Did a little stint (7 months ) as a SWO as NCO Aircrew and during this time had to attend a WOs conference at Halton which was attended by lots of SWOs from the 'Rocks' branch. In the bar afterwards, all the 'Rocks' formed a little group and sent one of them over to me while I was chatting to a fellow NCO Aircrew fella. Conversation went as follows;
"Are you that Aircrew SWO fella from ****?"
"What if I am?"
"Well my mates and I, who are all SWOs want to know are you still getting flying pay while your doing the SWO job?"
"Not only am I getting Flying Pay, I'm also getting SWOs pay, £13.50 a day"
"SWOs PAY ????"
"Yep..if you have over 2000 uniformed personal on your unit you can claim SWOs pay"
Rock now calls over to his fellow mates
"Dave..how many you got at Catterick?"
"About 1800!"
"Well you won't get it..what about you Steve..how many you got at Wittering?
"About 2200...why?" "Do you get SWOs pay?" "NO...!"
"Tell you mate then when he gets back to Wittering to go and see the Chf Clrk and get it back dated"
After he scuttles off, my fellow NCO Aircrew mate says to me, " I didn't know you got SWOs pay!"
" I DONT...BUT THEY DONT KNOW THAT!"
Priceless.