Flt Lt Mac
I have absolutely no problem with the troops getting a commitment bonus. What annoys me is the way it is being phrased - that it is to reward commitment and encourage retention.
Well I think you will find many of the officers across all services are serving longer than the troops - despite everything that happens. Where is the commitment bonus there then? And if you want to talk about officers sitting in shelters and not facing the Taliban face to face, RAF Regt aside, I wonder what the proportion of RAF personnel going outside the wire to get their hands dirty are officers and what proportion are from the ranks .... in case you had forgotten or just not noticed, the RAF is almost unique amongst the services in sending its officers off to face the enemy.
Anyway, I was not intending to start an officers/ORs debate, merely wondering why there is rarely anything in the pot to encourage us to stay and hacked off at the cack handed way it's being done - yet again.