As one of Beags's compatriots, I took the RAF option of "any degree subject" from the Towers and realising that a medical degree was obviously out of the question, dived in to Human Biology -quite apposite as it was at Chelsea College London in the late "swinging" 60's.
One of our number went and did "Hotel Management"(obviously with dreams of being a PMC) another ,who went on to Air Rank , later intimated that he got a First (he didn't even get a Second) .
Unusually, I subsequently found myself back in London (City University) doing a Post-Grad.year M.Phil. in Visual Perception, a.k.a. Psycho-physics ( courtesy of the RAF) which I later suspected was a device to head me off from going to another "five eyes'" Air Force, with whom I was in informal discussion.
Was my degree useful?
For personal progression in the R.A.F., at the time , in my adopted Branch: No (far from it -we were seen as "Threats" by many one rank up): "We have to stop them Gary, they are catching us up fast!" (overheard). The thus ensuing apparently anomalous 1369's being discussed among some of our ilk.
Barnwood was clueless: "Nobody tells us what you do. We don't know ". Certain Branch "Walts" , it later transpired, had gone down and given them their self-inflated versions of proceedings!. (two of whom (at least) were later "tumbled" and quietly eased out of the business)
For the purposes of the R.A.F.:
Yes (for example in the Human Factors aspects of aircraft accident investigation).*Although of course the justification for the Degree programme was to merely indicate intellectual capability.
For personal development,
Inestimable.
As a postscript, in the mid 70's I worked out an application for a special fit on a Puma which ,with a slightly bold mission, would be of great interest to some in the Int Community. After some trials, I was dispatched to Odiham and then summoned to brief the Station Commander.
;"Thank you your briefing Haraka, which is the only one I have understood and tend to believe. I have had four so far this week from officers claiming it as their own idea-and yours is by far from the most Junior."
As for the Falklands and the first Gulf War.......