Brian48Nav
Thank you for the compliment. Since you asked, here are my musings.
Firstly I find myself, unusually, agreeing (albeit partially) with what BEagle said. Anyone wishing to rejoin must obviously consider why they first left.
I would add though that they should also consider what they enjoyed about it and what positives still exist.
You will know by now that I am something of an optimist and like to see positives rather than negatives. I am 18.5 years in and still loving it. For reasons I won’t go into on here (B48 check PMs) the overall package for me personally stacks up very well indeed.
A few quick examples include pension (still bloody good if you put the time in), overseas job opportunities (there are plenty if you’re willing to look for them) and adventurous training (I’ve had three, week long FREE ski trips, and several mountain bike expeds during my time and the only reason I haven’t done more is because I have young kids and couldn’t justify going away for ‘fun’).
Some will look at my quick list and say ‘so what’ I can earn more elsewhere, pay for my own ski trips and work on a second pension.
It would be hard to argue but this is just my take on it.
I am PAS and have a job until I’m 60 if I want it. I have no plans to leave the RAF but if I did it wouldn’t be because I hate it. It would be for a better opportunity.
If it made sense to rejoin several years later (all the reasons discussed on previous posts would be taken into account) I would do it in a heart beat.
I know I’m potentially in a minority (I also freely acknowledge that I am a long term training world REMF who does not have to repeatedly deploy overseas) but this forum usually focuses on negatives rather than positives. Maybe there are lots more like me but they just don’t feel the need to post.
At the end of the day, we all have our own reasons but we need to respect others reasons for making their decisions. I see and hear too many people scoffing at those who remain in the forces because ‘it’s not what it once was’ or ‘you can earn twice as much outside’. Maybe that’s true. Or maybe you should trust that everyone is a grown up and they have made their own decision.
Enough from me for now.
BV