Shock! Horror! Life in the military found to be serious business!
Amateur Aviator
I would love to be able to say that I sympathise with your lack of opportunity to model some casual wear (even including the range of RAF casual clothing designed for your average 45-yr old Dad) whilst on ops, but I can't.
You're an SH mate. You support the Land Component. You're on ops not an overseas landaway. Ops are demanding and think of the extra capacity this is freeing up for you now you don't have the daily wardrobe dilemma of what to step out in. You might find it divisive that 903 EAW can still wear civvies, so now you know what it's like for the Army when they see us in the Joint environment dressed for the beach rather than looking like we are taking the business seriously. If this really affects your ability to chill out in ECHOS, use the internet to your full ability and restricts your ability to enjoy a meal in between sorties, then perhaps you're holding on too tight.
Uniform to me = being at work and when I'm at home I equate wearing civvies with not worrying about the pressures of ops.
This has to be on a par with the C130 article in the paper which showed the Army how precious we can be.
I know it's hard, but until we restrict ourselves to operations in Ibiza, this is just how it is.