Thailand Revamps Military Strategy to Voluntary Service and Perks

[snoop1130]

 

In a bold shift, Thailand's Defence Ministry has revamped its military recruitment strategy, transitioning from mandatory conscription to a voluntary model teeming with incentives. During a visit to Infantry Division 6 in Roi Et, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Defence Minister Phumtham Wechayachai celebrated the successful transition, underlining a significant surge in voluntary enlistment.

 

The new initiative offers a competitive package to entice recruits, including an 11,000-baht monthly salary, deployment bonuses, career development opportunities, and educational certifications. This array of benefits is attracting volunteers and decreasing reliance on compulsory service.

 

Aiming for a modern and streamlined military, the ministry has opened approximately 41,790 roles for the 2024 cycle. Recruits can apply online until 26th January 2025, choosing their preferred units without regional limitations. This digital application process has made recruitment more accessible and modernised, reflecting the government's vision.

 

Moreover, enlisted personnel receive priority access to 80% of the Royal Thai Army's non-commissioned officer exams, paving the way for future officer roles. Collaborations with the Ministry of Education enable recruits to acquire secondary and vocational credentials, adding long-term worth to military service.

 

Transparency and welfare are pivotal, with mechanisms ensuring recruits' safety and keeping families informed. Comprehensive medical and life insurance further render military service appealing to young Thais seeking secure and promising futures. This year, voluntary enlistment has reached over 38,000—a significant increase from nearly 29,000 in 2021, reflecting a growing interest in voluntary military service.

 

File photo for reference only

 

-- 2024-11-06

 

 

[mfd101]

For once a Thai government does some really sensible things to move the country forward. Excellent initiatives.

 

I assume they were developed & implemented under Srettha's premiership?

[helloagain]

11000 baht monthly salary, not even minimum wage.

[hotchilli]

13 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The new initiative offers a competitive package to entice recruits, including an 11,000-baht monthly salary, deployment bonuses, career development opportunities, and educational certifications. This array of benefits is attracting volunteers and decreasing reliance on compulsory service.

Been a long time for them to see the light... offer a career path with benefits and people will enlist.

[Presnock]

53 minutes ago, helloagain said:

11000 baht monthly salary, not even minimum wage.

but housing, food, medical, uniforms, and education credits besides.

[john donson]

I know how all the forced dudes must feel still doing their forced labor... I did my service in home country, only to hear a year later that it was not FORCED anymore... did maybe get 100 baht a day in that time, or JAIL time and I was deployed where they actually went to find and get people who decided to do a runner from the 12 month forced labor and they were put in military jail + remaining service time on top

[rwill]

2 hours ago, helloagain said:

11000 baht monthly salary, not even minimum wage.

Minimum wage in Thailand is around 8,500 baht/month.

[scorecard]

2 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Been a long time for them to see the light... offer a career path with benefits and people will enlist.

 

Sure but what about the old military dinosaurs who will want the whole 'machine' to stay as is - for their power and glory. Seems to me that Just being told 'it's all changed' won't bring the dinosaurs on board.

 

They will need to be told that big changes will happen and for good reasons and there's benefits for Thailand and for Thailand's youth. 

 

And like it or not they do still have a big power base. 

Edited November 7 by scorecard

[mfd101]

27 minutes ago, rwill said:

2 hours ago, helloagain said:

11000 baht monthly salary, not even minimum wage.

Minimum wage in Thailand is around 8,500 baht/month.

And for many of the boys from Isaan (the majority of conscripts) their monthly income is close to zero (ie no formal job at all, just hard scrabble around the village). So 11000฿ a month will be most welcome - assuming it gets thru the network of sergeants, captains, majors & colonels with hands out.

[Presnock]

1 hour ago, john donson said:

I know how all the forced dudes must feel still doing their forced labor... I did my service in home country, only to hear a year later that it was not FORCED anymore... did maybe get 100 baht a day in that time, or JAIL time and I was deployed where they actually went to find and get people who decided to do a runner from the 12 month forced labor and they were put in military jail + remaining service time on top

Yeah I enlisted just before the Gulf of Tonkin incident was in basic training - got sent to Vietnamese language school - spent 10 years using that language and a few years in SEA.  I didn'tmake a whole lot of money, got danger pay, flight pay which helped and free food and room (tent) in Rocket City, VN.  But in later years the US raised the salaries and bonuses of those in the military with educational benefits, etc but still the last couple of years I have noted that most branches of the military other than the Marines, can't fill their quotas.  Guess folks fear those desert wars with no real goals to an end of such activity.  VN was the same, the politicians wouldn't let the military control the war thus ended up selling out the South Vietnamese!  I know that for sure as I had many Viet friends that I served with.  Just saying, war is crappy for sure no arguments from this old man but I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything.

