Firstly FYI I have a very good memory and appreciate exactly what I was like at 17 thanks, however the fact that I made SNCO in TG9 (OSM/FOM) in less than 9 years tells me that I was doing something right!
The problem with these forums (someone with a degree in 'the classics' please tell me the plural) is that it's possible to take stuff personally - the comment about old 6442s was meant to suggest that 'we' as a group (including those on the receiving end of 7500s) weren’t the paragons of virtue we are today when we were young recruits and perhaps we should cut the kids some slack – not all the time – just as appropriate. Unless you think we should run the place like ‘Get some In?’ As for 9 years to Sgt, 'Super Tecs' used to make Chief around the time of puberty ISR.......
No, you continue to skirt the core issue,
I thought the core issue was the pi$$ poor recruitment advert -
Then someone slagged off the juniors - are all your guys cr@p? Most of mine are switched-on cookies.
(Banter alert) TG9 - isn't that like TG12, only not as bright....?
your recollections of daring do impress no one, least of all me.
Not mine mate, I think you misunderstand what I'm getting at, 'the old farts' talk about the 'good old days' when a J/T could be told to sweep the snow off the wing of a Vulcan with no safety kit and risk life and limb into the bargain - and give the impression that's how it should be today. I disagree, H&S saves lives. many of the 'petty rules' save lives, so does that FS nonsense too.
Likewise this macho drinking culture that prevails in the military is to my mind immature and representative of a Neanderthal mindset that has no place in the modern world.
Agree, but we've all done it.
Trenchard set the RFC aside from the rest of the Army because it was a technical Service, it didn't mean that he allowed everything to be so different that all aspects of militaryness were diluted.
'Boom's' dead mate, society has moved on. That means the military has to change with the times or die - you don't have to like it
.
Just to clarify my position a little, I was working on the assumption that the accusation
The majority of junior SAC's in the Service today, in my opinion, are frankly a waste of skin.
was unfounded, I'm not defending recruits(as I seldom see them), and of course the military ethos needs to be impressed on them during basic/trade. But after that fully fledged airman/JOs deserve to be treated with respect - they volunteered after all.
Most of the guys (PC, covers Male and Female) doing the job day-to-day do the best they can
On the subject of unmilitaryness:
I remember a series of letters in the RAF news during the first Gulf War in response to a photo of 'plumbers' which showed them working their wotzits off in a mixture of dress, civilian, mil, sunglasses, bandanas etc. One of the 'Old brigade' wrote in complaining about their lack of 'militaryness'.
Two weeks later an ex Eng WO from the Desert Air Force (1943)
wrote in to say that in his day no-one gave a toss what you looked like as long as the job was done. An extreme case I grant you. Job first, military bull$hit second.
So no more impromptu history lessons please!
Regards
-nick