Originally Posted by mgdaviso
I'm sorry - I'm sticking to my mantra, because it's what I believe in.
Fix the recruitment and training.
I'm going to put another spin on this - the background is for the non-ACO people here
Up till 3 years ago, the uniformed adult staff consisted of AWOs and VR(T). VR(T) outnumbered AWOs by a considerable number. The AWO was seen as concentrating in dress, drill and discipline, CIs with teaching and VR(T) with the organizing and running bit, though the nature of the beast means that the jobs are not that clearly defined in reality and you have CIs running units, VR(T) teaching drill (shudder!!) and so on. The whole of the ATC was very top-heavy.
However, a change to the structure in 2003 means that we now have a range of Adult SNCOs: ASgt, AFS, AWO. The opportunity is there to skew the rank structure in favour of the ASNCO and limit the numbers of VR(T). You can then be more selective and apply higher standards, thereby weeding out most of the twats (remember that some twattish traits are seen as desirable by some senior officers
)
It ought to be easy enough to require a level of previous service (either regular or ASNCO) before being commissioned in the VR(T) and training in sensible man management techniques would be essential.
I support the VR(T) - I like the level of ties it gives us to the parent service and I have seldom seen it cause actual problems but I do acknowledge that some people take it way too seriously. Personally speaking, I won't go the route of VR(T) because it is a Kelloggs commission - I've missed my chance of getting a real one and would feel like a cheat, but that is a personal opinion and not condemnation of the whole concept. Good VR(T) officers never forget that they got their commission with their cereal and only had to do a 1 week course some time afterwards and will concentrate on their role as a leader of cadets. The waving about of rank on an RAF base is seldom necessary and seldom helpful.