My son is determined to join the Royal Marines and I'm so worried

[Poppysquad]

My son is 18 and is set on joining the Marines. He's uncertain about whether he will join as a trainee officer or a Comando. It worries me sick. I am trying really hard not to let it get me down but I keep on having scary thoughts about the possibilities of him being injured or killed. I know that there's not much I can do to dissuade him so I think I am going to have to live with these fears. Has anyone else experienced this?

DS got very good GCSEs. The recruitment interview guys said Why Don't You Join After A-levels so You Can Enter Officer Training?? His refusal to go to college bothers me more than the tiny extra risk of injury/death he faces as a serving soldier.

DS is not patient with 'stupid'. He probably will have a massive disillusion with A) the petty bureaucratic ass backward ways of a giant encumbered semi-politicised machine which is the military and B) when he realises how much brighter he is than a lot of his fellow soldiers.

Oh, and DS is fairly introverted. Living cheek to cheek with other soldiers in dormitories for 62 weeks during training, it is going to drive him batty.

I can see your concerns, we have tried college and it didn't work out for various reasons. If I were in your shoes I would be wanting to get to the bottom of what is behind his thinking, but it is very difficult getting teenage boys to open up sometimes.

We are a middle class family from a " naice" area and DS has the accent to match, also, despite my best efforts, he can be a bit of a snob. I worry about him fitting in a bit but he takes any attempts to discuss things with him as criticism my so I have reached the point where I just let him get on with it.

I understand DS fine... I just don't agree with him :). We do talk a fair bit. Which is some kind of achievement.

That's definitely an achievement, even if they don't act on your advice. I am proud of DS actually,. It's the first thing he has chosen for himself and he is putting in consistent effort for a change, I may manage to relax a bit and trust him at last. Fingers crossed for the medicals going well.

DS wanted to join as an officer but failed the RN scholarship entry (not the proper terminology) last year - I had to hide my delight. Instead I dropped him off to uni on Friday - he still talks about joining but I am hoping that his view will change over the next 3 years but if he is still wants to try for the Marines when he graduates, I will support him as I will have to accept that he is mature enough to make his own decisions,

btw, for those of us who are trying to make the best of this...

I just found this Ch4 documentary (3 episodes) about women joining the Army, I will try to watch it with DS (bit of a sexist pig).

Also, Channel 5 are advertising a different 'raw recruits' documentary series to start on 3rd October. But I can no info at all about it. They say "brand new" and it's not clear to me that it's the same as the Ch4 series.

My son joined May 2019 aged 16. I would never have stopped him as I trust in the selection process to decide if he is suitable. He has now passed out and is a serving marine. He found it hard and challenging and was pushed to his limits and kept going. From what he's told me if your son is going to make it through training he will because he's made of the right stuff, if he doesn't then he's not and well done for trying. Basically the training team will find out who's suitable and who's not. Just be proud of what ever they end up achieving as long as they are a good human being.

@yeOldeTrout my dn refused to stay and do A levels, joined army at 17.
He did amazingly well.
He got a place at Sandhurst after a few years as a squaddie and he's now a major.
So don't worry.

Oops Zombie.

@yeOldeTrout

Timing! DS just popped in to have a rant that the doctor's surgery hasn't returned the full medical forms. DS got an email from Army saying he has to go make Surgery fill in & send the forms off. Surgery gets £65 for filling in the forms & were supposed to send the forms back to Army recruitment people within 2 weeks. I am trying to encourage DS to take a box of chocolates to charm the surgery admin staff with. DS wants to go have a strop at them.

Anyone had this... doctors surgery delaying the forms they have to send off for candidates, what can we do?

Worth googling for a private medical, see if it's possible. GP surgery wanted £140 for dh's HGV forms/medical and a 6 week wait for the appt. Private was almost immediate and £35.

OP wait and see if he'll even get in , as others have said the level of fitness they need is really high.

Zombie? What's that?

@Roofrat

Zombie? What's that?

An old thread that's been resurrected.

@Bullandbush DS also got to Sandhurst after a couple of yrs that's very funny (!)

But oh yeah.... * * Zombie * *

Hi Poppy.
I know you posted this a while ago but im in your position now.,son wanting to go in Royal marine officers after uni next year Im worried sick and upset as it came as a surprise. He said hes always wanted to sign up but knew how i felt about the armed forces. Hiw did your son get on and how did you manage to cope ?