Military Record
 

About a year ago, someone on this forum discussed getting hold of his military records. I'd like to get hold of mine, even if only for the "geld or destroy" comment on the 1369. Can anyone offer advice on how to go about it?

This should do you nicely Sir. Fits all services until the postal address, but I'm not sure if you allowed to make alterations yourself, only the station tailor .....

https://www.gov.uk/get-copy-military...ur-own-records

LFH

Oh, dear! Am I tempted? A career's-worth of F1369, to try and see where it went wrong? (I know where, actually).

A VERY naughty fellow JO showed me one of mine after it had been completed by the AOC. Interesting :)

(Oh, buggrit, form completed. I shall see what they really thought of me :))

Don't really want to know. Had some good bosses that showed me. Others that gave full and frank debriefs. One of my last was brilliant - not me - but when I told the RO.

A spec aircrew sqn ldr had drafted a report for the real sqn ldr. The following year the new sqn ldr gave me a debrief. When he finished I said, what a coincidence, that is identical to what A^ B^^^^^^^^n said last year. His face was a picture.

Records
 

Mine must have self-combusted some time ago.:bored:

My interest lies mainly in the 'later years', when I had a succession of bosses who were not 'people people'. I knew statistically I wasn't going any further in my Branch (very narrow pyramid, we all knew each other and everyone's chances).

Just curious to discover if any of them actually had a clue who I was. The Scottish Air Cdre (as he was then) tried to get my former DD to give me a task, and had to be reminded that I had left the Directorate (with the D's specific permission, to take up another post) a few weeks earlier :)

Many giggles over the years, though. As a 2 year flt lt, I put "MoD" as my first choice of posting. My sqn ldr Boss observed "There aren't any flt lt posts at MoD". "Exactly, Sir :)" After further banter, he gave me a draft 1369 and 48 hours to return it filled out as if I was 1st RO! Two and a bit years later ... BINGO :) The next step was bloody slow, though!!

Thank you, Lordflashheart. Like the others, I'm not sure whether I want to know, but since I left 40 years ago, what have I got to lose? (a bit of self-respect I suppose)

Or, perhaps, "See yourself as others see you"?

I promise to report back on the emotional experience ;)

We are both too late to change, though. :)

I did this a couple of years back (airman aircrew). There was plenty missing- not least a damning annual (can't remember the1369 equivalent) that another officer showed me briefly before my exit. That bloke didn't like me, that's for sure. Another omission was ground instructor stuff- I was an A1 GIT, but nothing. I had one medical issue the whole time, a bad knee on the ITC- you should see the pages that generated- blimey! Enjoyed the trip down mem lane tho'.

CG

I got mine at the turn of the year - everything from my Headmaster's recommendation for an RAF Scholarship, Outward Bound School report to my final F 1369, for 2 careers, all that was missing was my 5000 Series. Interesting to see who lied to you at the debrief, sometimes for good, sometimes for ill, and what could be written by those who did not even know you. Most interesting line, about the first Mrs W by my flight commander, "I have not met his wife". And that was the first career of 3 she had a go at wrecking......

My RO advisor got his records which included all the reports of his abortive nav training. What surprised him was that it also included some of my training reports. I guess when we flew as Nav 1/2 the course commander may have put one report in each docket as we could have helped/hindered the other, especially on unscreened trips

Is there a catch-all phrase to put in Part 3 to get the lot, rather than specifying types of record and dates?

Quite fancy reading some of my early stuff, like OC Nav School describing me as "garrulous and overly-familiar when drunk" which my boss showed me rather later in my career.

Great stuff, all billed to the cash strapped MoD. Keep it up! :\

99, was that still at the time with boxes Drinks Regularly and Unwisely etc?

Surely there must be some trepidation in this venture. How about finding out if it was YOU that got the immortal report "Keeping this young officer in the service is depriving a perfectly good village of its idiot"!

Tempted but would not like to see all the paperwork generated, when I gave my ASM a good pasting for having sex with my now ex wife. I was only a Sgt and got away somehow of not getting a Court Martial.

I got mine a few years ago and on the very top - the very last piece of paper on the pile, of 24 years' records, was an offer of Promotion (that I didn't get) if I withdrew my PVR!
...and a full record of why I PVR'd lay behind it.

Not sure I'd really want to see mine.
Once, whilst still in training, thought my assessments not very good so, as key orderly, opened the filing cabinet and pulled out another student's at random - bally heck, it was even worse!

Ah, yes, the old: 'I cannot imagine anyone following this officer other than from a mild sense of curiosity.'

We had peer reporting in a well known airline and some people took it very badly.

Well, apart from myself, I know who shafted my career at particular points. One, which I think is the classic, is the 'new' sqn cdr when you have been on the sqn for two years.

I had been doing the sqn adjt job for two years (rather than the 6 months secondary duty). I was approaching tourex and suggested to the new CO, whom I had thought was human) that I might step down and allow someone else to carry on and I would be available if need be. I was accused of gross disloyalty.

Please to note that that CO was 1021'd in his next appointment.

Does anyone have an indication of how long this process takes? I'm assuming 30 years of F1369 isn't going to be instantaneous, of course, unless they have a batch-file printing system set up.

Forty working days seems to ring a bell.

PN, Great when someone gets their just desserts - just so long as I never do ;)

My first civil boss used to accuse me of LMF if I ran late - I THINK he was joking . . .

Grateful for that :ok:

I apologise silently for adding to their workload, but then they shouldn't have offered :p

PS: Why don't they offer to email .pdf files? Or perhaps they will, as they wanted my email address. It would save me having to scan 1.63 kg of A4 :)

MPN, when you make an FOI request I believe you can specify the format you would prefer. I think it might apply to Subject Access Requests.

