I'll drink to that, BEags! By "real" RAF I do not just mean the atmosphere of a very high class flying club (which was certainly true overseas), but ranks and responsibilities. 208 had a UE of 16 x F8/FR9s + 2 X T7s. There were about 180 NCOs and other ranks and 22 pilots - all officers by my time, but there was only one Sqn Ldr, the boss; three Flt Lts (two flight commanders and the PAI) who were second tourists. The rest were first tour FG Offs. There was a Fg Off Eng O and a Fg Off Adj. Most of the officers had sections of airmen to look after, the Flt Cdrs split the squadron in half for command and disciplinary purposes, and the Eng O had technical control of the rectification team and second line. And it all worked fine. The rectification team used to work their bollocks off for the days and nights leading up to a major exercise and then used to disappear and get pi$$ed. This was an accepted fact of life and no one turned a hair. They were also sheltered (unofficially) from guard duties which everyone else had to do (there was a real terrorist threat). I still meet some of them at the annual all ranks reunion in a Soho pub. Periodically a pair or section of aircraft were detached elsewhere in the ME to do some recce skulduggery. This was an opportunity for a young Fg Off to shine as a Det Cdr in command of a pig-load of blokes and a spares pack-up. No news was good news!
Conversion to the Hunter (after my time) was not done on the squadron as it should have been. A staff officer at Fighter Command was told to pick himself a squadron and work it up at Tangmere. In 1957 he had the pick of all the squadrons disbanding, and inevitably his pick consisted almost entirely of ex-flight commanders and PAIs. They staged through Malta on their way to Nicosia and picked up the standard and the silver and the Meatboxes were disbanded. Predictably, the new squadron, all ex-chiefs and no indians, went pear-shaped and were not a very happy bunch of bunnies, we were told.
And then the V Force started to impact on ranks and responsibilities and inflation went mad. I do not knock the Vs, because they did much to introduce professionalism into the Service (a word I swear we never used in the '50s!). But it was the end of gracious living. No more working MEAF hours (0700 - 1300) on Malta in the winter!.