TSM,
Thank you for your insightful advice, however, I am not yet near enough to my tether to take such irrevokable steps. I have, of course sought advice from my command chain and the scribblies, both of whom are on side. And of course a redress of complaint (and even legal action) is not out of the question.
Moreover, it saddens me that you say that the NCAs have been treated like this for some time now, yet it intrigues me that I was not aware of it before, despite having been a Flt Cdr for AEng and ALMs. I am aware of a couple of individuals who have fallen between the cracks (and got shafted) due to several changes in T&Cs, but not the norm.
The really sad part is that despite nearly 20 years of dedicated service, ACOS(M) are now so short of people that they would rather have a totally pi$$ed off bum-on-seat (exactly how productive do they think I am going to be?) than accept that their (unnotified) change of policy was fundamentally flawed, and allow me to go, time-served.
More to follow...
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