Somebody else must still love being in the RAF as much as me...
 

Anyone?!...

IMHO, being in the RAF is fine - it's having to deal with issues such as

• Your aircraft being taken out of service a year early
• Said aircraft's replacement scrapped before entering service
• Your Home about to be shut
• No career prospects for a good 3+ years
• Incompetent fools making arbitrary knee jerk busybody decisions
• All compensation for courses, duty travel etc. being slashed mercilessly
• Pay freezes
• Reduction in living standards but an increase in costs (oh yes, CRL!)

I could go on, but due to cost cutting measures...

Apart from that - just rosy!

I was hoping I could find out what people still love about the RAF. There are too many posts listing the bad things. Perhaps we can have a thread about the positives?...

From what I've seen of it I love the RAF dearly. I think that it is the idea of being part of something bigger than oneself, united in a common goal, amongst well-motivated individuals. Just wouldn't find that in Tesco's!

One of the slightly intangible things I only really noticed when away from it was (for want of a better word) the 'civility' of the RAF. For example, being able to walk into any mess bar anywhere and feel welcome, even if you don't meet someone you last saw years before. It's that general feeling of community that you just don't feel working in a big city and having your lunch break in Starbucks.

CTR, really?

Even 40 years ago, I was talking with an 'old' bloke, 35-38 I guees, and he said how many times people would be chatting with him, their crew (or sqn mates) would arrive and he could be sitting in total isolation.

A mess bar can be even more lonely than a village pub for a stranger.

Really annoyed,

I think that you will find that there is a fair chance that Future Hunter will be leaving in the near future - whether he wants to or not!

Duncs:ok:

I still love being in the RAF. Over 22 years there have (obviously) been some massive changes, but the one thing still keeps me here is the comradery. The feeling of being in a team and getting the job done (whatever it is) despite (or in spite of?!) those above who seem to go out of their way to make it harder than it should be. I think this is all down to leadership in its truist terms - if you lead well then people work for you: if you don't they won't - maybe the seniors in the RAF (and MOD) should consider that. Friends and colleagues who now work outside in a variety of areas all say that is also what they miss: it just isn't the same out in the real world.

I am struggling to understand why I stay though - family first now not front line first - as cuts are made to pay, rises in charges etc etc, but the jobs available and the challenges they present still enthuses me. And, if you make the time (and you do have to work at that) then there are still so many opportunities for other things: all the AT stuff etc is still there.

My tuppence for what it's worth.

It's a job.

It pays the bills.

The bills need paying.

I probably wouldn't get as much outside.

It's a simple case of economics.

Love hasn't been part of the equation for quite some time now.

Yes - I loved the RAF but I am not sure that this love was reciprocated...

Actually Yeah I do still enjoy it. However the politics and bitching over who owns what or what ac are to be chopped is driving a masive wedge between everybody. For all those moaning about the proper RAF, step over the fence and spend a day in the life of a rotary mate where jointry is only spelt one way and that is ARMY. While the SHF have been conductucting back to back Ops many of you out there have had protracted gardening leave on full pay or endured dets far away from the reality of the battlefield. If your sat on your A*** come down to Odiham or Benson and give the poor overworked sod on the gate a rest so that he can get back to fixing the few remaining flying machines that we have left in the UK. Take it on the chin and move with the times or find yourself another job. :ugh:

ramp-up


I take it there are no MPGS at Odiham or Benson then...?


Presumably if you are "tired and emotional" after time on the SH fleet you can request a ground tour or aircraft change. People on other fleets didn't go there to "dodge" ops, they were sent there in good faith by streaming decisions, desk officers, etc....


This is a rumour forum, on which people are at liberty to say (within certain defined parameters) what they wish. I suggest if you are not happy with what people are posting you either don't read the thread (or entire forum) or alternatively you could take your own advice, and "take it on the chin"... :ugh:

Ramp up,

Amen brother.:D

What on earth does that mean - been on the pop?

jindabyne,

I think it means that the bit in Stradling where you looked after visitors to the mess before you took care of yourself and your mates was observed very rarely. At Odiham, not long after the Mess rules were changed by popular formal vote to 'there are no rules', I saw a young officer from another service shouted at by an OCU student for entering the bar with his beret tucked into his back pocket. No effort to make the guest/visitor feel welcome, just a surly sawdust-and-spitoon shout designed to embarrass and intimidate. Some folk obviously had their own interpretation of what rules did or did not exist - hospitality fell at the first hurdle.

Were there ever any rules in the Mess at Odiham? I remember many years ago arriving at the Mess, walking into the bar and not long afterwards being thrown out of a window by a large Scottish Wessex pilot (that is to say the pilot was Scottish, not the Wessex).

Yeah, well, you'd just transgressed one of the unwritten ones then, hadn't you? Lucky you didn't get your pelvis screwed to a coffee table, in fact. He was fair - vicious, but fair...

Biggus,

Without trying to put us into a spiral. At the moment there is a lot of my dad is bigger than your dad going on which is extremely toxic to the whole force. If you re-read my post regarding the thread 'do you still find the Air Force enjoyable' – You will see my answer is undoubtedly “Yes”, clearly that would indicate that I am neither tired nor emotional despite many years on the frontline. Just because the Fast Jet and MPA Ivory Towers have come tumbling down doesn’t mean that the Air Force is SxxT. I’m sure that everyone will agree that the SH and TAC AT fleets are working hard; however the can do attitude ethos that these forces work by is wearing thin not because people think the job is WxxK but because they are tired or broken from working hard. As there is no money in the pot then surely the scraps that we do have should go to the fleets that are directly supporting the Current Land War, even if this is to the detriment of other capabilities or platforms. I for one would rather that they cancelled CEA in total and saved the Harrier Force; but I am sure that others would disagree. Finally yes we do have MPGS at Odi but they are supplemented by the Stn Work Force, as it saves money from the 'Land' Budget.

I just wish dropintheoggin would share his thoughts...

Whenever I've had any personal contact with it, the RAF has seemed to be a group of incredibly pleasant and helpful people in a way that doesn't really exist outside the military. Sometimes it does on a film set at the end of a really long day in a remote location when everyone's collapsing from fatigue and lack of food, but those are the sort of things you have to do to most civilians to get that attitude out of them. The the supplies of this characteristic available to the military appear to be endless.

You really do have to do something about the ladies' uniform skirt, though. Christ on a Harley Davidson. :E

P