Would that have been the TV Room?

We knew the date we were due to be promoted to flt lt but no blue letter or anything like that. It was a question of scouring the London Gazette looking for the confirmation. Only after it was in the Gazette did we bring out the ribboned No 2 jacket. Never any notice from handbrake house. Next of course was scrutinising one's pay chit but you couldn't fault Lloyds, always on time and always accurate.

A lot of interesting comments and reminiscences - I would add that in my time in the RNZAF, Happy Hour in the Officers' Mess was often used by the PMC to announce - informally - promotions and postings, as well as hatches, matches and dispatches, to the rest of the officers (with copncomittant rounds of free drinks). But that was in the days when officers were expected to attend happy hour...

.... with copncomittant rounds of free drinks ....

Whenurhappy - Looks like you've had some accompanying drinks already ....:)

Jack

that would be slimaltanious then?

Or is that just with Cab Sauv?

On my last promotion I had no idea when it was actually to be put up, I found out the correct date on receipt of my pay sheet some 3 weeks later. :hmm:

CWD, yes indeed. The RCAF still does such things properly and with dignity, not sycophancy!

I did at least get my blue letter in person from the Stn Cdr, who was genuine with his congratulations.

But that 'letter' one gets on leaving has probably been written by someone joe'd for the purpose.......

As for leaving dos, a colleague and I were sent bills for attending our dining-out night when leaving the service after about 75 years of service between us. Whereas once such things were free, if I recall correctly?

Veteran's pass and retirement with dignity? Never received mine, or any formal acknowledgement of two decades of service from my final station.

When I announced my decision to leave at my 38 point, my Stn Cdr actively tried to delay my departure in time to take up a civilian job offer, although I was perfectly entitled to go (and finally did, by the skin of my teeth, despite his spiteful interference).

My last few weeks were not happy times; I instantly felt I had become persona non grata on the station.

I was very, very glad to see the final view of that particular station, SHQ in particular, in my rear view mirror. :mad:

I was shown the proforma that had been sent for his filling out the blanks in my valedictory letter by my French Air Force boss: before his binning it after seeing the look on my face.
Nothing ever heard since on that front..

Yes, me. Boss called me in, said he was drafting it and wanted some note. The letter, signed by the AOC was really heartfelt and sincere. Yeah right!

Yes mine was free.

I got Joe'd for a leaving letter. FS, off sick when I took over the unit on retirement of predecessor. FS then medically discharged. Handbrake house sent me the paperwork for the blue letter. I returned and said you know more about him than I do, you have his file, you write it. They did.

I was joe'd to write a valedictory letter for a colleague, who was also a personal friend. So my plan was, strictly with his agreement, to include some totally bogus reference to a non-existent secondary duty.....:E

Unfortunately, said chum was busy with his √irgin Atlantic conversion training at the time and I couldn't get hold of him to hatch my plan before the boss's deadline for the draft....:(

Ever since the advent of the Wg Cdr (Typist) Branch, who sit in their offices clattering away on keyboards rather than getting to know their squadron members, it is highly probable that a well-crafted spoof 'valedictory' draft would fail to attract the boss's attention....:hmm:

.... it is highly probable that a well-crafted spoof 'valedictory' draft would fail to attract the boss's attention....

.... which reminds me how Squadron Staff Officers used to have fun inveigling the Boss into signing Service letters ending, "This officer does not read what he signs.":O

Jack

Reading these pages reminds me of just how many forms of 'modus operandi' the RNZAF inherited from the RAF, and not just the annual Officers vs SNCOs cricket match where the latter once again would field too many players and inflate the run tally.

I was notified of my promotion to Sqn Ldr by signal when I could see the guy who issued it from my desk! My departure letter from the CAS, after 26 years service, contained a number of errors, and after initially thinking " who cares" I decided I did and returned it with a request that these be corrected! They got it right the second time!

Our immediate SO2 at Strike had the usual blurb on the bottom of all his emails: If you are not the intended recipient . . . . the views expressed
are . . . and are not necessarily etc etc.


I took his verbiage and added it to my emails with the addition ". . . you may therefore ignore this message."

No one ever questioned this nonsense except for my daughter who spotted it :)

When I left the RNZAF I was presented with a nicely bound passport sized "Record of Service" beautifully typed with some very nice comments from my former boss.

I did have occasion to have to write to the RAF once for my record of service. It turned up as a photocopy of a dot matrix printout on old dot matrix printout paper. Service recorded as "Satisfactory"...

Recognition is something that we do very poorly indeed, beyond the usual round of MBEs etc., most of which go to Commissioned Officers (I'm not sure that this was John Major's intention when he suspended the BEM). I had to speak to my SO1 last year about fellow SO2 who was leaving the Colours for the last time just prior to his 60th Birthday and who had completed 45 years service man and boy in the Royal Corps of Signals (Harrogate Apprentice, then Crypto Tech, served on Op Corporate and survived the attack on the Galahad, retired as a WO2 (RQMS), commissioned in to the TA, QM, OC Sqn, SO2). It took the Full Col Dep Comd to go into the Brigadier's office and 'invite' the Bde Comd to present said SO2 with his Bar to his VRSM (as well as present another SO1 with 39 years service with a VRSM and Bar and an SO3 with her VRSM). As I said to my SO1 at the time, it is the only bit of regonition that you get. So, as you can see, it's not just the Air Force that get it wrong...

I don't think the casual approach to end of service in the UK armed forces is anything new.

My paternal grandfather enlisted in one of the London (infantry) Regiments on 28 October 1913. Whilst I haven't researched his service, I do recall him talking to me, as a child of perhaps 12 or so, about some of his experiences in the trenches during the First World War, whilst my father sat beside us in some disbelief having never heard any of it from his father.

Grandad (obviously) survived that conflict and was, in the immortal terms of his Army Form Z.21., which I have before me, "Disembodied" on 6 February 1919. I am also looking at his three war medals which came to me following his death in 1973.

I dare say that he was simply given the bit of paper and shown the door. Like most, if not all, of his, and subsequent, generations he just went off and got on with the rest of his life.

I think we could do it so much better, and perhaps a bit of fuss and recognition would mean even more pride in what we achieved.

German style...rare!
 

In a ski hutte in south Germany, bunch of enlisted who are looking after relaxing seniors in the eve, hard day skiing, few beers underway. Equivalent of SAC promoted - unknown to most - approached by 4* SACEUR USA and 4* DSACEUR GE who slap his new rank slides on each shoulder simultaneously - observed by, and timing called out, by 4* Chief of Staff at SHAPE UK ...! A 12* promotion - lovely look on his face and nicely done.......

MAcr pal of mine retired last week and was approached at a sporting event last month by a very senior officer and asked 'Are you *******?' Who then proceeded to thank him for his service which I thought was very nice.

Nicely done, indeed...my promotion to Cpl was marked by the Sqn and Flt Cdrs simultaneously applying my new rank slides to my wooly pully (yes, I was inhabiting it at the time!). Nowhere near what this chap got, but recognition all the same, and I've remembered it to this day.