Well done Elaine - one of the Good Guys. :D

Understood, ksimboy.

Incidentally, Stringy tells me that Elaine has been very touched by the many kind words of PPRuNe contributors today.

SAC to AVM......only the most cynical would say that happens by chance and circumstance.

Most would say thats hard bloody work....dedication (even if its not your flavour or dedication)

Hats off!

Nice to see an ex ranker doing well.

Congratulations to the lady....how many 2* are we down to now?

TomD72. Thank you very much for the info. You always were a mine of information. I'm about to trawl through all your other posts in search of similar gems!

Well, as a former member of the 2 winged Master Race, and an admin sec later I offer my hearty congratulations. Best RAF boss I ever had was a woman (Aunty Joan). To do the job well and discharge family responsibilities as well - Brilliant and a shining example to all young men and women. Very, very well done (Lucky not to have been at IOT a year later - might have got me as a flight commander and that could have blighted a brilliant career).

Many congratulations to the AVM, it can't have been easy! It isn't easy for anyone to reach that rank.

Some years ago a young lady Fg Off, ex Cpl Rigger, and straight out of IOT, was given a holding posting on to my team (me with a newly acquired scraper). She really pulled her weight and did a b****y good job for us before she got her first proper posting.

Within a few short years she outranked me and good for her too.

Rgds SOS

Because of course no serving (modern) RAF father has to do that do they:ugh:

Did she have a head start by missing out the first two rungs on the ladder? ;)

From the BBC report...

...although admittedly they made the usual mistake of inserting a superflous 's' into the name of the rank. Seem to recall my rank was AC when I was at OCTU.

Never made AVM though :(

(And with the greatest of respect both to the lady herself and her husband - she's a bit of a looker, too. Navs marry all the prettiest girls ;) )

Takes them a wee while to find them though.............;)

I guess in a few years this kind of appointment will not even feature in the press -women have been at the highest level in business for years - the RAF still has a little way to go.

Is it dead man/women's shoes or does it mean the top heavy pile just got a little heavier?

Congratulations though.



..

# Wrathers - indeed.

Well done to AVM West and indeed, to anyone from the ranks who gets that far - inside every Private's backpack/WRAF's handbag is a.. well, you get the picture. I hope she has considered her annual and lifetime (pension) allowances mind!

Riley

Quite...I am really pleased for AVM West and it sounds like she has the respect of many (I don't know her, but I'll accept her references! :ok:). However, how much longer do we have to put up with "first female to" headlines? Surely, we're long past all of this now? We've come a long way since Emmeline Pankhurst (thank God) but we must stop the constant publicity - if nothing else, if I were female I would find it a bit patronising!

As for the campaign medals, she is not alone as there are many currently serving (of all branches) who have never been in the position to qualify for one. Still, does she need to have one if she is an infra-whizz as so many have pointed out? I would rather have a competent individual at the helm of DIO than a scribbly with a chest full of campaign gongs who's run A1/J1 Ops in a comfy air conditioned portacabin somewhere! :ok:

Congratulations, AVM West from a fellow officer :D

LJ

As someone, who could have the absolute profile of an old bloke who never got modern. Congratulations to this delightful and worthy lady. Regardless of anything on this planet, a person should be both respected and rewarded for their humanity and capability. Old bloke or whatever, I delight in the chance to shoot down neersayers and doubters. I'm sure most on this forum welcome this announcement.

Smudge

Gongs
 

The Op Gong issue will not matter in about 5 years when there will be noone without one from somewhere or other.

Our lady (and I have no doubt she is talented and able - you don't get there without being so) will be amongst the last without one as there will be today's generation queueing in the wings...and it is a talented queue.

I have 5 Op Gongs - but there was no way I was talented enough to be an AVM.

Well done AVM!

G:ok:

Gijoe

In 5 years time we'll all still be in and aiming at a retirement date of 60 instead of 55! Anyway, there will still be plenty without gongs and also no 'choccy' jubilee ones either!

LJ (4x Op and 2x Choccies and bar!)

How about an RV in the corner of the mess at Snoringville trying to do 4 Across being grumpy??

...dribbling...thinking that life 'ain't the same as when I joined up'...dribbling...looking at the 2 servicable frames out of 37...dribbling...discussing how rubbish AFPS24 is compared to AFPS15 let alone AFPS05 let alone AFPS75 etc...

My gongs will have long tarnished but I had a great time!

Well done again AVM.

G:ok:

(This is meant to be humourous and not a dig at you!!)

The fact that Elaine might not have a campaign medal is, frankly, completely and utterly irrelevant. She has made it to AVM at quite a young age purely through her own talent and ability.

There is an increasingly corrosive attitude around these days, which can be described as "You ain't done sand = you ain't done $hit"; such a blinkered attitude needs to be restrained. I first came across the very same attitude some 31 years ago, when I encountered some poisonous little thruster of a Sqn Ldr who was desperate for a posting to the South Atlantic - for no other reason than "If you haven't been to the Falklands, you're no-one in London"......:rolleyes:

I left the RAF with 3 or 4 gongs, not sure how many because I kinda lost interest.

One was for doing my job and keeping out the poo for 15 years. One was for barbecues on Ascension Island. The one's I never claimed were for the bosses birthday and some shoot off/piss up in a hot place that I was never at.

...and we give the spam's grief :eek:

Well done to the maam in question and well done pprune for clearing up the family discussion as to why I was confused as to her being reported as the RAF's first female 2 star.