anyone else's hubby tried out sas selection

[kerrykatona]

dh went for it last year but was rtu'd before the course even started because his battalion had fucked up the paperwork

he sailed through the one week course that they had to do first and his instructer said he wanted to see dh down there to try out again.

he is supposed to be going on the course soon and i just wondered if anyone else had any experience of what to expect as a wife, how much will i hear from him etc.

i know the failure rate is sky high but a litle part of me gets all excited when i think what if???

i am not sure exactly how much of a secret everything has to be kept but am hoping that being anan on here i might get some sort of idea about what its like.

anon

As you say, failure rate is sky high and with current involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, deployments pretty dangerous. \depending what your dh does now, I assume you are used to him being away a lot, however the odds of him being injured/killed are probably going to rise if he gets through selection...and you probably won't know what he is doing the majority of the time, even if it is quite benign, to won't know whether to be terrified or not. I guess what I am saying is, he should only be doing it if it is a real calling and he won't be happy otherwise. If he is trying to get in just to prove that he is harder than everyone else, then that is pretty selfish given the fact that he has a family.

my brother was in a couple of years back.
very strange carry on it was too.
he would come home with hair down to his coller, a beard and had put on about 2.5 stone.the next time he was hime he would have short hair, clean shaven and would have lost that weight!!!
he would never ever talk about his job but stated that he wasnt even permitted to speak to his coleagues about his assignments.

i was absolutely fascinated.
he did say that the different looks were in order for him to "infiltrate"
worked mostly in Northern Ireland, and did allot of work for the Police...intellegence type work.
He has since come out as i presumed that they will only allow them so long in the force due to security issues...recognition etc.
he absolutely loved it, as a family we did not as it all sounded very very high risk and dodgy.
he came home physically safe and well however not sure how it affected him mentally.

My FIL was in for many years, like dissles brother - his appearance would reflect his job ( ie- in first gulf war he had long hair and a beard)

he left the year after I met DP but has lots of interesting stories and some scary looking pics around the house!

His wife seemed ok with it- they still live in Hereford and have many friends both still in the Regiment and recently left.

sorry forgot to add- he does have the most horrendous nightmares though where he cries out in his sleep- but never divulges what they are about.

thanks for the replys, was not really expecting that many

i think he is as prepared as he could be at this stage for doing the course, obviously we dont know at this stage if his body will be able to handle it or not.

notyummys post about his motives maybe being selfish are possibly very true but both of us are ambitious and i know what its like to want to push yourself all the time and can understand why he wants to do this. i do think if i was to tell him not to do it he would back out but resent me for it in years to come, i have known since we got together that this was something he felt he had to do.

the thought of what it might do to him emotionally will always be a worry but he has already had to deal with a lot in the regular army and there is nothing to say he wont still have to deal with it in years to come.

at least if he does go on the course and fails he will always be able to say that he at least tried

Message withdrawn

no not a officer

I have some experience with this and what I'd say is that there is an enormous emotional price to pay...sorry that sounds negative but I believe that living in that world and seeing what they do makes you loose confidence in mankind. Hard to mix that life with family life of any sort.

hi

The selection process is 6 months long as you may well know and is of course a very hard selection emotionally and physically. Some weekends he will be able to come home and others not as they will be away in the jungle for 6 weeks and various other places during the selection process.

He should be doing it for the right reasons and not just the fact that he can tell people he is in the Regiment but of course if he passes then it means that he has put his all into it and wants to do it for the job and not it's title.

You will not be living like popstars as most people think and the pay isn't as great as most people think it is. Expect your hubby to be away an awfull lot and sometimes at the drop of a hat (0oops beret)! The divorce rate is much higher than the green army too.

Good luck

I know someone who's DH is in.

It's bloody hard for her, they are apart A LOT, especially at short notice. Rarely get foreign leave (so few holidays abroad), often get restricted local leave (have to be within 20 minutes - 3 hours of camp) and irregular contact.

He loves it, so she accepts his choices but it's not really a long term plan. It also has potential problems for things like life insurance, mortgages, communications, banking, schooling etc. Quite often she doesn't know where he is and rarely watches the news. She is a very strong person (I would imagine you have to be, especially as they can't bring them home on compassionate leave etc)

But then if your DH is determined then go for it, it's a challenge!

only at certain times they r on 3 hrs stanby so it's not all year long.

they do get designated overseas leave at least once a year. Life insurance isnt a problem or mortages or anything like that as the job is HM Forces and not SAS otherwise it isn't a secret then.

Ah, beg your pardon, I am repeating info second hand and not getting it right!!

Seems like friend's DH is away or on standby an awful lot though, maybe it depends on your particular job?