Station or base?
 

Wonder if anyone else is as sad as I clearly am. (Rhetorical question, thank you.)

But is anyone else as irritated as I am that the meeja, both broadcast and print, seems unable to recognise that the Royal Air Force resides on ‘stations’, not ‘bases’? And that people, and aircraft, are ‘stationed’ at Much Binding in the Marsh, not ‘based’ there.

If this were not the case, what would we call the staish - can’t call him/her the base, surely? And what about the SWO, which runs off the tongue much better than a BWO? Come to think of it, what would replace the standard phone greeting “Station farm, duty pig speaking....”?

I speak, of course, as a member of the aforetomentioned meeja, and I have tried with various editors of my ken to get them to change their ways, but they don’t seem to care.....

Being also, these days, an ex-RAF old buffer - I wonder, does it still matter?

airsound

Airsound - Being an ex as well I don't think anyone cares!

I agree in general. That said, after an exchange tour I took to using 'base' because I thought I sounded hip and different. I then grew up.

Easy test : 'Base Hangar' or 'Station Hangar' ? One definately sounds better!

Does it matter ? No. Not to me. And not to 99.9% of those in I would wager.

Would love to sit around and debate the issue in the Mess, after my hour long lunch, possibly write a letter to the editor of the Torygraph and wait with baited breath at my 9-5 job for a reply.

But off to the desert next week and back out again 6 weeks later. So won't.

No one's around to care, notice or do anything about it anyway :ok:

Will leave it to the ex RAF old buffers's to do :ok:

The correct term is of course 'Station' but it seems more traditional for the junior ranks to use the term 'Camp'. It's not just the media that can't get it right, the average 'playstation generation' JO usually gets it wrong too!

OK, this one has always bothered me...when did the names change from "RAF Station Blah-blah" to just "RAF Blah-blah?" Use the latter and people just look at you weird, but is it not more correct?

Just wundering...:}

Cheers! M2

Main Operating Base, Forward Operating Base

Station used to signify the admin REMFs location.

What's more, why are they always in such palpably obscure places? With such aw-what-a-nice-place-for-a-holiday names? Bentley Priory? Church Fenton? Kirton-in-Lindsey?

I presume there is some security or noise-abatement reason that they're always out in the sticks.

Regards,

Phil

RileyDove
Another test: 'Station bike' or 'Base bike? They both go about the same, IIRC.

I think they put them out in the sticks so they would be harder for the German fifth column to find. Imagine going up to a native Norfolk type and asking where Little Snoring was - he'd know if you were born more than 15 miles away from the minute you opened your mouth, so then he'd shove his pitchfork up your @rse, and march you off to PC Plod.

And you think I'm joking :}

And of course DOB and then we have FOL as Location.

It is spelt out in AP3002. Sad but true.

Too Camp Or Not
 

;)
I would think that the term Camp transferred to the RAF from the RFC in 1918. The term Station proberbly came from the Royal Naval Air Station. I have lived and worked on RAF Establishments for just under 60 years and have always used the word 'Camp' as an informal term for an RAF Station. It is not just used by new boys but by all. Some stations have East Camp and West Camp, eg St Athan. It is a convenient administarative label which was in use widely since before WWII. My father, who enlisted in 1935 and served for 36 years always used the term. I have lived in quarters at 'Transit Camps' (Properly known as PTCs Posting Transit Centres) - Croft and Warton. I'm not sure when the term 'Base' came into use but there was a Base Hangar at Lyneham (Britannias) in 1967. I suppose camp means a temporary settlement really.

'We knew how to whinge but we kept it in the NAAFI bar.'

Thought we had to read SROs not BROs

There was a computer game which mistakenly used the American "Wherever AFB" to refer to "Marham RAF" once, which was particularly amusing.

P

I won't lose any sleep over this either way, but I'm quite happy having a different naming convention to the Spams. Station works fine for Light and Dark blue. What do the AAC boys call home?

I get far more annoyed with the media referring to airmen serving (and being killed) in Afghanistan/Iraq as troops or even soldiers. :ugh:

Just a little trivia, but they are only 'AFBs' if they are in the US, outside of the US they are simply 'ABs' (e.g. Ramstein, Bagram, etc); except of course in the UK...

