now firstly i hope this doesn't ruffle to many of my knockers feathers, i have been on the receiving end of the crap about this retention bonus for the past few weeks with endless comments about how the galley on the kipper jet is now self service for officers, comments about sizes of wallets etc. to be honest i am sick of the crap attached to this. how many of the officers etc are receiving the bonus? not as many as you would think, i am not a pilot and i work on a crew jet, however if they don't keep the boys at the pointy end no one goes flying. if they keep most of us down the back then we can be shuffled around to fit in the gaps. noone likes to see sqn's short on numbers but it happening and we have to get on with it, after all thats what we are here for. It saddens me to read of people suggesting that we should have a union, go on strike, or mutiny. i don't think that anyone can complain about the amount of money that any of us get as we don't do to badly, all you have to do is look at the cars, hoildays etc that everyone of my mates, officer or knocker go on each year. it's also a fact that most nco aircrew earn more money then junior officers when we arrive on front line sqn's due to the amount of time it take officers to go up the pay scale, yes i know whats coming the flying pay issue, but if you want the same amount of money as officers get paid then become one of them or stop whinging. the pay is all related to the responsibily on the aircraft, time and qualifications required to do the jobs and natural abilty. Somebody will always get paid more then you if you want the same then you have to do the same job.