Originally Posted by
Thud_and_Blunder
I never really understood the Royal Navy's habit of giving command of random selections of ratings to aircrew officers. I can see that they (the officers) would get early exposure to the disciplinary system and the opportunity to provide the leadership, counselling and guidance that is expected from JO's; it just seems that if there is a disconnect between the rating's work supervisor and their Oi/c general welfare-and-discip, they might be able to play one off against the other. Avoidance of the "One Person 2 Bosses" thing and all that. I would be interested in a considered opinion from someone who had experience of that system, by way of comparison with the way things are done with RAF JO.
The RN system worked quite well provided the effort was put in.
The allocation of ratings to an aircrew officer is/was not really command of them though. Their day to day employment was controlled by the, mainly, engineering management. Allocation of ratings to aircrew was specifically done as part of the Divisional system which the RN uses for most of the things that a good HR set up will do. Welfare, Progress Reporting, Promotion, Discipline and the like. Their are not enough engineer officers on a Naval Air Squadron to take on the whole Divisional load and do it properly so aircrew are involved, to their benefit as well as the system's My experience covers both 826, an embarked pinger Squadron and 815, providing the ship's Lynx flights. Both may be a lot dated.
The flights are easiest. Any Flight Commander , Flobs or Flight Pilot who does not know from proximity and team working, all the members of the team ( both the engineering and warfare members) extremely well, so as to be able to fill the role of their Divisional Officer, is not going far. Help, advice and assistance is (was) part of the parenting function of the HQ, bug the ultimate responsibility lie with the ship CO. The HQ squadron AEO (SEngo) is invariably the senior DO and so this falls to him/her, acting as a standardiser for annual reports etc. as well.
The set up in 826 relied more on the Senior DO, (AEO again) making sure that the junior aircrew DO's are putting in the necessary effort. Slackers can expect increasingly firm advice, and ultimately a one-way conversation with the CO.. Assessments of an individual"s technical ability, and standards can, and are expected to, be sought from Senior Ratings, Watch Controllers and the Squadron Senior Maintainer. Each Division will usually have a Senior Rating allocated as a Divisional Senior Rating or sub-DO who is a good starting point for this sort of thing.
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