Some 20+ years ago, my DeskO told me that my next posting would be what I'd asked for... However, months later I received a posting to a CFS course. I rang him and gave him my "WTF??" comments, but he played the 'exigencies of the Service' trump card. But he told me that I would be posted to somewhere reasonably nearby, which sweetened the pill considerably.
However, on arrival at CFS I found that a colleague had been given the promise of the same posting which grated somewhat. CFS also said that Barnwood couldn't make such a promise anyway. However, my colleague and I agreed not to fall out over it; whoever did best on the course would get the choice. But the RN people on the course asked who this 'Barny Wood' person was who we kept moaning about!
In the end it worked out OK; although I was lucky enough to get the posting in question, Barnwood engineered things so that my colleague wasn't disadvantaged by the allowances regime by 'detaching' rather than 'posting' him; he had 12 months of weekly commuting but his squadron let him stack early and start late - and as he worked a 'Christian' week rather than our Wed-Sun week, he actually saw more of his family than he would have done if he'd had the other posting. But Barnwood looked after him and he was reposted somewhere nearby as soon as he'd got his B1 and a slot came up.
The moral of the story being that DeskOs
can be flexible - or rather they could back then. There are many tales of being 'stitched' by a DeskO, but I'm quite certain that they will always do the best they can for an individual. Although whilst I was doing some PVR-porridge time at Barnwood, a DeskO commented "You lucky $od, I b****y well wish I was leaving!"
