Have you forgotten yet?...

Having just observed the two minutes silence on Remembrance Sunday, I was inspired to write this brief article.

It's coming up for 14 months since I resigned my commission from the British Army and I haven't looked back since. However, whilst observing a Remembrance Sunday service, it made me think about some things that I think I already knew, but hadn't really realised.

There's a special bond between people who have voluntarily served in the military. Those who haven't served in the military will never be able to understand the camaraderie and experiences of those who have. Throughout my meagre eight years of service, I enjoyed a few inter-Service or inter-Corps rivalries, but ultimately had faith and trust in those I served with. I work with a lot of people who grew up in different countries where they have or had National Service, those members didn't choose to be in the military and often hated every minute of their service and even they often don't appreciate what is to have volunteered to serve.

The military gave me a wealth of experiences. I would never say that I had a really tough time in the military, as I know a lot of people who had harder and more intense times than myself. As with most though, I knew people who gave their lives and even more that gave their health for their job and understand why they were willing to do it.

My relatively brief experience outside of the Army has shown me a few things. I've come to realise that there are a number of things that those who haven't served in the military will never, or at least are unlikely to be able to understand. I wanted to write this article to give those still in the military, or about to leave something to think about and to manage their expectations and for those who have left; something to hopefully relate to.

• They may have corporate values, but they are unlikely to be ingrained in them and at the core of their very being. I recently wrote an article for my department comparing the Army's values relative to those of the company. Whilst there are similarities, the way in which they are incorporatated is very different.

• They're idea of teamwork and leadership is likely to be very different.

• They're unlikely to feel the same pride and emotions when listening to the national anthem, or any other military music. This is something that really makes me nostalgic and is also something I don't think anyone who hasn't served in the military could empathise with.

• They're unlikely to understand what it means to be given unlimited liability.

"The essential basis of the military life is the ordered application of force under an unlimited liability. It is the unlimited liability which sets the man who embraces this life somewhat apart. He will be (or should be) always a citizen. So long as he serves he will never be a civilian." - Lt General Sir John Hackett, The Profession of Arms (1983)

• They won't understand what it's like to be responsible for the lives and the families of your colleagues. Outside of the military, there are very few jobs where the responsibility of the individual welfare is part of the responsibility, let alone their families' as well.

• They're unlikely to appreciate how it feels when you cannot fail. There are a number of jobs outside of the military whose jobs mean that lives directly depend on them. My girlfriend is a nurse, and she can appreciate this, but those outside of these roles will likely find it far more difficult.

Perhaps more importantly, as ex-military personnel in a civilian working environment:

• You're likely to get frustrated when colleagues get worried or panicked about problems that aren't life threatening.
• You're likely to feel somewhat undervalued.
• You're likely to feel like you're not being given enough responsibility, or that your single role in your new job isn't even nearly as broad as you're used to.
• You're likely to be disillusioned by how many people in the civilian world are motivated almost purely through financial incentives.

I'll finish this with a fitting poem for the weekend. We Will Remember Them!

Aftermath

Have you forgotten yet?…

For the world’s events have rumbled on since those gagged days,

Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways: And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you’re a man reprieved to go, Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare. But the past is just the same–and War’s a bloody game… Have you forgotten yet?… Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you’ll never forget.

Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz– The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets? Do you remember the rats; and the stench Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench– And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain? Do you ever stop and ask, ‘Is it all going to happen again?’

Do you remember that hour of din before the attack– And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men? Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back With dying eyes and lolling heads–those ashen-grey Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?

Have you forgotten yet?…

Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you’ll never forget.

Siegfried Sassoon - 1919