u/LeBigHorny

Hello,

The other day I made a post about EOD&S units in the army as it's one of two career paths I'm currently considering and although very interesting I do still have a second slightly more attractive choice, that being the opportunity to be a Gunner in some sort of liaison or observation role not unlike the guy who posted a few hours ago about joining 23 Bty. and it's TACP. Anyway, I assume as advised by a recruiter the route into any observation role is to enroll as a light gunner and then attempt the relevant arduous courses after phase such as AACC or P-Coy to enter either 7th Para or 29 Cdo and once more attempt any number of aptitude and selection courses. And as someone who is also absolutely mad for big guns on even bigger boats, aircraft, mortars, rockets and howitzers (coming mainly from a lineage of ground attack pilots and ship warfare ratings), the idea of being a JTAC/FAC and/or working in some form of NGS role is very attractive and so I'm incredibly keen of finding the most direct entry route into this trade, most being the key word there as I don't mind maybe sitting in a gun battery for a year or so if it'll make me better at it then that's really all the better.

The couple of units I'm aware of that really do NGS too are 148 Bty within 29 Cdo. and the 100th Yeomanry, which as far as I'm aware is a reserve unit which isn't advantageous as I'm looking at becoming a regular, and both units also contain JTACs within TACPs and I've also head of a dedicated JTAC troop within 7th Para too although. So the question is how does someone go about getting into these units? Is there a direct entry pathway or a job option that's closer than Light Gunner I'm unaware of? I've also heard that in some Tri-service units the only JTACs and members of TACPs are drawn from RM or RAF Reg so would that hurt my chances at entering some units?

Thank you very much for any answers to these questions and thank you for reading this.

Hello,

I made a post earlier today about 23 and 24 Engineer Regiments and that I was looking into both of which trades would be sort of be good for these Regiments and if I could do EOD&S as part of them (or whether I should go Ammo Tech or infantry to become an Assault Pioneer instead as my main interest is demolitions and explosives).

Because of the lack of a response to the now taken down post I've done a bit of digging and discovered that the EOD&S role for Para/Commando forces is covered by 49 and possibly 821 Squadrons so I was wondering if anyone has been in or interacted with these units. I'm mainly interested in the pathways to entry, experience and unit culture and how frequently these units actually get deployed given the sheer glut of EOD units outside of the Engineers that won't be restricted to advanced search roles (11 RLC, Clearance Divers etc.)?

I'm also interested in knowing if 821 Sqn. actually still exists as most online sources I can find for it come from 10+ years ago listing it as part of 33 EOD&S regiment with 2 troops of commando and air assault trained personnel each with an additional SF oriented troop, although it isn't currently listed as part of 33 Reg or 11 RLC (Wikipedia listing it as formerly attached to both) and I can't really find anything recent on the units existence later than the fact 33 Engineers Wikipedia page referenced a now defunct army webpage in early 2020.

Anyway if you got to the end of this thank you very much for reading and any answers you have are very much appreciated.

Hello,

I'm looking at potentially trying for 23/24 Engineer Reg and I basically have no clue what trade I'd want to do in either one and while my recruiter is a good bloke he's also infantry and knows pretty much only about the infantry/guards pipeline.Basically what I pretty much only really want to do is demolitions, breaching, mines etc. which seems to be covered under Phase 2a training so I'm not really sure on what trade I should pick from there.

I was originally thinking EOD&S would be quite good considering it's just more work on many other kinds of explosives but I'm not quite sure about it yet, I was also recommended RLC Ammo Tech because of their EOD training at Kineton but I've also heard it described as more arts and crafts with shells. Additionally I've heard a little about going down the assault pioneer route in the infantry but I don't think that's quite what I'm aiming for.

Obviously I also really want to go to either 23 Para or 24 Commando, partly because of the history of these units and partly because I really want to physically push myself a lot too, them being high readiness units also contributing for a better chance of getting tasked onto something and so I want to make sure I pick a trade that'll work well within their roles too, although I've heard hardly anything about EOD&S being used in either reg other than potentially an EOD troop in 23 Para.

