As Lord Spandex said in post #2

Reserve of Air Force Officers

This site lists an officer being

I never thought this was such a contentious topic.


Interested to see the answer to the OP.


I use mine with pride and I hope in an appropriate manner. I don't have a degree but came up through the mature route. spent many hours over a number of years preparing a technical paper to present to a learned panel in town. I expected a grilling but wondered what all the fuss had been about. The rules changed several times and my paper was not required in the end. The chairman of the panel noted who my sponsors were and that was that.


I hope I continue to serve my profession and give something back in a similar way to those who supported me in my youth.


A few funny stories to add. I was a civilian working in a purple environment with Officers and NCOs reporting to me (light blue and brown jobs). I hated JPA and the reporting process but that went with the job. I had Civilian and Military reporting Officers. This grade equivalence caused me some fun. particularly when my "Adjutant" (an Army Capt) promoted me in the field to Brigadier. When on detachment overseas a real Colonel asked the Capt what Regiment Dragartist was from. I guess this "Honorary" rank allowed me the use of facilities overseas and in the UK. It also got me into bother a few times when out on detached duty with the SNCOs I would prefer to stay with them in their mess. To be asked a few times to move out. We soon began to use hotels rather than BOQs in the US etc.


I work alongside a retired RAF Sqn Ldr who continues to use the same PNs as I - he dropped the RAF (Rtd). When challenged why he was unaware of activities of the Society he said that he no longer paid his fees but continues to use the PNs on his letterhead and Business card.


Gouldie, I too have a VD and Scar!!

What about Service post-nominals like cfs*, cfs(t), qss, qs, pscj, etc...:confused:

I honestly think that Dii signature blocks should have branch or trade in them so that you can gauge the background of the originator. These faceless e-mails definately lose the advantage of telephone calls where you can work out whether the person on the other end knows anything about what you're discussing. Thus if you are discussing an issue about finance to an Air Cmd staff officer from the RAF Regt then you know that you're in for a rocky ride! (After he's stated the bleedin' obvious having done a no-brain "Estimate" :E). That is also why I believe that every trade and branch should have a qualification emblem so that you can see at a glance who you are deling with. Post nominals also help complete this picture.

iRaven

I would expect that RAF Regiment staff officers would be able to spell, at least!

I see from a 1983 RAF list I still have kicking around from the days when I did medal research, the Reserve of Air Force Officers previously referred to became known as the Royal Air Force Reserve of Officers (RAFRO) in later years, which may have contributed to the confusion.

TTN (ex rock ;))

Down to doing one less year at school (generally) than our English colleagues.

Never thought about it, but I now have more post-nominals than I usually write in my name, but I rarely use them all.

Knew a colleague once who had his post-noms after his name on his cheque book!:rolleyes:

But then they were DFC AFC .......... :D:D

My fellow Director has his MBE on his cheques too ... <shudder>

Awards and decorations I can understand, but qualifications and particularly memberships of professional bodies are not the thing.

I have a mate who has a PhD but refuses to be known as 'Doctor' because his doctorate in in Mediaeval History, and as he puts it 'has efff all relevance to his job'.

RAF Reg
 

I would expect that RAF Regiment staff officers would be able to spell, at least!
My God you are an optimist

Well I could spell when I was junior rock, so I guess if I'd risen to the dizzy heights of staff officer I would still have been able to spell.

Instead I became a nav, and so I had to learn to do sums instead of writing!

Naw, we gave you thing like Gee and Green Satin to save you using both brain cells at once :)

Had an Foreman in charge of binmen with 'RSA' on his doorplate. When I asked he sheepishly replied 'Royal Society of Artists'.
Another useful thing ;-)

I would much rather see post nominals on a signature block than the current fad for some chad leadership phrase, life coaching cliche, proverb or quote at the bottom of emails.

at RAF Nicosia Met c. 1960 there was a LtCdr (RN Rtd) grimly trying to keep up with properly trained forecasters. One of the latter, ex-National Service, with a B Sc., chose to sign off J/T (RAF Retd). Which was true, and cured said LtCdr sharpish.

My previous company, it was mandatory to have all of your post-nominals on your business card, letterheads, e-mail signatures etc., as the company prided itself and traded on the qualifications, experience and abilities of its staff. Until our last MD took over.


As he had a huge ego & didn't have any qualifications (at all), except for an ability to convince our parent company that he was continuing the company a success and turning a profit, despite the evidence of our accounts & falling sales, we were all immediately banned from using the PNs and had to scrap any paperwork that had them. The overnight change cost the company thousands, emptied our order book & was the single biggest contributor to almost shutting us down.


My current company also trades on innovation, technology application & the training and experience of its people, but does not reveal any on any correspondence, e-mails or anything else that can be traced to an identifiable individual.
Although not military, we always have, and always will operate in some distinctly unpleasant and hazardous areas, so everyone's value to those who might want to do some AK47 fundraising is never available to the baddies, as even we don't know what our colleagues might have hidden after their names. Our Clients know the qualifications of the people working on their projects, but no-one knows exactly who on any given team has what.
It's worked for many years very successfully & we have had relatively few "incidents".


As in many things, it's not what you've got - it's what you do with them that is important & for what it's worth I'm an engineer & well on my way to completing my second row of P-N's, but very few people outside my immediate family and a couple of curious friends know just what I have. I only ever use mine when the self-impressed feel the need to start a p1$$ing contest.

I can recall seeing a name-plate on an office door in a hangar which read


(Incumbent's rank) (Incumbent's name) DFM


And underneath, in much smaller letters , De Fence Medal.

Well this afternoon I received an email from, shall we say a contractor, who in his signature block had the post noms QDJM MCMI.

I don't pretend to know everything, so it might be me being a bit thick, but Google has been no help - please tell me QDJM means something other than the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal?????

A friend of mine does not cite his MSM though he did at work. His wife OTOH retains the style Dr albeit of mathematics.

Now this had interesting repercussions on a cruise. Their cabin was set up with two single beds :).

Certainly seems to be used widely to mean Queens Diamond Jubilee Medal.