Quote Originally Posted by Red Rat View Post
The British Army recruit has the option of discharging himself as well in the first few weeks of training. While that may weed out some the reality is that the British Army suffers very high wastage rates in training, primarily due to homesickness...
The British army has always had a problem with recruiting... (read the chapter 'Scum of the Earth' in Richard Holmes' book 'Redcoats'.)

As with my comments of officer selection (in another thread) the same applies to wastage on recruit courses. Its all about selection.

Your man Moran (in his book 'The Anatomy of Courage') covers this aspect well in his chapter on selection. Not to be read... but rather to be studied!

British Army recruits go through an extensive selection process once they have volunteered for service, including psychometric and physical evaluation; but there's no cure yet for homesickness.
Then the news is bad... meaning the selection process (as with officers) is not as good as one would like to think.

Interestingly (worryingly) defence recruitment in the UK has just been outsourced. Understandably there are a number of concerns with this...
Its a horrific thought. Once again the unblooded civilians are tasked with selecting people for duties requiring characteristics beyond their understanding. The certainty is that its bound to fail.