan cycle! And Arms plotted from UK to Germany.
I was very lucky in some respects as I extended in the Army for a further two years, which was very handy as the economic situation was not great and the Army offered the perfect stability. So I had two goes at resettlement and for some reason did not use them properly!! First time I gambled on getting back into the Army (and did!) Second time I tried my best but compassionate unfortunately got in the way.
As I am sure I am the same as many, I formulated my resettlement plan and more importantly did the research into what I was entitled to. CTP, IRTC, SLC, ELC, GRT, CTW, CV along with de-kitting, handing back military accommodation, moving my family, getting a mortgage, buying a house and re-schooling my children were just a few things to consider! And for some there is a final tour of duty and re-locating back from Germany.
Daunting! It just seemed that in my whole career nobody had done resettlement properly and if they had they had now gone, it was just a dine out and off you went quite content with your qualifications of, Detachment Commander and a HGV 2 , plus the fact that housing was provided by MUM!
Do not fear there is plenty of very good advice out there and if I can give you one piece it is this, your resettlement starts from the day you join! I know that the Service comes first but on day one of getting out life begins again.
I started with the Career Transition Workshop, which although a lot of civilians will say offers very little, if you know nothing and are ill prepared then they are very helpful. As I said at the beginning of my piece the time flies and your 28 days termination leave are not the time to start resettlement, remember you have 35 days Graduated Resettlement Time (time served dependant). There is also plenty of money to help you pay for courses, £534 Individual Resettlement Cost Grant (IRTC), £175 Standard Learning Credits (SLC) and possibly up to £2000 Enhanced Learning Credits (ELC)and on top of that tap up your RAO and get your head into JSP 752 and there are travel and subsistence claims to be made during resettlement.
FOR EVERYTHING ELSE THERE IS GEMINI FORCES!
I did have 2 goes at resettlement and however sad my last six months were personally I learned an awful lot about the process and realised that deciding exactly what you want to do and how along, with networking and keeping in touch is very useful…..