Hello,

I'm currently about halfway down the pipeline to my phase 1 and I'm sort of reconsidering some of my options before I head off to Assessment in the summer. My original plan that I was fairly confident in was to go down either being a gunner aiming for an OP battery (4/73 or 148) later on or going down the Sigs route (EWSI probably) towards eventually SFC after a few years of graft, partly encouraged by a decent academic track record. However recently I've just felt a lot less confident with either one of those options and where they may take me.

I'd considered Para Reg and Marines before because I knew ex-members of both growing up but I sort of self-selected because I didn't think I'd make the fitness requirements and quite honestly I'm still not confident even if I have gotten significantly fitter in the past ~2 - 2.5 months, the 99% need not apply probably covers me too. I've taken a good look at every other corps and just can't find something that really fits with where I really want to end up long-term, not to discredit them in anyway ofcourse but a lot of them aren't for me.

In conclusion I'm really not sure what I want to do anymore, maybe it's just a bit of brain fog because of exam stress but I'm really sort of at a loss for what I want to do here. Anyway thanks if you read this mopey thing.

I've been looking into the int corps recently for potential career paths since it was recommended to me in the recruitment briefing I did recently because I'd picked EWSI as a similar role and the fact that I'd tried to emphasize my interest in sort of those more ally technical field recce units in the various corps.

OPMI and OPTI were recommended specifically although naturally there isn't a ton of information about specifics but apparently I'd have the opportunity to go out on patrols with green army recce and LEWTs from 14SR and potentially having the opportunity to do sort of plain clothes work too and I'm sort of wondering how true this is or if I'll just end up sitting in an office all day doing bugger all but processing reports. Any info that can be shared without getting in trouble is greatly appreciated, thank you very much.

According to the army recruiting website, HCav soldiers can become snipers which I found very very interesting as it seems they train at Pirbright for 9 weeks alongside those from the paras. Anyway the question is how long would it take to get to this point in a soldier's career? Considering that, according to the same webpage you have to train on the Ajax platform and do the 20 week long mounted dutyman course too. Additionally I'd be interested in knowing if the course is locked behind a long waiting list as often seems the case with anything specialist you don't do in phase 2 training.

Pretty simply do they still do it? I'm aware that HCav had some role in relation to working with the paras as Armoured recce in the 80s and that Cyclops Sqn. in the 2nd RTR also conducted a similar role in the late 70s and 80s although I can't find anything in relation to the role existing in the modern day apart from the mention Falcon troop in the modern Cyclops Sqn. conducts CBRN recce. Any advice on how to get this posting from an application stage (should it still exist) would also be very helpful thank you.

Bit of a weird question but I was looking into sort of Assault Engineer and EOD roles in the military and RM Assault Engineer and CAB really interested me. The big problem was that it seems like there's a waiting list as high as the Eiffel tower just to get onto those courses not to mention the fact RM isn't a very trade first organisation by the looks of things. Obviously with regards to EOD too there's a million and one ways to get onto that as EWSI, Ammo Tech, EOD&S in RE etc. etc.

So I was wondering what kind of equivalents the army has to the Assault Engineer draft? Naturally had a look at the RE section on the army recruiting website but there don't seem to be any real roles that specialise specifically in the same type of breaching and demolitions that Bootneck AE's would do. So is there any role that is a very close analogue to that or is it entirely cornered by the Bootnecks?

Hi,

Pretty short question here, basically I was wondering how often gunners out of phase 2 go to either 4/73 or 148 bty. after trading as an ASO or whether you'd have to serve in another regiment first before heading onto either one of those units?

Another question I had that I haven't found a concrete answer to online is with regards to pay rates, it's not a huge concern of mine with what I'll get paid but I think it'd be good to know what supplement ASOs or other more technical roles in the gunners get you.

Thank you very much for any answers.