However, your call for everyone to PVR falls somewhat into the category of disloyalty. It was the service that helped shape you into the employable person that you are
Sorry, Deliverance, but Trap One has hit it square on the head - loyalty is a 2way street and only a fool or someone who is exceptionally niave would advocate slavishly standing up for any of the Armed Forces these days.
You want to send us off to war - fine. We will go, knowing that we may not come back, and we will do our jobs to the best of our abilities regardless of the hurdles the politicians and bean counters put in our way. We know that we are undermanned and will probably end up doing several peoples jobs, but we get used to it - rightly or wrongly, it has become the norm but again, we crack on and do the best we can, even though it would be all too easy to screw it up just to make a point.
We put up with all that, because we know that in return we are well paid. We can trust the High Paid Help to provide solid leadership and stand up for their troops. We know that if anything should happen to us whilst we are away, if it is the worst, out families will be looked after, otherwise we will receive first class treatment to help us get over our injuries. We put up with the long hours and over stretch because we know that at the end of the day, we will be rewarded with advancement and outstanding career opportunities by PMA who are there to help maximise the potential of each and every one of us. We know that despite in the back of our minds knowing that one day, we might just not come home, it is all worth it because we are doing a worthwhile job and the overall package is outstanding as befits the best armed forces in the world - we must be, the politicians keep telling us that we are.
Oh, erm, bollocks. That must be a different armed forces. Because the one I'm in has replaced leadership with spineless management and incompetence that makes David Brent look competent all in the search for that elusive OBE and next stripe. If anything should happen to us whilst on ops, well I just hope that people have understanding families and friends to look after those we leave behind. And to be honest, I think I'd rather take my chances with a comabat medic and a first aid field dressing than trek back to Smelly Oak (I had a great time living in Smell Oak as a uni student, but you really wouldn't want to go back there to recover from a Taleban RPG). Repeated long hours at home mean that at times, I quite look forward to getting out to theatre - it's less work and there's less crap to put up with. And the overall package has gradually been chipped away by the bean counters in the name of efficiency to a level that is probably well below what those bean counters themselves put up with and certainly far far below what any half decent civi company would provide. And as for the pay, on paper it looks ok, but have a look at your responsibilities at work and then compared what someone with similar levels of responsibility earns in civi street.
Given the shameful way we are being treated, I can only think that it is loyalty (and possibly the pension trap) keeping a lot of people in. But that loyalty is not being reciprocated and corporate good will is now running on fumes. I had leave cancelled at short notice to go out to 'stan last summer. I got back and could only take part of the leave I wanted to take because I was required for a monumentally pointless exercise. Despite having the cancellation signed off by my Flt Cdr, come the new leave year, I was told I couldn't carry my excess leave over as it was my fault I had not managed my leave properly. My spineless leader had a set of performance targets to meet and by God he was going to meet them regardless.
As far as I am concerned, the RAF can take a long walk off a short pier next time it wants that little bit extra that good will would normally have provided. Loyalty is a two way street Deliverance, only in today's armed forces it isn't. And as for the service making us employable, sorry mate, it's us that makes the service. Without decent people it would be nothing. And yes there are people still going in through the careers office door - but who would you rather go to war with - the 18 yr old with his A level in media and pottery or someone that has been around a bit and can cope when the sh1t hits the fan. And it's about time the very high paid help stopped talking and started doing.