Hi All,
I work as a commercial security officer. Im doing my CP course with fire arms next month and i also applied for Reserve Defence Forces here in Ireland.
In RDF i will have 2 weeks of full military training every year plus other duties number of times per month.
Today,Permanent Defence Forces started their recruitment campaign. I always had interest in army and i believe would fit very well in there and also this is my last bell,as im 24 y/o and max age to join is 25.
The thing is im happy enough with my current job and im earning quiet bit more than freshly recruited soldier. Normally it would not matter to me,but i have to think about my family.
My plan was to complete CP course and spend number of years in RDF,gain experience and training necessary to find decent job as a CPO,while working as security.
Question is: When applying for a CPO Jobs,does it make several difference if i have 5 years PDF experience or 5 years in RDF?
Whats your opinion? Thanks in advance.
Hey MateCh,
There is a huge difference between what the Permanent Defence Forces do and their training tempo when compared to the Reserves, the difference between them would be even more so that the difference between the British full-time forces and their TA.
The RDF don't have access to the high end courses such as the Recce course, the sniper course or the Army Ranger Wing selection course.
Besides that you simply can not compare the psychological difference between 6 months full-time high-intensity basic military training where you rarely get to go home with marching around a barracks square one night per week and being shown the absolute basics to a basic standard from a fat spotty Corporal who has never done "scratch" (2 week field phase of recruit training) and has never been overseas on any missions.
The RDF is grand if your goal is to have a bit of fun whilst getting to wear a uniform and firing a rifle once or twice per year but you will not come out of it with any hard or useful military skills, it's just not comparable to the PDF full-time professional training in any way regardless of the shite talk you'll hear from them.
Before joining the Army (PDF) consider this, the conditions in the PDF are pretty shit, they are the lowest paid public sector workers and you will be worked into the ground, expect to do at least 2x 24 hour barrack guards per week without a wink of sleep and all for an extra €10 in your pocket, expect to be told last minute on a Friday that you're going down to the arsehole of nowhere on exercises regularly for a week or more at a time living on the ground in all weathers, get rid of any romantic notions you may have as the novelty of wearing the uniform evaporates when you have to dig a trench and sleep in it for 3 days in the middle of winter playing soldiers then after all of that fun you have to do a 10k route march with over 60 pounds of weight in your backpack not including weapons and ammo and the radio if you're unlucky and that's a regular occurance....then there's the cliques and political bullshit that you'll have to traverse for a few years as you'll be the lowest rung on a very shitty ladder and we all know what direction shit roles!
That said if you can last for at least 3 years, and maybe after a trip overseas things become a little more palatable, but only a little. Courses will start to open up to you but mostly just career courses related to your trade, infantry, artillery, cav, signals etc. you'd have to be infantry to do the recce course which is a great but very hard course. You can go down the sniper route from any unit in the Army and if you're feeling particularly enthusiastic there's always the opportunity to try out for the Ranger wing which is the Irish army's special forces unit, they do black and green ops and they are trained in CP roles too.
The choice is yours but go into it with your eyes fully open, it's a common saying that the military is not for everyone and that is very true, as I said the novelty wears off fast when your working your bollox off and can barely pay your rent but I'm glad I did a stint in the PDF, it was a great experience that could never be matched by any civilian job or the RDF.
Best of luck to you whatever you choose.
