sevenO ; some good advice there - please take the point that now your son does not have the freedom to specify what ' trade ' he wants. He can certainly state a preference and keep on letting it be known through his training where he would like to go. However the powers that be are under no obligation to honour his wishes and he may find himself doing a job which he has little or no interest in - which as anyone knows is a huge de-motivator. We in the Airmen Aircrew world all know why this system was introduced - simply to staff shortages in the old ' AEOp ' trade - but I do sympathise with anyone wanting to join and not being able to apply directly for the job of their choice. Be very careful in the RAFCO or CIO or whatever it is called these days - remember these guys have a job to do and whilst I am not saying they will give you duff info ( they are not allowed to ), they WILL make it sound easy to jump around between the 3 old trades...something like.....' oh don't let the system put you off.....you can always do a tour on Nimrods as an AEOp then go off and be a loadmaster or SAR winchman '. IT IS NOT THAT EASY although things are getting better.
Just a quick point in response to ratty..... He seems to think that there is something wrong in being in the military and coming on this forum whingeing an bleating....... Well as you know we in the military are not always afforded the same level of freedom of speech as the general public....lest I find myself prematurely stuck in rank and not going any higher or worse.....not being able to meet the mortgage re-payments. It is common knowledge that letting off steam is healthy and the anonymity is welcome. We all work hard and genuine worries, grievances or rants are all part of military life - I am very surprised that ratty does not know this ... is he still wet behind the ears in the service.....and of course the flip side of rattys coin is that if HE does not like reading all the rants and complaints then perhaps HE should p*ss off off this forum and subscribe to the Womens Institute or something equally pink, fluffy and very far removed from reality.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, brirfed, de-briefed or numbered..........I am not a number...........I am a free man. HA HA HA