Ask many people about the armed forces and it is almost too easy for them to retreat into stereotypes. Autocratic senior officers screaming at lean-limbed squaddies as they drag mountains of kit through horizontal rain on the Brecon Beacons. If you then inquire about the Volunteer Reserve Forces, populated by part-time troops who hold down careers in civvy street, people seem to have even less on which to form an opinion: 'The TA is for those who want to play at being soldiers - they're weekend warriors'. But these perceptions are founded on only part of the reality. Consider the recent conflict and on-going tensions in Iraq, that 4,500 reserve troops were called up by the Ministry of Defence - the largest mobilisation in the Suez crisis of the 1950s - and employers should start asking questions of their own: What does being a reservist actually entail? How does it affect my employees who volunteer? How does it affect me?
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