What is life like as a new para?

[ASNT]

What is life like for a newly passed out para and anyone care to share their experiences/thoughts? What sort of stuff can they expect to do? E.g make the tea/coffee? All the rubbish jobs? Is it a case of mouth shut and listen?

 

[Chelonian]

Is it a case of mouth shut and listen?

Yep, in a nutshell. As the saying goes, we all have two ears but only one mouth.

Be humble. When you get to a battalion almost certainly there will be at least one senior bloke in your platoon who quietly but efficiently gets on with stuff. Listen to him rather than the gobshites who have only been in for five minutes themselves.

 

[Tony_m]

Beware of the lad who bounds over and immediately wants to be your best mate. There’s normally a reason why he wants to bag himself a new best friend...

You’ll just slot into barrack life and depending on what the coy is up to you’ll either do a mix of lessons, phys, prep for the next ex or deployment. Just accept life as a new Tom. We all had to start somewhere!