Cheers! M2

A basha, or if in range of enemy arty/bombers, a trench :E

Going back to wierd and wonderful station names, Weston Zoyland has to one of my favourites...

airborne I think that still applies today:E

"XXXX Station" or "XXXX Airfield" seems to be the norm with the AAC.

Not sure which one is official. If you want to p155 them off, call it RAF XXXX.

The media always do :)

"Going back to wierd and wonderful station names, Weston Zoyland has to one of my favourites..."

RNAS **** has to provoke a slight smile too....

Editted to add: I see the software doesn't like that, let's try RNAS Tw@ ! Good job it's closed now..

I'm sure it must have been fun training at Husbands Bosworth. We had a Flying Training Command in those days.

Wait until they're all "Royal Forces Base"s like they are (as CFBs) over here.

Right, thats it ..... them 'Pikies' at Brize would have anything not tied down ..... :suspect: Its going back in the morning ....... :E
:hmm: ..... It will fit in a Volvo won't it??? :}

All the senior RN officers in JFH refer to RAF Cott/ Witt as Air Stations - still don't think they can bring themselves round to saying RAF! :)

The Light Blue at Leeming didn't like it when the Dark Blue lodgers referred to Harry Staish as the Station Master :E

Two points:
Totally agree; what's wrong with the term station? We've let the media give us Americanisms for too long. It's even worse when serving 'troops' refer to it as a base. That just saddens me.
Which brings me to 'troops' not airmen or aircrew. We are not troops! Endex!:ugh:
Would the media be allowed to get away wityh such ill-prepared jottings if it were about the government or the NHS or something similar? No, of course not because we're easy. get it wrong and nobody's going to worry about putting a rocket up their a:mad: e
Rant over. Time for my cup of tea. Now, where are my tablets? Nurse?!

Where are you based or where are you stationed ?
Simple really - I'm based at Toyland but presently stationed at Muppetland until they finish digging up and replacing the runway at Toyland - Bolthole !! - but right now, I am camped out in a tent at Fantasyland, because the mess at Muppetland is full:8
Toyland still does my admin and pays my wages - so I am very happy

Kaserne used to be popular.

troop (trp)
n.
A group or company of people, animals, or things. See Synonyms at band2. See Synonyms at flock1.

1. A group of soldiers.
troops Military units; soldiers.
2. A unit of cavalry, armored vehicles, or artillery in a European army, corresponding to a platoon in the U.S. Army.
3. A unit of at least five Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts under the guidance of an adult leader.
4. A great many; a lot.

Perhaps description 3 is aimed at RAF Regt rather than the RAF as a whole.;)

Ice Base Kilo? Nah!

IIRC, wasn't Aldergove known as 'Mud Base Alpha'?

I suppose it is a sense of historical perspective.

RAF Weston-on-the-Green can hardly be called a "base". It is most definitely a station. On the other hand, base implies a scale somewhat greater, and BZZ is probably more approaching that. The term "station" is obviously more habitual than base. I hesitate to use the term "traditional", as these things take time to evolve.

I hate to do this :E , but the term station has been around significantly longer than the RAF, as a station is an Army term used to describe a location with multiple units, but smaller than a garrison. Since RAF stations housed multiple Sqns, it was appropriate with the seccession of the RFC from the Army. Same as the term "troops" really.

So for those supporting the term "station" over "base", there's implicit acceptance of "troop" too.

But doesn't a "Base" mean a "Base Commander" rather than a Station Commander - definitely too septic for my tastes.

And would the "Staish" have to be a "Baish"??

MarkD
Fortunately, since His Majesticness Tony Blair is well and truly on his way out, we might just have avoided the term PFBs - Presidential Forces Bases.

Tosh.

At Wittering long ago there was a British Rail "Station Master" sign outside the staish's offic in Ops.

Or 'field'.
Overheard a buff pilot say he was 'inbound to Fairford field' once...

When reffering to a collective of RAF flying Stns, I tend to call them airfileds. Is that correct, or have I watched the Battle of Britain film too many times?