Afternoon all,
Been a way for a while and have just caught up on the latest on this thread. Flt Ops may have to get better FOMere2, however if you speak around the bazaars, things ain't all good. Many think its ok, however many more don't. Iwas speaking to the Flt Ops desk officer recently and even he admits that he has plenty of correspndence on his desk from the JO corps who all feel like skivvies. To add credence to his words I also spoke to a gadger at 2 gp who was quite clear in his view that the job is a waste of time and all they are doing are the duties of SNCOs and JNCOs.
It is quite clear that the RAF has got things horribly wrong and needs to assess things in better detail. If it was my company I would remove a significant number of OpsO's and replace them with SNCOs, who incidentally are cheaper, more experienced, understand the 'Company' system, and the wider picture for that matter. I could go on but I feel that the point has already been adequately made by others.
DD, for your info, I totally disagree with your view about the duties of a Flt Ops officer. All the duties you mention were once the preserve of SACs and Cpls. In my day I, as a JNCO, would deal with all these aspects, furthermore as a SNCO I was the ops officer out in Gioia when it was reopened in 1998 and dealt with every thing from C130s to multiple visiting fast jets to senior members of the Cabinet. Now all this has become the preserve of the commissioned mafia, are we not good enough, I think not! or is it more to do with ursurping the role of RAF SNCO FOMs?
Hardly surprising that people feel disenfranchised and undervalued, I do and intend to PVR soon as a direct result.