National service would need to be thought through properly if it is to be reintroduced successfully - Yorkshire Post Letters

It was interesting to read the letter on 13/06 from Bob Swallow re national service. My own opinion is that this was a non-thought out idea in an attempt by the Tories to attract older voters.

I did my national service 1955-1957 in the Royal Navy and would not have missed it for the world. The furthest away from home I’d ever been was probably Blackpool.

Ironically I joined on June 6, an important date at the time as there was a Railway Strike, so I had to travel and stay overnight at the Union Jack club in London. Possibly the loneliest night of my life. Next day I travelled to Portsmouth and quickly met up with other lads on the same journey.

After a period of training in barracks we travelled up to Scotland to join HMS Ocean, an aircraft carrier which at the time did not carry any aircraft but was a training ship for many different ranks.

The ship made a goodwill visit to Hamburg. It was my first time abroad and somewhat unique as the Germans had never had an aircraft carrier in their Fleet. So I’m sure there was a lot of publicity in Germany about the visit.

At that time there was conflict in Cyprus between the Greeks and Turks so HMS Ocean was recalled to other duties taking all the necessary equipment required by the British Forces serving in Cyprus.

Following this I spent some time in barracks in Plymouth before being posted to HMS Ulysses - part of the 6th Frigate Squadron. We then spent some 12-14 months in the Mediterranean, based in Malta but in between patrolling off Cyprus, we made visits to various ports including Beirut-Lebanon which at the time was I think the playground of the Mediterranean so we enjoyed some good runs ashore there.

During this period we were also present when the Suez Crisis erupted and my memories from that time are watching the French battleship ‘Jean Bart’ Bombard Port Said plus picking up the dead body of an Egyptian Soldier found in the area and taking him out to sea for a dignified burial and collecting his personal belongings to be forwarded to the appropriate authorities.

Another sad memory is that on Boxing Day 1955 as the ship was sailing out of Malta in a force-10 gale, some crew members were washed overboard resulting in four deaths.

if handled in the right manner, national service in the armed forces would I’m sure be good both for the country and the young people but with all the changing times and diverse population it has to be handled with both a deep and intelligent process, not something that can be decided upon overnight.

When national service was introduced following the Second World War, the length of service was 18 months but then increased to two years.

After all this time it would not be easy to reintroduce national service into the armed forces but if well thought out I’m sure it would be advantageous to most young men and women. In my opinion it would have to be compulsory. Also if I recall correctly when young boys were serving apprenticeships in various trades they had the option of fulfilling their national service at 18 years of age or 21 years on completion of their apprenticeship.

I know this for fact as my middle brother, having left school at 14 years of age, completed his apprenticeship and did his national service with the Green Howards from the age of 21 years.

Another point I am pretty sure of is that the employer was under obligation to re-employ them after completing national service. Different times, rules and regulations.