Cant see the logic in going to some far flung part of the galaxy and getting a great big spike up your jack from a dirty big bug tho :o

Personally, I have every respect for civilians. They face different troubles. I know that as long as I'm in the Army I've got a roof over my head no matter what. All my dental and medical is taken care of for me and there's only a 0.01% chance of me being made redundant. The only thing about some civilians that grips me is their total lack of appreciation for life. I've seen some horrific training videos, and done a great deal of training when it comes to the dangers of drugs etc, and to hear about people who do coke or smack every night really winds me up. Obviously a minority of society, and I certainly wouldn't judge all civvies from that! I've seen both sides of the fence. I joined at 18 but had worked a couple of jobs before hand (I worked in a chippy by day and was a theatre lighting technician by night...Clarky: master of the double life ;D)

The army is an easy life day to day when you're in camp, as long as you do as your told and don't make waves, although that is something that annoys me. If you don't like the way you're treated your generally encouraged to deal with it. We can't take any form of industrial action, and we can't be part of any trade union (I'm not even allowed to join the musician's union!). For me though the most annoying civvies are the idiot civil servants who work in our garrison admin office. They routinely f*ck up (one of their more serious f*ck ups left me £300 short every month for almost 2 years) and the worst thing is because they're civil servants they're incredibly hard to sack.

But again, I don't judge all civilians on minority groups. I think I envy civilians more than anything. As much security as I have, I just don't do well with being told what to do by a guy 2 years younger than me who doesn't even need to shave.

Oh yeah...and I hate shaving every day >:( lmao

And Phil, I prefer the bit where that bird releases the Starship 2 8)

The thing that annoys me with Jug is it seems he has an opinion on everything...and I'm sure he invariably posts stuff up like that just to get a negative response. For a long time I've said that conscription should be bought back, and as for sending prisoners to the Army, absolutely, although like you said Nyx, they'd have to go into their own unit, at least until they've served the sentence then give them the option to leave, or join a normal unit and have a cracking good career. Military service would solve a great deal of problems...not least the recruiting problem ;D

Yeah life should mean life, but I'm talking about all criminals. So say they got 5 years for something, force them to do 5 years Army service, but then give them the option after those 5 years to stay in and make a career out of it. Personally if something is worthy of life inprisonment then I think they should just face facts that that they're going to be a big strain on finances....and go for the 4p solution (Give you a hint: 5.56mm, usually made of brass, goes BANG!)

5.56mm only makes a small hole tho while 7.62mm make a much larger one ..why do half the job ..do it properly the first time ;D

If you want to go like that, why not just line all the murderers, rapists, paedo's etc up on front of me and a .50 cal?!