Next CAS
I was thinking more cementimated when I posted it.
Britannia was to some extent the Roman equivalent of the sandpit (but relationships with local women were a lot less risky
). Stoppages for rations, equipment etc. could amount to 2/3 of pay for an ordinary soldier. LB, a legionary in Britain in the early 140s would have found himself fighting (possibly) insurgent Brigantes and (definitely) fighting the tribes between Hadrian's Wall and the Forth/Clyde axis and building the Antonine Wall. (A Century was 80 not a 100 strong just to confuse matters).
Issued food was mainly wheat based.
Service was 20 years plus 5 in the reserves
Marriage was illegal during service.
The retirement payment for a primus pilus ('Warrant Officer of the Legion') was sufficient to meet the wealth qualification of the equestrian order, so it would be more a question of hiring security for self-protection than hiring oneself out. In the early first century an ordinary legionary's payout was equivalent to 13 years pay.
Worse still the officers were amateur aristocratic politicos not career soldiers (apart from the 3-i-C of a legion, the camp prefect, who was normally a recently retired primus pilus) which meant their military experience could be equivalent to that of Boris Johnson or John Healey through Ben Wallace and Winston Churchill to the 1st Duke of Wellington.
So the closest a Roman CAS equivalent might have got to the sharp end might be the equivalent of strolling past MoD Main Building.
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Never easy for a Service when your Lords and Masters ask you to reduce from 38,000 down to 33,000 within 4 years (about 1 in 9 of your work force), thence onto 31,750 from 2015 but with a big buy of shiny new equipment and a flying training system designed for something smaller. A total cluster, you could call it!
On the face of it, the redundancy was done the correct way by slicing down the side of the rank triangle. Really rubbish if you have recently joined, but equally so for those mid career too, but it had to be done that way. I actually made Manning’s job easier by ‘throwing the towel in’ as I found myself something else to do - I wasn’t alone. But, of course there were some that were kept that should have gone and some told to go that the Service should have kept. But getting rid of the old to keep the young - that is a daft idea as you end up with demographic troughs and peaks that shock the workforce balance for years to come. The saddest part was that some held out for redundancy, and when they didn’t get it, they left too, thus making those troughs in the demographic (age and rank) anyway. So that certainly could have been done better by asking for volunteers and then selecting those from the right brackets.
I always laugh out loud when people seem to think that the Service will falter when they leave. The Service really doesn’t care about individuals and really it’s only your buddies and close colleagues that do. In a machine of 31,750 regulars and 3,500 reserves then the only person who can look out for you, and get you where you want to be, is yourself. I learned that fairly shortly after walking out of that dump near Sleaford into the real Air Force. It’s the same outside too, indeed probably far more Machiavellian as well!
On the face of it, the redundancy was done the correct way by slicing down the side of the rank triangle. Really rubbish if you have recently joined, but equally so for those mid career too, but it had to be done that way. I actually made Manning’s job easier by ‘throwing the towel in’ as I found myself something else to do - I wasn’t alone. But, of course there were some that were kept that should have gone and some told to go that the Service should have kept. But getting rid of the old to keep the young - that is a daft idea as you end up with demographic troughs and peaks that shock the workforce balance for years to come. The saddest part was that some held out for redundancy, and when they didn’t get it, they left too, thus making those troughs in the demographic (age and rank) anyway. So that certainly could have been done better by asking for volunteers and then selecting those from the right brackets.
I always laugh out loud when people seem to think that the Service will falter when they leave. The Service really doesn’t care about individuals and really it’s only your buddies and close colleagues that do. In a machine of 31,750 regulars and 3,500 reserves then the only person who can look out for you, and get you where you want to be, is yourself. I learned that fairly shortly after walking out of that dump near Sleaford into the real Air Force. It’s the same outside too, indeed probably far more Machiavellian as well!
Whoever thinks that people are a company's most valuable asset has not talked to the accountants.
As a belated entry to the fray - the book is already open for the next but one CAS.
Watch the musical chairs this summer because the money in certain well placed quarters is on AVM Marshall to follow Knighton to the top.
And when I say AVM Marshall, I’m referring to the female rather than male Marshall - yep, first female Nav as CAS just to show the RAF is leading the field in appointing the first female head of service having appointed the first non-pilot head of service.
Watch the musical chairs this summer because the money in certain well placed quarters is on AVM Marshall to follow Knighton to the top.
And when I say AVM Marshall, I’m referring to the female rather than male Marshall - yep, first female Nav as CAS just to show the RAF is leading the field in appointing the first female head of service having appointed the first non-pilot head of service.
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I still subscribe to Chief of Air Staff rather than any other criterion. Previous line experience tends to lose its relevance at the higher levels.
PS: All these people are after my time, of course.
PS: All these people are after my time, of course.
Relax.
In many NATO countries Met. folk are in uniform and reach [or reached] one star in some cases. Just imagine a weather forecaster as CAS. [Thinks .......... slightly more relevant than a dentist but hey ho ........]
In many NATO countries Met. folk are in uniform and reach [or reached] one star in some cases. Just imagine a weather forecaster as CAS. [Thinks .......... slightly more relevant than a dentist but hey ho ........]
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Air Vice-Marshal R C Maddison OBE to be promoted Air Marshal and to be Deputy Commander Capability, Headquarters Air Command and Air Member for Personnel and Capability in May 2023 in succession to Air Marshal Sir Rich Knighton KCB whose appointment as Chief of the Air Staff and Aide-de-Camp to His Majesty The King has previously been announced.