[radiochaser]

2 hours ago, Presnock said:

Yeah I enlisted just before the Gulf of Tonkin incident was in basic training - got sent to Vietnamese language school - spent 10 years using that language and a few years in SEA.  I didn'tmake a whole lot of money, got danger pay, flight pay which helped and free food and room (tent) in Rocket City, VN.  But in later years the US raised the salaries and bonuses of those in the military with educational benefits, etc but still the last couple of years I have noted that most branches of the military other than the Marines, can't fill their quotas.  Guess folks fear those desert wars with no real goals to an end of such activity.  VN was the same, the politicians wouldn't let the military control the war thus ended up selling out the South Vietnamese!  I know that for sure as I had many Viet friends that I served with.  Just saying, war is crappy for sure no arguments from this old man but I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything.

Were you assigned to a Radio Research unit perhaps?

[Presnock]

Just now, radiochaser said:

Were you assigned to a Radio Research unit perhaps?

no, was flying onc130's out of Danang but I did know some of the RRU guys too but long forgotten now....also flew on 135's and then spent some time in NKP as a tech rep to the AF.  Actually enabled me to eventually go to work for DOD and a long profitable career.

Spent some time working/teaching/learning with the ARVN's too who got sold out in the end.  Fortunately some of them did make it out on their own later.  With your AN name you obviouslly were an operator too right?

 

[scorecard]

3 hours ago, mfd101 said:

And for many of the boys from Isaan (the majority of conscripts) their monthly income is close to zero (ie no formal job at all, just hard scrabble around the village). So 11000฿ a month will be most welcome - assuming it gets thru the network of sergeants, captains, majors & colonels with hands out.

 

 

"...assuming it gets thru the network of sergeants, captains, majors & colonels with hands out."  And that will be one factor which the new situation must stop. 

[radiochaser]

7 minutes ago, Presnock said:

no, was flying onc130's out of Danang but I did know some of the RRU guys too but long forgotten now....also flew on 135's and then spent some time in NKP as a tech rep to the AF.  Actually enabled me to eventually go to work for DOD and a long profitable career.

Spent some time working/teaching/learning with the ARVN's too who got sold out in the end.  Fortunately some of them did make it out on their own later.  With your AN name you obviouslly were an operator too right?

 

Yes, that isn't me in the avatar, but that is what I did for seven months, working high frequency direction finding (HFDF).   

Did you know RRU guys from the 8th after the 8th moved to Danang from Phu Bai in 1972?   

 

A guy I trained with as a 05D DF operator left Vietnam in 1971, was sent back to the states to work a job that bored him to death.  He re-enlisted to go back to Vietnam and was with an Airborne DF unit in Danang.   One aircraft he was in was hit by 37mm anti aircraft fire.  They were able to return to Danang with out crashing.  

[billd766]

4 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

Sure but what about the old military dinosaurs who will want the whole 'machine' to stay as is - for their power and glory. Seems to me that Just being told 'it's all changed' won't bring the dinosaurs on board.

 

They will need to be told that big changes will happen and for good reasons and there's benefits for Thailand and for Thailand's youth. 

 

And like it or not they do still have a big power base. 

The next thing needed is to get rid of ALL the surplus generals.

[Presnock]

5 minutes ago, radiochaser said:

Yes, that isn't me in the avatar, but that is what I did for seven months, working high frequency direction finding (HFDF).   

Did you know RRU guys from the 8th after the 8th moved to Danang from Phu Bai in 1972?   

 

A guy I trained with as a 05D DF operator left Vietnam in 1971, was sent back to the states to work a job that bored him to death.  He re-enlisted to go back to Vietnam and was with an Airborne DF unit in Danang.   One aircraft he was in was hit by 37mm anti aircraft fire.  They were able to return to Danang with out crashing.  

 

5 minutes ago, radiochaser said:

Yes, that isn't me in the avatar, but that is what I did for seven months, working high frequency direction finding (HFDF).   

