When I left two of us from the same section went to hand our Uniforms in having cleared everything else, I was in Civies and the other guy was still in Uniform... when asked why he said everything else had already gone home. My misfortune was I was told to keep everything more or less for my reserve at the time... Damn,
He on the other hand had to hand in his tie he was wearing, woolie pullie, belt! and hat leaving him in shoes, shirt and trousers LOL.. and that was it....... freedom!
We decided to walk over to work to say a final goodbye as it was only over the other side of the building.... as we walked along he got the "Airman where is your hat?" LOL to which he turned round and told the said person in no uncertain terms where he could stick his hat.......
We never got any badge etc, though my final swansong Groundrun on a VC10 which was supposed to be low power to clear the drains on a Royal as it was on Sunday morning during Church, (a strict no no unless it was operationally needed), managed to mysteriously get up to 100% power for some considerable time
and was pointing on the correct bay in the right direction for all to hear, which for some reason did not seem to go down well in certain higher echelons....
I even got a nice lift sent out for me by OC Eng, who on hearing I had a day to do smiled
Coming back out into the real world may seem a culture shock for a while as the brainwashing wears off...... but the grass can be greener on the other side of the hill... indeed Sand may well be a forgettable option for you now.....