Jim Perks – Joining the Navy

it was a family friend actually that had been a family friend of ours for many, many years, it was like an uncle to me actually, and he was a ‘Desert Rat’ and he said, “Have you ever thought about the military? I think you’d really enjoy it.” Bear in mind we are talking early to mid ‘80s and I hadn’t, I absolutely hadn’t at all, ever, thought about a military career for me. So, I started thinking about it.

Of course, Army, umm, Northern Ireland, bit dangerous for my liking. RAF, yeah that sounds interesting if you can fly, so the Navy, and I started looking a little bit more in depth for the Navy and saw a huge amount of opportunities there. We happened to be walking past the Recruiting Office in Guildford, and there was a photograph of Navy Divers and ‘oh, that looks exciting, in crystal blue water’ which of course you never dive in crystal blue water, so went in.

Much to my mum’s surprise, and she was clever with me. She didn’t ever force me or over egg it. She let me make my own calls which was the right thing to do. I had a great chat with I guess he must have been a Chief Petty Officer about what the importunities were, what my educational qualifications were, school background, all that sort of stuff, took a dicky test, came out, met my mum.

She asked me how it went, I said, “It was interesting, filled some forms out registering my interest” and though nothing more of it. About 3 weeks later, I got a letter through the post at my mum’s house from the Navy.

I didn’t know what it was, I thought maybe there’s a bit more information. It wasn’t, the test I’d taken, it was a Entrance Test and they said, “Congratulations, you’re in. You join HMS Raleigh on the 21st of May 1984.”