Damn ... didn't see that on the form, and failed to ask specifically. Too late now, Form in the post, but I might send a follow-up letter.

I promise to post suitable extracts ;)

Never had an "annual report" as an LAC, SAC or Cpl 1959-73. Just a number from 1 to 9 in 3 categories and a "fitted/not fitted for promotion" recommendation. I did have an "interview" one flight commander when I was in the commcen at Akrotiri, he was concerned that I was not playing a full role in the station's social life (the station strength was about 12,000 at this time). He was suitably subdued after I diplomatically pointed out that over the previous 2 years I'd been a committee member then Secretary, Treasurer and finally Chairman of the Corporal's Club.

ricardian, now if you'd been seen getting plastered in the bar every night he could hardly have leveled that accusation.
Although, to be honest, I doubt it enhanced my reputation with the boss. :E

Anyone know what the Army form number was for an Army Confidential/Annual report from 1974 to 1990 ? It's probably changed by now, like most things.

I'll just ask for "medical records" for my entire service but I guess they'll want the form number for Confidentials.

NEO

NEO, no, just make a subject access request for all records.

On a different tack, I suppose you could ask while in the Service and even seek redress though I suspect too much time has lapsed since confidentiality was removed.

Herod
 

I hope you not as disappointed as I was when I received my 'docs' from Cranwell.

Mine consisted of one and a half sides of foolscap with list of all the postings and promotions covering 24 years. - That was it !!


Aaron.

Aaron, you possibly got what you asked for. I got that Record of Service and it only covered from computerization, but that is all I asked for. There were discrepancies between that and my log book and I had it amended.

AFB2048 was the Annual Confidential Report; they also had an AFB2066, which was a booklet that followed you around in your documents folder.

Thanks Army Mover.

NEO

Just send mine off "asked for all they have on me in the 23 years?"
Either artic inbound or one piece of A4. Probably the latter.
Guess they may be getting busy up there?

SPVA
 

Speak to SPVA at Kentigern House, Glasgow to get forms (x2 = 1 for request, 1 for consent)
I got my Grandfathers records, unfortunately not in time for Xmas 2011!
Got a framed montage of him = Grandad's Wedding Photo, Dad & Uncle, RE Emblems, Grandad in Italy 1944, Mounted Medals for my Dad's Xmas Pres 2011 & delayed Service Record

All I got by Xmas (about 6mths delay) was a bulky envelope saying:
"We are experiencing a high demand in requests, you can have your non-refundable fee back, or await our response, which could be 9-12 months"
I "awaited" and got the response in ~Mar/Apr/May 2012, contact ...........for RAF/RN/Army/RM/etc (eventually arrived ready for Dad's Birthday in June 12)

Needs 1st surviving NoK to sign for request, & Death Cert (£10) for individual (if not you!)



.....and it arrives on ****ty brown recycled photocopied paper!!!!!!!!!

A career's worth of F1369 just delivered ... in 17 days.

Now for the uncomfortable bit: reading what they really thought of me!

Water under the bridge, don't want to know :eek:

OK, that has been a VERY interesting read. It revealed things I knew, and things I didn't know, and things about some people reporting on me that surprised me.

• I was a bit of an immature prat as a plt off/fg off. OK, I knew that, but they accepted I was good at my job.
• Identified as ambitious. Is that a bad thing? ;)
• I matured rather later than I thought. Oh, well, I think I've almost got there now.
• I annoyed people more than I realised, by being intolerant and over-assertive in the earlier years. Ooops. :uhoh:
• A couple of 1st ROs that I though would have slagged me off were actually quite complimentary.
• Air Officers as 2nd or 3rd ROs [and even 4th] provide an interesting filter to what had been said previously!
• On my last MoD tour, the late Lord Garden noticed I had lost interest ... but never enquired why. I told him at my [brief] farewell interview when he was ACAS.
• On that same tour, the Scottish One Star lied, and did NOT debrief me on my shortcomings. :)

All in all, quite enlightening from a self-analysis POV. A summation of 29 years. RAF Disclosures did that for me :)

I think I'm glad I did it, and some ROs have actually risen in my estimation. I just wish that they had been more detailed, and constructive, in some of their debriefs instead of just putting it down on paper.

A bit late to change now!!

Who's next? :)

I received mine a few years ago when I was asking for information that would enable me to show qualification equivalency. In addition to the information that I actually needed they sent me the full package. It was an interesting read, but didn't really show anything that I didn't already know.

From a point of view much lower down the food chain:

• I was an immature pillock as a 19 year old JT in Belize. No complaints from me on that score.
  
• I was routinely praised for efficiency and equally routinely criticized for not letting everyone know that I had been efficient. Apparently making a noise about doing my job was expected.
  
• Working away from my trade stream had a negative effect on my promotion prospects. Essentially there was only me and no-one had any point of reference. As a result my numbers were average despite the write-ups being extremely positive.
  
• My final write-up was fascinating, but by that point irrelevant. The RO commented on the tardiness of my promotions and the difficulties that previous ROs had faced in effectively assessing my performance against my peers and, in his opinion, the lack of effort made to retain "a highly experienced and qualified SNCO". While I appreciated the sentiment it made little practical difference.

Personally I thoroughly enjoyed my time away from the mainstream and don't for a moment regret the choices I made. The experiences that I had set me up for a very successful and varied post RAF career, in several industries and quite a few different countries.

I thought that it was an interesting read and overall a fairly accurate reflection of who I was, and continue to be. I disagree with one or two observations, but IMHO, the system seemed to work within certain limitations.

TTFN