The RAF of the mid to late 80's when I joined was still in the 1930s. Asking permission to get married, having to live on the patch until having been on the Sqn for one year and lots of wives introdusing themsleves with their husband's rank. I had to live on base for my first year, but we had already bought a house 15 miles away from the station. So I was a ''bean stealer'' and pretending to live on base.
But Mrs Wg Cdr expressed great disspapointment that we had chosen not to live on the patch. We discovered why when we received a discreet invitation to a very exclusive type of party - for which this station was famous for! We didn't attend and Mrs W had heard what went on at these events and as a result, didn't have much to do with the organised wives events for the whole of my time in the RAF. It didn't help my career for that tour, but she got involved a bit more on later tours and was mentioned in most of my ACRs.