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Old 5th Dec 2014, 22:58
  #61 (permalink)  
 
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the Auth for biscuits for a visiting MP sits at 1* level
Are you serious?
I was expecting the collapse of Western Civilisation around 2025. I shall have to advance my preparations.

MSOCS - a large number of us do appreciate your situation. That's why we PVR'd sometime ago. My sympathies.
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Old 5th Dec 2014, 23:03
  #62 (permalink)  
 
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Reading the comments of this thread I am having a bit if a chuckle. Akrotiri, part of the RAF ? Late 80s to early 90s an East bound C130, on a Saturday or Sunday, would be obliged to night stop Cairo, as AKR would not offer staging facilities. I never had a problem with it, as a night at the Pyramids was far more interesting than yet another kebab. GW1 woke them up, a bit, but spending six weeks living in a windowless room, that was our store room, when I lived in that block on a tour in 1973, was hard going. Nonetheless, we were on operations and "any port in a storm" was the way it was. No one moaned, we got on with it. I know that this thread is based on media reports, but it seems that some currently serving are happy to fuel the fire of outrage. Modern servicemen have a choice, as they did in my time. Take it, or leave it. At 61 years old, I would give my right arm to support operations from Akrotiri again.

Smudge
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Old 5th Dec 2014, 23:12
  #63 (permalink)  
 
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Fox3...the poster was absolutely correct. Biscuits are verboten these days, at least at the public expense!

I work in another part of government and the fiscal control sare absurd beyond belief. I've given up trying to explain that the control transaction costs exceed the actual costs. I recently had 25 p recovered from my salary because of an arithmetical error in a mobile phone bill.
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Old 5th Dec 2014, 23:18
  #64 (permalink)  
 
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Get Serco to service your jets if the serving ground support can't play at being in the military....
So from were do you think Serco recruit the majority of their highly skilled but poorly paid workforce, and where are they going to eat?

If it was crap when you were in, why would you go back to the same place for crap money and the same crap living conditions when you are out?
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Old 5th Dec 2014, 23:18
  #65 (permalink)  
 
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OK, thanks. I shall adjust my plans accordingly. Transactional costs are, of course, on someone else's budget. In simpler terms, no-one is in charge.
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Old 5th Dec 2014, 23:25
  #66 (permalink)  
 
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Aimed at the RAF chappies. Why did you join and what were your expectations?
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Old 5th Dec 2014, 23:41
  #67 (permalink)  
 
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Answer...

1) Like everyone else, I needed a job.
2) Loyalty to be two way. I expected to be well looked after and not shafted. For example, if the contract I signed said I was on AFPS75 I expected to receive AFPS75.
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Old 5th Dec 2014, 23:55
  #68 (permalink)  
 
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Having put Fox3wheresMyBananas last post through my message decoder I'm confused as it just gave me some dribble knocking everything British. I retried it with some of his other posts and I got the same thing. That can't be right can it, all of his posts just knocking everything British?

Maybe we should all join him in the land of milk and honey!

S-D
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Old 5th Dec 2014, 23:56
  #69 (permalink)  
 
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1) Being in the Armed Forces isn't just a 'job'
2) Totally agree.

3) (My PoV). At what point did you become disillusioned with the mob? Just before or just after the perks were removed or at the point where you realised you had to work for a living?

Define 'well looked after'. If thats what you wanted, maybe you should have joined the Mafia or a union?

PS Served 30 years and still serving. Still doing Ops cos thats why I joined....rough or smooth. At the point I want a softer, easier life, I'll get out and fly for the airlines.
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Old 6th Dec 2014, 00:05
  #70 (permalink)  
 
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3) (My PoV). At what point did you become disillusioned with the mob? Just before or just after the perks were removed or at the point where you realised you had to work for a living?
You waste your time arguing with this mentality at your peril. The "it's no worse than it was in my day" mentality that is right up there with the "we've always done it this way" approach to service life.

S-D (not serving any more and not putting up with the wankers who hold such views)
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Old 6th Dec 2014, 00:26
  #71 (permalink)  
 
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The grass is greener on the outside. Can't figure why everybody isn't hitting the PVR button.
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Old 6th Dec 2014, 00:42
  #72 (permalink)  
 
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Well I have less than a year to go now until I am promoted to Mr. Can't wait - very excited. 13 years of COIN have been great, but I have no wish to hang around for the post-HERRICK, post-general election, SDSR-bloodbath that we all know is coming.

And if I get a letter ordering me back for Op Badly Planned War III - I shall join the BNP, smoke drugs and fail the RAFFT while sticking two fingers up to the MOD. Loyalty is a 2-way street.
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Old 6th Dec 2014, 01:07
  #73 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by Royalistflyer
Akrotiri is a regular RAF station and should have all the facilities of one. More to the point, it is in effect our aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean, where ops to small wars are to be expected, therefore it should have a hospital.
Absolutely agreed.

Originally Posted by Royalistflyer
The Air Force isn't the army.
Absolutely agreed.

Originally Posted by Royalistflyer
The Air Force has very expensive aeroplanes and it has highly trained support staff who shouldn't be expected to rough it like a soldier at the front.
What have you been smoking to make such a ridiculous statement? The RAF has some expensive kit and some well trained people. The Army has a lot more expensive kit, and a lot more well trained people. I could say that simply because it is 3x the size. However, that wouldn't be the whole story. Several trades in the Army take years to reach Class 1 standard, just like the RAF. Yet those people are required to live in tents and eat compo just like the basic infantryman. And they don't moan about it. Why ON EARTH should one service think there is any difference in expectations from the other two? I don't believe that is really the case, other than in your world.

Originally Posted by Royalistflyer
Akrotiri really is our third aircraft carrier - and the only one operational at the moment, it should be a first class base.
Absolutely agreed.
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Old 6th Dec 2014, 01:22
  #74 (permalink)  
 
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And if I get a letter ordering me back for Op Badly Planned War III - I shall join the BNP, smoke drugs and fail the RAFFT while sticking two fingers up to the MOD. Loyalty is a 2-way street.
Careful, they'll promote you to Sqn Ldr......
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Old 6th Dec 2014, 04:31
  #75 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by upsdaisy
I find the the most bizarre thing about this whole thread is that there are actually so many of you defending the fact that some f'kn muppet has chosen to write anonymously to the British press on the fact that he has to eat sandwiches on his night shift.
Take two shifts, one permanent days, the other permanent nights. The night crew see the day crew getting a cooked three course meal, while they are fed sandwiches, wouldn't you be a bit pissed off?

OK, running to the press is bit OTT but servicemen have been bitching for centuries and in the era of social media and instant communication niggles like this are certain to get an airing. The old saying that the military marches on its stomach always holds, ignore it and morale plummets. I have not yet looked at ARRSE to see their comments, but I can just imagine!
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Old 6th Dec 2014, 06:30
  #76 (permalink)  
 
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wg13_dummy, since you've already opined:
Just think that on the whole, crabs are a bunch of self serving cnuts.
You obviously have your own rather fixed opinion. Hence any debate would be somewhat pointless.

Newsnight was interesting last night, but the interviewees lacked any real commitment to improve or investigate the alleged situation........

Anyway, from the top of ba recruiting himself, they are about to start an expansion programme requiring DE pilots. Those with TRs for Airbus will be eagerly snapped up, so quite how 'manning' will cope with maintaining force strengths in some fleets will be interesting to observe. Whether or not it was in jest, one well-placed source advised me that they were 'bracing themselves for the rush'.....

ba taking DE pilots will mean that other airlines will then be looking to replace those who defect to ba. So it won't be long before the RAF will see a similar mass exodus to that of the 1990s..... When lifestyle as well as Ts and Cs was somewhat better than is reportedly the case these days.

Last edited by BEagle; 6th Dec 2014 at 06:50.
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Old 6th Dec 2014, 06:33
  #77 (permalink)  
 
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I've done tours on Chinook and GR4 and have deployed numerous times with both on exercise and ops so have seen both sides of the coin.

I think the issue here is :

1. A lack of Operational focus at Akrotiri.
2. A lack of leadership at Squadron and MOB (at all levels) to sort something out. Let's face it, one of the basics is to ensure people are fed adequately.

That said, I always found that expectations of 'home comforts' was higher on the FJ fleet. Personally, if the accommodation wasn't a tent and I didn't have to cook my own food I considered myself well off.
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Old 6th Dec 2014, 06:38
  #78 (permalink)  
 
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Just come across this thread...kinda exactly in synch with the other one running re budget cuts and the perfect storm.

mods, perhaps merge them?

Meanwhile...everybody who is serving is going to get shafted the big one and some ppruners hereon are slagging each others outfits...go figure????
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Old 6th Dec 2014, 06:54
  #79 (permalink)  
 
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In the relative comfort of KKIA during GW1, the RAF's mobile catering folks did a superb job of feeding the five thousand.

Whereas the pongos had far more austere catering arrangements, even though they were co-located. So mediocre were they that the pongo officers actually banned their troops from using the RAF's facilities.

Has the creeping cancer of contractorisation and the introduction of PAY(S) denuded the RAF of its mobile catering capabilities nowadays?

Last edited by BEagle; 6th Dec 2014 at 09:30.
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Old 6th Dec 2014, 06:59
  #80 (permalink)  
 
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Is there anyone reading this thread that thinks it is acceptable for any individual of any service to be expected to work 12+ hour shifts on an enduring basis without access to hot food?
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