Bob Viking wrote:
Not sure about that! When I was at University, hippy-chic girls in cheesecloth blouses and flared, low-slung hipster jeans looked pretty darn good! Particularly when certain undergarments were considered optional....:ok:

Beats the heck out of today's Vicki Pollards and their facial scrap iron....:uhoh:

Aye, now you're talking, cheesecloth blouses,hipster jeans...and Metal Guru on the radio...

Standards have changed? Don't you remember the long sideburns and longer hair of the 70's RAF. Never get away with that now!

Having been incarcerated in the Towers for a year between leaving public school in 1968 and starting at London University in 1969, I can assure you that the culture shock of the pulchritude of those hippy-chic girls was absolutely delightful!

There were some Alvin Stardust look-alike blokes with silly sideburns and long hair around back then, but most looked pretty scruffy. As did those ridiculous 'Viva Zapata' Mexican moustaches affected by some.

....Wot no tattoos on the neck / feet / legs/ sleeve tats etc etc ....


As observed all the time at BZN......( boys & girls.....)

Mr Beagle Sir, I salute your erudite and accurate narrative of what was both your, and my "formative days" ! I didn't attend "the towers" but certainly spent a happy 3 years strapping in those who did, and enjoying the off duty time, as they also did. People who dress to shock - pony tails, top knots, filigree or scaffold face, bones through the nose, the list goes on, have been there for years. The Teds in my father in laws days gave him some "cause for concern. I was taken aback at two fellow apprentices enjoying a dance to George Harrison's "My sweet lord" cheek to cheek in No2 Wing NAAFI bar in 1971. Bottom line, whatever the OPs impression of those he encountered, all might not have been what it seemed. I'm sure that some "blending in" is now considered acceptable, particularly after the brutal actions that led to the murder of Lee Rigby. Surely the criteria is their competence and ability in performing their duties, and not an impression they may leave in a passing jaw wag in a local bar.

Smudge

By the way, do you know where Mrs Smudge might acquire some cheesecloth shirts ???

Without wanting to sound like one of those whiny old gits, surely claiming to be a member of the Armed Forces, and then having an openly racist opinion brings your Service in to disrepute?

They must be very good at concealing their racism in work and while around colleagues or else I suspect they would be ex-RAF, with no hope of getting another job as nobody wants to employ a racist after getting chucked out of their last job for racist behaviour.

And has your helmet got the horn? :} curious, that's all.

What's happened?
 

You've scared me now. Or should that be scarred?! I can't even imagine how that would look!

Ironically I actually shaved today. I looked good before but now I look bloody great.

BV (insert smug smiley face here!)

We had an Army passenger turn up at Gutersloh on the air trooping bus; he went into the toilets and changed into something really different to what he was wearing when he arrived (torn t-shirt, smelly jeans, trainers with the toe-end cut away and safety pins stuck into his ears and lips).

When he walked past me towards the check-in desk, I was speechless and before I could do anything, the SAMO (who was stood just behind me) reacted with remarkable speed, to ask who he was, where he was from, how he got to the terminal; then promptly escorted him back to the bus he had just got off and told him in no uncertain terms that the Services had standards, he did not represent those and that he should go back to his unit and report to his RSM and tell him what had happened; SAMO got a round of applause from everybody in the terminal.:ok:

I used to live in Warminster. I once bumped into a group of well-spoken, well built young men with short hair, and one of them wasn't wearing brogues with his corduroys. I was shocked.

'Twas ever thus. I can remember passing a group of punk rockers and goths in town and being surprised when one of the goths brought herself to attention and said "Good evening sir!".

They were all SACs and SACWs from my Sqn and she was one of my flight. Totally different from her demure smart working persona.

I once put a line in one of my SAC's assessments saying something along the lines of 'he expends a great deal of time and effort maintaining his highly individual appearance when off duty'


Enough said ?

Standards
 

Hair still has to be well cut and trimmed and sideburns are only allowed to be halfway down the length of the ear. Definitely no pony tails. I have more hair issues with the pilots than the ground crew. The racist accusation is also very worrying in the current climate of equality and diversity; even if they think it they should not voice it in public.

Been there, done that and got the T-shirt. In 1965, As a 19 year old J.T. at Wittering, me and 5 others piled into my old Ford Zephyr to go to a Jimi Hendrix concert at Spalding. We all thought we looked the dog's bolleaux, resplendent in our kaftans and loon pants. With hindsight we looked like idiots as the mandatory 60's short back and sides rather gave the game away.

Met up in a bar in 1967 or thereabouts with some old school chums who had all gone to uni. I stood out in regulation sports jacket and slacks, short back and sides etc, whereas they to a man were dressed as Oberon described, with hair down their backs. One of them asked me "Dont you resent having to look just like everyone else?" I slowly looked round the group and smiled. They had the grace to laugh!

Re racism - I dont find any excuse for it even when held as a private opinion (which it rarely is). From the very beginning of my career I had black blokes serving under me and found them every bit as good as their white counterparts. Later on one of the best NCO tradesmen on our tanker squadron was a Sikh ( he also did a good sideline in servicing cars in his spare time). The perception of the services as a safe harbour for racism annoys me. I was staggered shortly after leaving when an acquaintance, on finding out I was ex RAF, said "In that case, might I interest you in joining the National Front?" He got a very swift reply!

Really? Do I detect a hint of jealousy or worse, bigotry? Never judge a book by its cover.

Why on earth would you do that?

CG

From a friend's 1369 circa 1984.

"Flt Lt R**** has naturally long hair."

"The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for
authority, they show disrespect to their elders.... They no longer
rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents,
chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their
legs, and are tyrants over their teachers."


No not A Ppruner...


Socrates. (the Greek one)


The older generation have been out of touch with the new for 2400 years.

plus ca change...