"We need to look more civilian. Everyone take off your berets!"

http://www.lamptonparkfc.co.uk/asset...nk_spencer.jpg

While I appreciate the idea of making the military more visible to the general public, the idea of wearing uniform in public is ridiculous. We seem to forget all the lessons learnt from previous years when military personnel were allowed to wear uniform outside of the work environment. You dont see police walk down the street in uniform when off duty, or doctors and nurses. They dont wear uniform for a reason; they stand out and are not always appreciated by the public.
I have been in the military for 26 years (still a member) and fully support all the armed forces however, I believe changing the rules wrt to uniforms in public will prove to be a big mistake.
I take my hat off to Group Captain Ro Atherton, the RAF Wittering station commander, who banned his personnel from wearing uniform in public.
:}
PS -- ANY FREE LIVERPOOL SEASON TICKETS ?????:O

Oh and can I possibly have a mortgage with a 1% interest rate as I am in the military ..............and poor :(:confused:

JPA-Hater commented
"You dont see police walk down the street in uniform when off duty, or doctors and nurses"

That argument is bogus. The great British public are much more aware of the police/doctors/nurses as they often come into contact with them during their normal life.

The same cannot be said for the military. Generally they keep themselves to themselves, work in locations that the majority of the public do not visit (or even know about), and do NOT interact in any way with the public.

So, the general "unawareness" of the military by the public would be helped if more military uniformed bods were seen in day to day life.

OK, so let's wear uniform.

What uniform?

Walk down the high street near wear I work and you will see lots of DPMs. Not one military.

DPMs, must be Army.

What do aircrew wear - growbags. Growbags shopping? Probably not although I did see a tall, tanned, blonde F3 nav shopping in PC World in her growbag; on the pull?

In a Pub at Otterburn in DPMs; publican asked us to sit with 'your friends over there.' Quick glance - pongos - their not our friends. [Nothing against pongos simply we were doing different jobs.] He simply did not want his pub full of soldiers - at Otterburn for goodness sake.

Obviously your 26 years hasn't included any proper research then...:mad:

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafwittering/

ooooops
 

:eek:JPA-Hater

Didn't they have gals in your day? Max rate grovel to Ro please! :eek:

Oh goody...... :ok:

Damn - it won't fit... :(

Wearing uniform while off duty or on leave doesn't mean that we will be encouraged to wear the kit during our days off. The new regulation removes the bar from wearing the kit when dropping into a supermarket while travelling to/from our place of work, travelling in public to a meeting or, for the recruits, travelling home on leave. Its nothing more than that. The regulation against routinely wearing flying suits in public remains in place.

I recently attended a briefing, on my unit, given by an Wg Cdr from Innsworth, who had stayed in our Offs Mess the night before. He was wearing his civvies. The sooner this business stops, the better.

Ed

"dropping into a supermarket while travelling to/from our place of work, travelling in public to a meeting"

I left just over 12 months ago so things may have changed: was there really such a bar? We did this sort of thing as a matetr of course dropping into service stations etc in uniform as we travelled up teh motorway to and from Wyton/Abbey Wood/station visit etc. I almost feel I should hand my undetected crime badge back!

Errm, yes, there was a ban on wearing uniform in public, for many years due to the IRA threat. Most units were allowed to extend the "uniform boundary" a mile or so beyond the wire, where it was sensible to do so. This latest change seeks to remove that ban.

Johnny, it has been advice, it has also been the rule. It has changed on and off over the last 30+years.

At one point they even said that you could claim your home-to-duty mileage +10% to allow for random changes of route. Mind you, as soon as you tried it handbrake house found reasons why not.

The car rules advice about 20 years ago was pretty comprehensive. I actually saw a woman doing an under-car search in a supermarket car park.

Driving to work in 'mufftee' ie a jacket over the shirt was a laugh. I saw the same faces every day, blue shirt/black tie, going the opposite direction. Even the shootings in the ferry queues at Zeebrugge didn't shake our complacency.

Er, any chance of loving a woman in uniform?!:eek::ok: