Coff
Yes, a great shame on the Pythons 'RAF Banter' - a classic that lead to things like Armstrong and Miller. I do think that the WWII aircrew image is so deeply rooted in our heritage that we would be
fools to turn our back on it.
Here's another favourite:
Pully's chollywhoppers are a comparitively new capability and the SH force have in the past insisted on wearing Frank Spencer berets with their flying suits - all of which further detaches them from the RAF in the public's eyes. Whenever a Pongo gets on board an RAF cab or Herc then they should be in no doubt that it doesn't belong to the Army's teeny weeny airways. That starts with the way that we present ourselves and stopping wearing CS95/MTP with berets is just the beginning. Stopping the slow malaise of down-playing aircrew status - like the idiotic recent shirt badge palava and the placing of non-aircrew into traditional aircrew posts. We need to stop pretending that non-operators are Air Power experts - only those that operate in, with or around aircraft can be. A blunty going to the so called 'College of Knowledge' at Shrivenham does not make them an Air Power expert. All of this 'thins' our brand and a previous CAS was 'on the money' in asking us to wear blues whenever possible to try and raise RAF profile. However, putting us in nasty 'tuppence-halfpenny' nasty-nylon shirts, trousers and wooly pulleys with no proper heritage is a disaster - travelling on the train in the No 2 wooly pulley combo I have been asked what my uniform is on at least a dozen occasions! Oddly enough, I never get asked when in flying clothing and also the bluntys often ask us to turn out in flying clothing at media events to showcase that the RAF is about flying - I wonder why? Is it because our No 2 blues make us look like office workers; even RAC men have more appropriate clothing these days!
He said: “We all of us in this room should be ashamed. We have been in this game for over 100 years and the people don’t understand air power. That the image of the Royal Air Force is driven by two comedians wearing this uniform, selling beer. Is that what air power is about? We have got to do better.”
The public face of the RAF
is the Dambusters, the Battle of Britain and the Great Escape. Live with it and work with it. We need to stop tailoring No 1s so you can see what you've eaten for breakfast and then they might be comfortable enough to be everyday wear like a suit for wearing in HQs and Main Building. Introduce a comfortable (non-hairy mary) battle-dress style jacket to wear as No2s - God knows there are so many campaign medal ribbons on our people; well let them wear them with pride. Get rid of the beret full stop - it's for Frenchmen, Pongos and Frank Spencer!
Finally, what a mixed message we are passing at the moment. On one hand we have CAS giving out a pseudo b0ll0cking for not actively plugging Air Power and then in another message we have spelled the end of the RAF Leuchars and Waddington Airshows.
Right that's tonight's real-ale rant sorted!
LJ