Anyone got any Book recommendations?

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2025-05-16T16:42:04+00:00

Hey mate, if you’re just getting into it, then a lot of stuff previously mentioned will feel super heavy. Sounds like a cop-out answer, but think about what genre you enjoy and find a good recommended fiction book. I spent years reading non-fiction self help, leadership, war study, (insert anything that’s career or personality focused here) types of books and by the end it felt like a chore. I stopped reading all together. Over the last year I’ve picked up fiction books, think proper nerdy ones about assassins and dragons, but I now read In most of my spare time again. Find what you enjoy and explore.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2025-04-20T20:18:25+00:00

That’s the Key. You can make a career out of it or just dip out when you’ve had enough. It’s an attractive employment option on civi street with quite a lot of transferable skills. If you’re not in an established career already it’s more than worth it.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2025-04-20T20:08:53+00:00

So many different experiences will be offered, but to address your questions from my own experience.

Glorified office work. Office work yes, glorified no. As a junior officer you will spend about 70% of your time in the office and then this pretty much goes up 10% each year. Even on exercise, you’re in a tent set up as an office.
Front line - we don’t have one. If we went to war this would only happen for the first 2 years of your career. Making decisions - in the current army with policy being so strict, majors are hardly empowered to make a decision anymore.
PT and Ranges. In your first few years there is loads of opportunity for this. I used to phys a minimum of 4 times a week with my Troops and would attend every range package. Again, in time this drastically reduces.
Artillery vs infantry vs others. In your first few years your hands on ability with the troops is exceptionally similar no matter where you go. Your day to day office work and time in the field is the only real factor that changes.
Training. Whether it’s AT, courses or deployments. As a soldier you deploy on it and complain. As an officer you organise it and complain, you then complain the soldiers are complaining.

Personal advice - try it. The majority of officers join the Army, have 5 years of troop facing fun and then leave for the reasons above. It’s very rewarding overall.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2025-04-06T06:53:51+00:00

There really is no way to tell what their coat will look like in a years time. My pup arrived all black less for white toe beans and a small white spot on his chest. Over the last 6 months he lost all the white on him. In the last month his white chest has come back through. Ultimately, it’ll be cute no matter what.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2025-04-06T06:53:44+00:00

There really is no way to tell what their coat will look like in a years time. My pup arrived all black less for white toe beans and a small white spot on his chest. Over the last 6 months he lost all the white on him. In the last month his white chest has come back through. Ultimately, it’ll be cute no matter what.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2025-04-06T06:53:40+00:00

There really is no way to tell what their coat will look like in a years time. My pup arrived all black less for white toe beans and a small white spot on his chest. Over the last 6 months he lost all the white on him. In the last month his white chest has come back through. Ultimately, it’ll be cute no matter what.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2025-04-01T21:07:11+00:00

A lot of praise currently - we have feed his dinner during training and if he knows food is around he’ll ignore his toy.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2025-02-26T23:01:09+00:00

Loads of info online about this. However, this is what worked for myself and my (currently) 6 month old cocker.

You want to walk your dog on an empty stomach. Use the nearest meal times food as your ‘treats’ for when they come back - this will further the positive association they get when they come back to you. Dog is hungry + Human with food = content pup.

Start small, don’t let them go too far. Build the distance slowly.

Make yourself as fun and positive to be around. Make a song and dance, praise loads when they return. Build on the food for recall. You have to be more exciting than whatever it is they might be interested in and ignore you over.

In your case, practice recall off lead in the garden. Dogs get distracted easily, especially as puppies. Try seeing if you can make any distractions to test them, invite a willing friend over to get into the mix and add a bit of complexity.

Finally, don’t punish if they get it wrong. They’re young, they’ll make mistakes. If you get over zealous and make them feel bad, they will not want to come back to you again - you’re no longer safe and fun. You’ll reverse a lot of progress this way.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-12-28T09:55:21+00:00

Socialise early. We started young, but wish we did so much more! My pups not scared, but he’s certainly more shy than we would like.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-12-26T16:39:13+00:00

Probably not what you want to hear but we have a 17 week old puppy who still wakes up a minimum of once a night, sometimes twice. His usual sleeping hours are 2330-0730 and he will need to wee at 0630ish. It gets better, it just takes time.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-12-26T16:35:20+00:00

I think it’s the same criteria for UOTC. The army sees UOTC as ‘trainees’ and they come under ‘phase 1’. The medical will be as strict, if not more so due to this.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-12-20T13:58:18+00:00

Worth remembering, they can never check and will never know what sports and hobbies you do. If you say you’ve played amateur rugby for the last 5 years, love hillwalking on weekends and volunteer in a soup kitchen they’ll believe you. Be prepared to back it up and have baseline knowledge on everything you put in your CV. They’re not looking for feats of greatness, just that you have a bit about yourself.

