Royal Marines’ Material:

Mums receive a considerable amount of written information from the Royal Marines when their sons join their units – all of it designed to help answer the questions that Mums may have.  Nevertheless, booklets and information packs, however well intentioned, can never answer every question, and, despite the fact that contact numbers are provided, experience has shown that there may be a delay between leaving a message requesting information and receiving an answer.  With that in mind, I believe that we Mums can add value to the official information available by recording information that we have found useful and that was not readily available through official sources.

Mums’ Material:

From Kate:

I found the pre-deployment meeting really bewildering and frightening, so I did not absorb the mass of written and spoken information I was given.  When I was placed under stress with my son’s injury, I was at a loss as to how to obtain up-to-the-minute information about him.  All I wanted to do was to speak to someone who would be understanding and clear thinking enough to tell me what I should be doing to get the information I needed.  So, my advice to Mums is to give first priority to recording the telephone number of the Unit Welfare Officer.  This needs to be kept in a prominent place and quite separate from all the other official information available.