Did you know RRU guys from the 8th after the 8th moved to Danang from Phu Bai in 1972?   

 

A guy I trained with as a 05D DF operator left Vietnam in 1971, was sent back to the states to work a job that bored him to death.  He re-enlisted to go back to Vietnam and was with an Airborne DF unit in Danang.   One aircraft he was in was hit by 37mm anti aircraft fire.  They were able to return to Danang with out crashing.  

I knew a lot of the civilians working in Phu Bai and knew some of the DF guys, one of those on the c-47s came from my HS too and I chat with him occasionally.  Also knew some of the Navy fliers of the Super Constellation.  Since worked with DOD, I met quite a few guys from the VN era.  Different world for sure.

[radiochaser]

4 minutes ago, Presnock said:

 

I knew a lot of the civilians working in Phu Bai and knew some of the DF guys, one of those on the c-47s came from my HS too and I chat with him occasionally.  Also knew some of the Navy fliers of the Super Constellation.  Since worked with DOD, I met quite a few guys from the VN era.  Different world for sure.

The only civilians I knew (only talked with) at Phu Bai were the NSA guy assigned there and the Vietnamese working on the base.   

Since you went to VN lingy school, was it at Fort Ord or Fort Bliss?   

 

Were you ever at Phu Cat?   I was with Det 3 of the 330th RR Co, for 7 months when our DF site was on the northern perimeter just down the hill from the bomb dump and near the K9 kennels. 

[Presnock]

42 minutes ago, radiochaser said:

The only civilians I knew (only talked with) at Phu Bai were the NSA guy assigned there and the Vietnamese working on the base.   

Since you went to VN lingy school, was it at Fort Ord or Fort Bliss?   

 

Were you ever at Phu Cat?   I was with Det 3 of the 330th RR Co, for 7 months when our DF site was on the northern perimeter just down the hill from the bomb dump and near the K9 kennels. 

sked for Ord but meningitis (spelling) outbreak so switched to East Coast - who was the NaA guy remember the name?  Not at phu ca but also at Pleiku working with the ASVN's  - did go to Monterey later in life for a year - only student so took a lot of afternoons off to play golf - as a civie only 5 buck - black horse course too.  Now of course too expensive for that whole area.   Were you there when the bomb dump blew up?

Navy guy viet  lingy was near the dump when it blew!

 

[radiochaser]

8 minutes ago, Presnock said:

sked for Ord but meningitis (spelling) outbreak so switched to East Coast - who was the NaA guy remember the name?  Not at phu ca but also at Pleiku working with the ASVN's  - did go to Monterey later in life for a year - only student so took a lot of afternoons off to play golf - as a civie only 5 buck - black horse course too.  Now of course too expensive for that whole area.   Were you there when the bomb dump blew up?

Navy guy viet  lingy was near the dump when it blew!

 

When I was on facebook ASA pages, there were linguists that wrote about a meningitis outbreak at Ord.  I think one or two may have been there at the time.   Been a few years so I can't recall the details. 

 

I have no memory of who the NSA guys (not singular) were.   Just that they were there.   One NSA rep always showed up in the DF room with a bunch of badges hanging around his neck.  I asked why he was wearing so many.  He told me that he traveled around to so many different units and could never remember which security badge was needed for which base so he wore them all, then told the guards, you choose which badge you need to see.   

 

The bomb dump at Phu Bai?   I missed that. It happened after I left in May 1972.   That was also written about on the facebook pages.  I think someone said that it was raining shrapnel down on the base.    Or was that a bomb dump at Danang?   I think the bomb dump at both bases blew up. 

 

I remember the bomb dump at Qhuy Nhon blew up when I was at Phu Cat.  It was at night and we could see the glow of explosions over the mountains, hear the whoomph, and sometimes it seemed we could feel the explosion through the ground.    Phu Cat is about 15 miles away from Qhuy Nhon as the Huey flies.   

[Presnock]

Yeah meningitis was 1964...bomb dump at Danang I was there in tent city but with so many rocket attacks, just another night of bunker time.  I met several of the civies from PhuBai, they were always coming around.   But survived all the attacks, plane problems etc, after they kept hitting Danang, the AF moved our planes to Camranh but we had to stay in Danang and the acft would pick up our crews at the end of the runway.  Some friends still have Agent Orange problems but I lucked out, probably gone by the time it was used extensively.