Been out for ten years now, so somewhat out of touch with the 'lean', modern, over-stretched, under-equipped RAF.
Sad to see that somethings haven't changed though. It was nigh on impossible to get stuff out of the stores system before they were integrated into engineering to become Eng and Supply wing. Like most, I was optimistic that this change to the command structure would elliminate the 'stacker bottleneck' that ensured you would never get what you were entitled to. Didn't work.
Seem to remember the best inadvertant humour poster was the one about three foot by two and said 'If you are entitled, get it!'
Still laughing about that one all these years later.
Also found over the years that the civvies were more amiable if you paid them at least the minimum respect you would hope to receive yourself instead of just slagging them off.
Anybody remember the other 'jobsworth' line of 'I can't give you the last one, its for AOG only.
' Or, how about 'you're not scaled for that'
, or trying to get a hold of a 'duty supplier' after 2100 hrs.
Anybody remember what happened when the Army took over a lot of the responsibility for procurement in the late '80's/early '90's e.g. torch batteries? I can still see the look on OC Supply's face when ordered by OC Eng Wg to go and locally purchase these when the Army refused to renew the contract or release what was held.
On a more serious note, I really do hope that our guys and gals at the front lines arn't suffering from this pathetic short-sightedness these days.