RAF Officers' Messes
Not all RAF Officers' Messes are the same. I am a member of one of the largest, if not the largest and it has about as much military ethos in it as a travelodge (that's because it looks like one). When I joined the RAF (Oh Gawd here we go!) all the Mess staff were RAF personnel and the civilian stewards were not working for some cheapo contractor. Formal functions can still be pretty good but ordinary day to day life, well I'm not impressed and neither, interestingly enough, are many of our students - and it ain't necessarily the fault of the newly graduated officers either - some of the slightly older mess members could do well to improve their OQs. When most military officers were not commissioned from the working classes (which would have therefore kept me out!) any high spirits damage to mess infrastructure was 'fessed up to and paid for. Today, some people seem to think that they can make a mess and leave it for someone else to clear up and pay for - not how to behave at all! I'll stop now as I'm beginning to sound like some of my more senior (in rank) colleagues at Sleaford Tech.