The late wife of a friend was a keen attendee at wives coffee mornings. She used to go with a 'friend' another wife of on the sqn. The 'friend''s OH got promoted. At the next coffee morning our friend went up to her 'friend' but was told to sit elsewhere as that was the sqn ldr wife of's table.

I wish I had thought to have Mrs PN present at her 1369 debrief with Smiling Jim at ISK.

Yet I can well remember the briefing when we arrived at Leeming to be told that WRAFs were very much off limits, and we'd incur the Staish's severe displeasure if we so much as stepped out with one. Same was said to be true of WRACs, but since they all had their legs on upside-down, it was never an issue.

I'll draw a veil over our course leaving night do, when a member of the junior course "entertained" both the OM WRAF stewards in his cabin at the same time :D

[SPELLING POLICE]Well, I should jolly well hope so. It'd be most ungentlemanly to be engaged to more than one at a time. [/SPELL PLOD]

A-A,who was that then...?

Sycamore - check PMs :E

A civilian perspective.

As a Met. man I lived in OMQ at

RAF Nicosia
RAF Guetersloh
RAF Rheindahlen 2 tours

for a total of 14 years between 1961 and 1996.

As my EMR or whatever rose, so did the housing size/ style. So it would in Civvy street.

We adopted an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" posture, and I must say we encountered very little of the irritations that the article highlights, possibly because I was seen as non-threatening regarding career paths. As far as maintaining a decent OMQ [including oven] surely that is the civilised norm ........
The lady confesses to being loud: such self-analysis should surely precede remedial action?
Portadown Way at JHQ was superb: BBQs in the middle most Wednesdays in season, Maypoles, Father Christmas on a fire-engine, a mix of civvies, Army and RAF ....... we were sorry to leave. Liver now recovered.
Yes there were absurdities: a 1/4 share of an official lawnmower and 1/8 of a roller and I think 1/10th of a ladder. But where else on earth would a middle-ranking civil-servant make-believe sort of Gp Capt get a life with Summer Balls, Jazz and curry in the mess Sunday lunch, Happy hour in the best company in the world?

I haven't addressed the "wife-of" thing, but my wife would happily socialise with anybody civil, and happily cut anybody dead who was rude. And did.

Hope that was worth saying.

Nothing strange there. My old man bought his first house about 1947-48. It was a private house backing on to a council estate. On the estate were essential tools including a lawn roller and lawn mower.

For a couple of bob we were able to borrow said roller. We did not have to return it as when our time was up the next person collected it.

Communal use equipment was a sensible and necessary thing in the 50s and 60s when pay was low and costs were high. I mean, who needs a lawn mower more than an hour or so a week in summer?

Over many years in MQ's we never came across the indignities decribed in some of these posts. .....must be something about Lyneham that does it.

Although when, as newly weds, we moved into our first MQ, someone complained about the washing being hung out to dry on a SUNDAY. We coundn't stop laughing. To be fair, I think it was more to do with the 'Sabbath' thing than snobbery.

As I recall, neither hanging out washing, nor car washing, nor noisy grass cutting [with or without a share of a mower] were "done" on Sundays in RAFG ....... never sure if a German Law, a MQ law, or a custom.

Very civilised. We were happy to fall in line although, as a some-time shift-worker and a Christian, keeping the Sabbath Holy was sometimes problematical.

But then I don't think shops should open on Sundays and am clearly a member of a diminishing minority. Apart from anything else, my son, a fairly senior supermarket manager, has not had Christmas Eve/ Christmas Day/ Boxing Day off as a set in his managerial life. Not an option.

Thread drift I know, but I assume he chose his profession and could always walk away?

It's a German Bye-law. The use of lawn mowers etc. is not permitted from mid-day Sat. to Mon, am Very civilised.

If it was a French bye-law, would the gendarmes issue un Coup de Grass?

In France the Marie publishes the times when mechanical garden tools - mowers, chain saws, etc, can and cannot be used. Long break daily at lunchtime, not sure whether it is not to disturb lunch, or the visit to the mistress!

"Thread drift I know, but I assume he chose his profession and could always walk away?"

Yes of course ...... he wanted RAF as first choice. Any vacancies in light blue for a middle-aged grocer needing, at a guess, a 50k starter?

Bad enough getting the sack, as for walking away ......!

Spent commissioned time in both the RAF & RNZAF - the latter's MQs were all mixed up according to needs, so a Squadron Leader with 3 kids had exactly the same housing needs as a Cpl with 3 kids - no brainer. I much preferred this egalitarian arrangement ....

Un-bloody-believable! As a Sqn Ldr RNZAF Rtd, I just asked my wife [MA Hons] if she'd ever come across this and she said: "In their dreams sunshine". As a Flt Lt RNZAF I filled a UK appointment in ANZUK [Singapore] for two years and for a while lived in a former RAF MQ at Hyde Park gate in Seletar, and can honestly say I never came across any of this rank snobbery. It would have been given short shrift by my wife [3rd generation Kiwi] in any case !

I never lived in RNZAF housing in NZ but I do know they weren't segregated according to rank.

The RAF of the mid to late 80's when I joined was still in the 1930s. Asking permission to get married, having to live on the patch until having been on the Sqn for one year and lots of wives introdusing themsleves with their husband's rank. I had to live on base for my first year, but we had already bought a house 15 miles away from the station. So I was a ''bean stealer'' and pretending to live on base.

But Mrs Wg Cdr expressed great disspapointment that we had chosen not to live on the patch. We discovered why when we received a discreet invitation to a very exclusive type of party - for which this station was famous for! We didn't attend and Mrs W had heard what went on at these events and as a result, didn't have much to do with the organised wives events for the whole of my time in the RAF. It didn't help my career for that tour, but she got involved a bit more on later tours and was mentioned in most of my ACRs.

Dan,

Please, please, expand on the last sentence of your post. I am certain that I know what you are saying, but in the context of the paragraph it is hugely open to interpretation!

I have just spluttered a mouthful of red over the iPod....! No offence, but thanks for the laugh.

Scuttled

You weren't the only one wondering.

Especially after it followed this sentence
"We discovered why when we received a discreet invitation to a very exclusive type of party - for which this station was famous for! We didn't attend and Mrs W had heard what went on at these events"

I have to admit to a little jealousy that myself and Mrs Scuttled never got a similar invite.

And that sentence, coupled with my moniker, doesn't look too good either.