What if we'd had to do National Service?

We had VSO. A 3 week crash course at University then off to Sumatra. Involved working with the local community in various ways, needing a painful injection after being bitten by a dog (they have rabies out there).

I worked in the NHS for 20 yrs so I’d probably of done something similar.

I joined the Army at seventeen and a half and only left to get married. Military life suited me. If I could do that again but with the skills and experience I have now, I would do it in a heartbeat.

My brothers and I lost our mother as children and grew up to fend for ourselves a lot whilst Dad was at work but we were pretty disciplined anyway.

We all had weekend/evening lowly jobs in hospitality from 14 onwards so I suspect we would have signed up to anything offered and made a good fist of things, it’s how we were reared.

Dads motto was ‘no such thing as a menial task, just a job done well’ and it’s served us all well over the years - none of us was ever unemployed and all found work we enjoyed and suited our skill sets.

This came from trying lots of different stuff in our teenage age years, something not to be sneezed at I think.

It may have helped me escape.

I think it would have been a waste of my time.

I wanted to do VSO when I finished my nurse training, but then they wanted me to do midwifery training.

Even now when wanting to do volunteering they keep moving goalposts...

I wanted to go in the navy to train as a nurse but my mother wouldn't hear of it as my brother had just joined the navy. I trained as a nurse anyway a bit later and always regretted ignoring her and doing it anyway.

I would have done Army service. I wanted to join up at 21 but I was considered underweight. I was asked to come back when I'd put on a stone. That didn't happen until I had my first child. By then I'd qualified as a mental health nurse.

I was an RAF brat so would have probably gravitated towards signals. My father taught me Morse code when I was nine! 😂

At nineteen I was a secretary for Plessey Radar so there wouldn’t have been much point in doing NS. I was already doing it! 😂

Pre 18, I had experience volunteering in youth work and with older people with multiple disabilities.

At a little older than 18, I was a full-time Community Service Volunteer www.voluntaryworker.co.uk/community-service-volunteers.html working with young people in the criminal justice system in England.

And shortly after that, I volunteered with Voluntary Service Overseas www.vsointernational.org/our-work ,
parlaying an early career on the dark side (private financial institutions) into useful finance and business education.

So I guess I’d have done just what I did really.

I served in the Army as a Nursing Officer,I would do it again in a heartbeat if I was young enough.

As an army brat, army life would have suited me, but as I would have failed the eyesight test, I would have had to do civilian service.

However, as I went to university, my National Service could have been deferred and I would have done it after I had graduated. Like Aveline WRVS would probably be where I chose to go, assuming I was given a choice.

I like the RVS. They provided practical necessary jobs that really contributed to the home front and beyond. They still provide practical activities that help the community in a whole host of ways. I'd join them

I’d have wanted to travel and to help. Building a school in a deprived area of Africa, clearing up in a flood relief situation or after an earthquake somewhere in the world.
One of my sons, an engineer, has had a career as a disaster relief manager. Very rewarding.