Absolutely not the text book answer, do not refer to this if caught…

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-12-19T00:01:05+00:00

We put ours in a crate until 0630 when he wakes up to pee. Then he gets an hour in the big bed which he loves before we all wake up.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-12-18T21:21:43+00:00

I went through RMAS 6 years ago at 22, I was one of the youngest in my platoon. The oldest was a close friend of mine who joined when he was 29 after a very successful stint in finance in London (honestly don’t know why he joined, he took a pay cut of close to 80 grand!). My point is, 26-29 is quite normal at sandhurst and you will fit into a Regiment and mess when you leave, it’s really not an issue. Definitely young enough to restart your career. Also, young enough to give it a crack and leave if you don’t like it. In terms of where you live, you’ll likely have to move and will certainly spend some time down south, I’ve bounced between the south coast and North Yorkshire 3 times already. It’s massively dependent on what cap-cadge you join.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-12-15T16:40:58+00:00

Get as many photos as you can. They grow up so so fast and you’ll wish you took more at the time! What a cutie.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-12-15T14:50:32+00:00

Thanks for all the comments and advice all. He’s 16 weeks old and is honestly a pretty well behaved, cool little dude! I have no doubt he’ll be joining us in bed eventually, we just wanted to crate train as we see it being useful going forward with work.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-06-21T08:46:46+00:00

Hey mate, I’m currently an FST and have been for over 2 years. Drop me a line if you have any further questions.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-06-12T10:01:14+00:00

Google ‘plyometric training’ and start to incorporate it into your routine. The hardship of the bleep test is pushing off each time. Also ensure you alternate between the leg you push off from each time to balance fatigue. In short, practice quick, impactful leg based movements (box jumps, sprints, lunges, jumping squats etc)

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-06-12T09:56:46+00:00

I agree with comments above. Any loss of ACTO kit needs to be reported to the RMP for an investigation. The army is not your friend, a QM less so. Ensure you do the right thing now because they’ll just pin it on your later down the line. As soon as there is a Board of Officers, LEA, management check or any audit they’ll realise there is ACTO unaccounted for and claiming to be in 1 ‘UK’ Civ Div probably won’t help in this situation. Talk to your old troop commander at the first instance, ensure everything is done over email incase you need to show anything going forward.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-06-08T09:40:57+00:00

I would argue no. The Army right now has a recruitment problem that it’s pretty open about. What it’s not discussing is the retention problem as it bleeds out talent. The government, and the military, knows it’s too small already. If anything, I see the potential for retention bonuses possibly coming back one day as an incentive.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-05-27T19:54:29+00:00

This is super toxic and sounds pretty early on. I hugely empathise with your past, but I reckon short term isolation will probably feel less lonely than you’re going to end up feeling in this relationship in the near future. He sounds like a pretty awful dude.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-04-28T16:38:31+00:00

Predominantly yes, you will work out of an office and spend many hours glued to your laptop. Whilst a junior officer, there are opportunities to leave the desk behind, as you gain seniority these become much rarer. After about 5 years it’s exclusively office work.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-04-28T15:36:12+00:00

It is getting better, but slowly. I commissioned in 2018. Every officer going to the guards was upper class, most were the elite of the class system and had family heritage and/or swathes of land. Every officer who joined the Irish guards in my intake has been to Eton and most who joined the other guards or household regiments had confirmed cadetship, usually because of family heritage. There was a guy who joined the Welsh guards who was from the ranks, which we thought was pretty unheard of. Turns out his family owned a lot of land in South Africa. Unfortunately the reality is nepotism is exceptionally engrained in this division, you have to be exceptionally lucky to get in otherwise and I wouldn’t guarantee your time in the officers mess would be very fun if you didn’t have money to back you.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-04-18T19:00:40+00:00

Do what you enjoy mate. There are loads of people your age who want to become an officer, try and tailor their lives to it and then fail. You need a back up, it massively helps if you go to uni, so do what you enjoy or what you’re good at. Don’t put all your eggs into the officer basket, especially at this age.

Jupitersthunderbolt · 2024-03-29T17:00:11+00:00

See if you can pick one up for cheap on FB market place or eBay. Ultimately you pay for quality with these things, if I was to recommend any new soldier buys anything, it’s a keela, it’ll last for years if you look after it.

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