Anyone's dh left and then rejoined the forces and do you think it is possible in this economic climate?

[allthreerolledintoone]

Dh left a few years ago and obviously the sudden down turn has made it very difficult to retain a steady job. Although it is not ideal we are thinking about him rejoining but obviously with the major cutbacks we are not sure if this is possible.Has your husband regretted leaving and was he sucessful in rejoining and did he settle back into navy/forces life? He has kind of kept to a similar role and is working as a civilian naval instructor.

I would be waiting until after the Defence Review to see what the cuts are likely to be before I jumped. What is his specialisation?

He is trained as a weapons engineer Scareyteacher

Skimmer or submariner, and rank? I know that they could do with some SM WEOs at the moment.

H e was ship based and trained as a Artificer he specialised in sonar and Giro's and was a PO.

He could try and swap to the Australian navy if not - if you fancy moving to Oz.

I have a friend who's DH did that. He was goign to leave the British navy but then went to a conference type thing where they were recruiting into the Australian navy. They love it over there.

You need to look very carefully at moving to Oz as there are huge financial implications if you do, especially if your dh is pensionable.

We have friends who did this, but they regretted it as financially they lost out.

At the moment anyone who expresses a desire to leave is shown the door, there is no attempt to retain people. There is not even the opportunity to change your mind during your signing off period like there always used to be.

I think it's unlikely that people who've been out of the forces for a while and will therefore need to undergo some retraining would be welcomed back with open arms but it's always worth asking the question since the worse that can happen is they say no.

They've just offered some Lt Cdrs the chance to extend to 55 from 50 as there's a manning problem. I also know people who have been called out of retirement to do an international job - dh worked with some for 3 years recently. I think it's very specific what is needed, and it can be worth asking the question as there are skills shortages and manning gaps.