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Half of UK forces 'ready to quit'

by Sanjay Jha | July 9, 2008 at 10:11 pm

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In an alarming trend, Pride in serving the British Royal Navy and Royal Air Force is on the wane in the UK and not many soldiers want to continue working with the armed forces. Despite slew of measures introduced recently, including tax-free operational allowances for those on six-month tours and improved spending on accommodation, military personnel are feeling to quit. The survey conducted by British ministry of Defence have come out with shocking revelations.

Almost half of UK military personnel are ready to leave the forces, a Ministry of Defence survey suggests.
Some 47% of Army and Royal Navy respondents and 44% of those in the RAF said they regularly felt like quitting.
Among the concerns raised by the 9,000 servicemen and women surveyed were the frequency of tours, levels of pay and the quality of equipment and housing.
The Ministry of Defence said the survey revealed "areas of concern" but that conditions were being improved.
Sense of overstretch
The first survey to assess attitudes across the Army, Royal Navy, Royal Marines and the RAF revealed high levels of concern over morale, equipment and pay.
The Regular Army is already short of some 5,000 soldiers, amid worries that experienced young officers and senior NCOs are leaving at an increasing rate.
A sense of overstretch was reflected in all three services, with 36% saying they were not happy with the level of separation from family and friends.
Asked whether the frequency of tours had an impact on whether to leave or not, 38% of the Army said it had increased their intention to leave, while 59% overall said operation commitments and stretch made them more likely to leave.

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Caoimhin1

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 22:20 on July 9th, 2008

Sanjay Jha, I like this story. It's good stuff.

gerrypopplestone

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 07:44 on July 10th, 2008

Sanjay Jha, I like this story. It's really worrying. But so many armed personnel that get disabled get really badly treated in Britain and the media have more attention to this recently.