Originally Posted by
Dunky
I was at someone's house a few years ago who had been a Sgt aircrew, IIRC he was a Nav. When they decided all aircrew should be commissioned, he went to bed one day as a Sgt, and woke up the next day with a commission. He had all his old log books which he showed me, they made interesting reading.
We had two u/t sgt nav on our nav course. One was an ex-maritime siggy and he went back to Shacks as a sgt nav in 1965 and the other was an ex-airman. With a little bit of sharp pencilling (by the staff) he came out top of the nav course but still as a sgt. They gave him the boost to help on his route to a commission.
As both had done a full 12 months nav course with a predominantly officer course it may have been judged that they had had sufficient training for a quick laying on of hands. I met the latter in the club many years later but didn't ask him when he got his commission.
Later, in 1967, we had a couple of sgt nav, remustered to ops SNCOs as their flying opportunities had ceased. I think they had forgone flying pay. They certainly worked down to their pay grade rather than up to their skill level and I don't mean that in a derogatory sense. They had had too many bollockings for 'exceeding their authority'. Sad really.