you know war is long periods of sitting around doing nothing and short moments of terror

yeah and uh... that's very very true

uh... people imagine that if a war lasts six years at some units are involved

constantly for six years.

That's not the case.

Unless of course you're a modern day Russian.

Let's go. Welcome to Citizen. We've got a special guest today, Robert and Horstfallen. You are an author,

former member of the 22nd S. S. S. S. But your story is pretty crazy because you

started maybe a little earlier than you should have. Yeah, I guess it wasn't than then I should have, but I joined the British Army when I was 15 years old.

The school leaving age in 1972 was 15.

And it was an opportunity for my kid that was going nowhere at school.

Well, so what was it, did you have to fake a birth certificate or what?

Because 15's a little young to join the Army, right?

No, no, we had a system back then,

which was called junior service.

So you became a full-time soldier

from the age of 15 to 17 and a half and when you was 17 and a half you joined your adult unit.

But to all attempts of purposes you were a full-time soldier training to become a non-commissioned officer of the future, but you weren't

allowed on active service until you joined your adult Italian. Interesting.

So, is that still the case in the British Army now?

Well, back in 1972 we had 13,000 boys aged between 15 and 17 doing junior service.

And they were not just learning to be soldiers, they were learning trades, they were learning

...