The time is now.....

This quote seems to adequately explain the position you are in:

'Yes. The final supreme idiocy... coming here to hide. The deserter, hiding out in the middle of a battlefield.'

Lee, The Magnificent Seven.

Applying a price tag.......

The British Armed Forces is filled with volunteers, paid volunteers, no one forces a potential Soldier, a Marine, a Sailor or an Airman to 'sign on the dotted line'. Each Service person joins for their own reasons, not one reason is the same, perhaps similar, but not the same. They know how much they are going to be paid, they know what they might have to do, they know where they may be ordered to proceed and they know that their families will stay behind, whilst they go.

Those persons that suffer the most, in your opinion, are the children of those serving in the Armed Forces, because they do not choose, they are born into the life, they have to accept, they have no choice.

               People join campaigns such as 'Soldiers should get Footballers wages', you understand their out cry, their point of view, and you agree with their cause in principal, but no one forces potential Servicemen and women to 'sign on the dotted line' and accept that level of pay, members of the Armed Forces should get paid more, without question, especially Service persons at the low end of the pay scale, but the issue is, members of the Armed Forces risk their life, no matter what cap badge or trade group, how, in God's name, does someone put a price tag on that?

'If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.'   
                                    
Desiderata