Ex cadet and ex Regular RAF SNCO, did the 22 year thing and am now a newly commissioned virtual reality Plt Off, who feels somewhat a fraud.
Ex regulars are indeed a minority, and if it wasn't for my enthusiasm for the RAF and ATC I wouldn't have bothered either because of the muppetry holding VR(T) rank. However it's the troops that make it worthwhile and it would not be untrue to say that for the first time in a long while I have experienced real satisfaction since committing to the ACO, something that eluded me for the best part of my last 10 or so years in the RAF.
The adult staff on my sqn are all excellent and the wing staff all appear fully committed and supportive, clearly I have encountered some real chimps but you quickly learn to tune them out and they do thin out rapidly when squared up to. When I was doing my 'Pre-Uniform Course' we had a knobber of an ex Adult Warrant Officer(AWO) that was coming back in to the ACO who had the gaul to declare that the ATC AWO course was harder than anything a regular Warrant Officer would experience. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!!
To date I haven't come across any of the 'Old Boy' mentality, although I
heard the old chestnut that RAF experience doesn't count in the ACO!
As for RayDarr's suggestions, I've pondered this myself many times. For example my next door neighbour is a dedicated adult volunteer with the scouts. He doesn't get anywhere near the kind of benefits I am entitled to and furthemore doesn't want them, he does his thing because he really wants to. I wonder how many members of the ACO would too in similar circumstances?
I've just given my lovely greatcoat away to my brother in laws girly - brass buttons too!
However she is a classically trained professional dancer
