Ref medical help; anyone suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder should contact Combat Stress. I know of one individual who left the RAF over 30 years ago getting help for stress encountered 45 years ago.

FFP, probably more use getting OFF the base.

I remember the N***I shop at ISK. It was on the main drag (main? joke) and accessible by all. There was a notice forbiding non-military personnel or their families from using it, probably because it constituted unfair trading compared with the local shops in Forres.

For f**** sake just leave !!!!!!!

Mr B, I think, with the exception of a few Klingons, most people have done just that. What they want seems to be some additional recognition for their service to the country. You object to that?

No. Of course I don't. What I object to is the ever increasing numbers of people who never stop talking about what they did when they were in the Service. With the exception of the very unfortunate peeps who were victims of the redundancy programme, most of the individuals who I have had the misfortune to meet in the pub, or whose threads I read about on here, decided to leave of their own accord after bitching and moaning about the Service for years before they finally got the balls to leave. They then spend the next 5 years talking about what they did while serving....... and boring me senseless in the process.

Veterans Cards
 

Try Rewards For Forces - discounts for the forces community. £20 for lifetime membership and serving forces are included. Lots of discounts already negotiated

Alan

Ah Mr B, of course, but slight thread drift then?

The only time I do the 'when I was' is when there is a receptive audience such as at an Aviation Group or such. If you were to 'entertain' me with stories of Gutersloh or Laarbruch Buccaneers I would listen patiently but . . .

War stories are really only of interest to each other if we were there, or shooting a line on Pprune for instance about the Porno film club run in one of the airmens' bashas by the RAFP that upstanding and honest body of men.

No, I see a Veterans' Card in as a quite different and legitimate request if it grants additional privileges like my NHS or TfL cards.

Or on just about every thread ever started in here.

SFFP, true, but then you don't have to read whereas in a bar you could not avoid hearing.

Is that because boring old duffers tend to talk loud?

War veterans | Transport for London

Worth quite a bit if you go into town regularly?

Ratty, what was that? Speak up please old chap.

SFFP I see of all your recent posts there are ten threads to which you contributed in the last month in which I have no interest or experience in learning what pearls you might have cast. Only a few weeks to go then I expect you will either stfu or join we wiw.

That's hardly worth the paper it is printed on unfortunately. You can walk into most commercial enterprises and get those levels of discount by simply asking as a member of Joe Public. They are derisory discount offers IMO.

A few years ago, a friend of mine used to tour big companies on behalf of Barclaycard employees and negotiate discounts for them. He told me that if he didn't get to 30-35%, he walked out.

You'd have thought that just one of our higher paid masters would have thought this one through; put a Joint Services team together, send them out to every mortgage provider, insurance company, car manufacturer, electrical products chain, travel firm, high street retailer etc etc. Promise them free advertising but demand some real discount or walk to their competitors and see what happens. If my m8 could get 30-35% for credit card employees, how much ought to be gotten for military? It's an instant, unfunded pay rise. FFS, it's so simple.

It seems to me that the difference between attitudes to veterans in the US and the UK perfectly reflects the open-mindedness of the former and the bloody-mindedness in the latter.
All the cards available in the UK seem to have one thing in common, to get them you have to cough up first, and then work on recovering that cost from possible future discounts! Given that everyone now has access to discounts, whether by direct haggling, cash-back sites (such as Top CashBack Official Site - The UK's #1 CashBack Site ), and online deals sites (such as HotUKDeals - Deals, Discounts & Voucher Codes ), the use of such a card in preference to such other means would probably cost rather than effect savings!
The only general advantages I can foresee are for entry to places of entertainment and places of medical treatment. For that, this would be a boon and be a means of both private enterprises and UK Gov to express recognition of service to the country. You can see the catch here though, whereas the former might so be inclined, the latter would not. Such gestures are easy to make in opposition, political dynamite when in Govt.
I have therefore signed the petition in the hope that it might allow of a reduced entry to Alton Towers, etc. For a large family group that would be a large amount and well worth the getting. Anything else is a pipe dream...

Not quite sure what is so lamentably sadder, the fact that you felt compelled to check my posting history or the fact that you have nothing better to do with yourself each day other that dribble away here on Prune :sad:

Pot - kettle - over

I've posted a similar message in a related thread but let's not confused by a discount offered to SP or ex SP at Disneyworld or access to the Commissary with the hard realities of 'vets' in the US. VA hospitals are a necessity because of the lack of a comprehensive and free public health care system. Walter Read Hospital is good - but not without many problems (if I wasn't on my phone I'd put in links to some of the issues).


Vets are having great difficulties in seeking stable employment. Not only is the economy still weak (but, granted, gradually improving) but employers are increasingly viewing SP as 'damaged goods'. I have worked with the US forces a lot over the years and I know a number of guys (Maj - Col/Capt) who are struggling to get decent jobs. The level of 'transition assistance' compared with our resettlement is much lower and is lodged increasingly with the third sector. Furthermore, the massive down-sizing of thje Services will exacerbate the problem.

On a more prosaic level, yesterday I booked overnight ferry crossings and found it was much cheaper to book each leg separately. The inward leg (to UK) was much much cheaper to book using a German website; I went via the Forces Discount website, and even with 10% discount it was about £100 more. We're returning back to Europe at peak time and booked that leg via a price comparator site and save over £150 compared with the company, and got a cabin upgrade. Bottom line - shop around!

Reading this thread there is talk of needing some type of identity card to prove we were in the services to get a better standard of medical care? I'm not sure where I stand regarding this issue but...

What about our medical documents, would they not have references to our time in the services?

Other than those ex-servicemen and women who have a medical condition as a result of military service I do not see that we should have any sort of priority for medical services over those who have never served.

How about looking at it on another tact, what can you get, I will start the ball rolling...

As a RAF or Army, ( it does not mention RN lol ) engineers you are entitled to ask for a Halfords Trade Card and get various discounts on their shop prices,

details here

Halfords Advice Centre | Trade Card | Customer Services


Some stores simply do it on your ID :E


Halfords Trade Card for Forces - MoneySavingExpert.com Forums

Discounts vary, but just google them, they do offer it on tools, so will be handy for anyone leaving and wishing to become an Engineer in Civi street as their proffessional range is very good, I buy the odd cheapies to modify to suit jobs, and don't mess up my Snap Off stuff with angle grinders..