Hey,
I'm enlisting next Thursday (PTP + BMT) and I'm beginning to realise how completely blur I am about the vocations I may get posted to after BMT. On the whole I'm really not looking forward to this whole running around the jungle with a rifle.
But like everyone else who has survived NS they tell me to go in with a positive attitude. So I'm hoping I get a vocation I would find interesting, more specifically EOD in the Engineers.
1) What do I have to do to get into a specific unit? (I know this is a classic question that has been asked many times, but most of the replies are outdated and people don't seem to be sure.)
2) What is EOD training like? (I read an IamA post on Reddit about a EOD specialist in Iraq and he talked about doing exercises that involved fine motor skills while in a bombsuit in hot, desert conditions. That's all I know.)
3) What is life in an EOD unit like? Do you have to do bombsweeps, etc?
4) I am 1.60m tall. I'm short and skinny, but PES A. Will I not even be considered for EOD because I'm too small for the bombsuit? I got sent for the Diver VA and rejected because I was too small, hope this isn't an issue.
And before the inevitable bringing up of Hurt Locker, yes I have watched it and I absolutely hated the movie. It did however make me interested in EOD. But I know the whole gung ho aspects of the main character was really far from the truth.
So yeah! Anyone out there have any information? Stories? Anything?
nope, you cannot pick and choose where you go...
it's standard and postings are random no matter what because it's simply said that it's not your grandfather's army...
for example, even if you studied engineering in polytechnic, it doesn't mean you sure go to engineering-related vocations like combat engineer/ technician, you can/ will be posted to any other random vocations such as medic, signaller, driver, tank operator, artillery, armour, regimental police...etc.
they choose
not you choose
I wasn't under any assumption that this was my "grandfather's army", but thank you for the replies, much appreciated.
Back in my day, I wasn't aware of the EOD guys being NSFs. That may have changed since, though. In any case, the other guys are right - the choice isn't yours.
By the way, Hurt Locker's got a certain BS factor - what they showed sure isn't the way to disconnect an electrical detonator. Back in 1975, the SAF lost one guy that way and what was left wasn't pretty.
I know the movie really was all Hollywood nonsense. Most of what I know about military EOD is from (informal) interviews with EOD techs online. Seems like an interesting job.
You like the sauna?
I know how hot the suit gets. I think they have a fan or two inside it though. Don't know how much it helps.