Joining or being in the military

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Thomass
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Joined: Thu May 13, 2021 3:05 pm

Joining or being in the military

Post by Thomass »

Hello
I'm thinking of going in to the navy reserves as I've always wanted to join the military, but don't know if i will pass the medical or fitness assessments. If there is anyone in either the irish defence forces or British military I'd love to hear from you
SPUD69
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Re: Joining or being in the military

Post by SPUD69 »

Hi, I'm in one of the services, here's my honest advice for if you're looking at joining. Be aware that you'll be the butt of jokes, particularly if the boys dont know or understand dyspraxia, its not necessarily a bad thing just kind of own that fact you're going to look clumsy and mongy and try not to let it get you down, also, as many of us, myself included can experience social issues, dont overcompensate and try and be the big man jay off the inbetweeners style character to cover up the myriad of insecurities dyspraxia can give you, just keep your head down, take on board any advice and whilst ik this is a stupid thing to say really but try and go with the flow, in many ways, fieldcraft especially, you probably wont be a natural, im definitely not, but you can still be effective and popular with people who understand you
Stevethfc
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Re: Joining or being in the military

Post by Stevethfc »

Hi, appreciate this was nearly a year ago but in case it's something on the back-burner for you, I wouldn't dismiss joining naval reserves. I'm in one of the services as well and concur entirely with the comment below. I was pretty shocking at most things on basic but was still pretty well liked if that's not too arrogant to say. Just wanted to share a recent experience with you. I'm full time regular so don't know how it is for a reserve but I got pinged for something which meant that I had to go shooting down the range which I failed because shots weren't close enough to eachother. However, once I took a couple of jokes and owned it as per the above, the blokes who instruct are actually pretty constructive and understanding. I got taken away in private and asked outright if I had an SPLD and I disclosed, he said that's fine and said on basic training he took a lad through rifles who had dyspraxia and said the key is repetition, he has invited me to get some extra one to one training and is confident he'll get me to the standard needed. The moral to take from the story is that there is extra support and workarounds in place should you struggle with these things and as long as you can take a joke and keep plugging away, people will be fine with you. If this is something you still want to do (if you haven't gone for it already) I 100% wouldn't let dyspraxia hold you back.
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