A very good friend of mine transferred in from REME where he was training as and aircraft technician. He's a very brainy guy and was more or less tallked into joining REME at the ACIO. He never settled though and after calling in at our old depot and seeing real soldiers he transferred. This was in about 1971 so very soon after he was in the thick of NI on an 18month tour. In the following 20 odd years he was promoted steadily and passed all the career courses,RSI, J/Tac, S/Tac, Milan Pl.,Comds, RSO, IO as well as takiing a degree in Politics at the Open University. He made RSM of an OTC before being commissioned and then served as QM and OC HQ Coy. Made a bit of a name for himself in Bosnia when the CO told him to learn Serbo -Croat, he did! He retires this year as a Major after 37yrs service having been (I think) the first ex-ranker to attend (and pass, comfortably!) JDSC and RCMS Shrivenham. He's never had a single regret about leaving REME and has had an immensely fulfilling and varied career which, I suggest, would probably not have been the case had he stayed where he was fixing rotor blades. The lesson here is that not everybody with a good brain wants a trade, some want to soldier!