Oh deep joy. We’re going to be knee deep in SF and SAD operator impersonators. You just know there’ll be one on every camp.

You may or may not be surprised when I say that not only do military personnel stand out in a crowd, you can generally identify the tribe quite easily. Assuming we haven’t all gone to seed, officers tend to be reasonably slim and favour running. ORs tend to favour the weights and so are more muscular. Army officers often go with very traditional attire whilst RAF officers are obvious off duty the usual blue shirt/chinos combo. SF types tend to go for the outdooorsey look with a swagger, easy smile and ready confidence, and when on Ops standout an absolute mile due to their lack of rank or badges on uniform. And Harrier pilots (this was told to me a while back) are obvious because they tell you within the first 2 minutes.

And that was the view of a FCO chapess I was having drinks with on det a while back!

i see that from 1st September RAF personnel will be allowed beards. Pull pin and stand clear!

That was discussing folks in the past raf who for one reason or another had beards. This was released this week saying all serving personnel could have them. I just reckoned it needed a thread. However if mods want to merge feel free.

It’s News but I guess the merge makes sense to some.

Confirmation that there is nothing military whatsoever about the RAF.

RN...tradition at sea.
Army..med reasons only.
RAF...to widen the pool of civvy recruits that can recruit more civvies in uniform from.

FFS when will the hierarchy open their eyes and realise that it’s not this sort of **** that will improve recruitment. What will improve it is honouring the Military Covenant, giving the forces the funds to do their job, and increasing the manpower to allow the things that used to make the military an enjoyable and worthwhile “career” and not the short term “job” that it has become. And whist you’re at it bring back Crown Indemnity.

If we’re talking Aircrew there is no recruitment problem - we’re awash with great recruits. The issue for this cadre in recent years has been training them with a training system designed in 2003, wound back in SDSR10 and then wound back up again in SDSR15. Then in 2017 replacing just about every training aircraft type, simulator and syllabus in about an 18 month window. Guess what? It’s been a total cluster! It’s finally just starting to start churning out what we need.

will serving personnel be issued with a non permanent marker pen for their id's so they can draw a beard for the days they can't be arsed to shave. ��

had a West Indian mate who worked in the SSA at laarbruch in the 70's, his pass had colour of eyes black, colour of hair blue. Nobody noticed for weeks, the police didn't see the funny side.

I have to assume recruiting and retention was going fine in the 60s, otherwise we* would have been allowed shoulder-length hair back then?


* blokes, obviously!

Nice, TTN. :)

I confess during my quasi-civvy times at NATS I may have exceeded the usual RAF norms. A bit ‘Beatle’ could be a good accusation!

I don’t think anyone is suggesting that men feel unable to serve because they are not allowed facial fluff.

The change to the rules is a great example of how the RAF feels able to move with the times a little.

Facial hair is perfectly smart and standards are not slipping because beards are now permitted.

Remember. It’s not wrong. It’s just different.

For the record, I have flown a fast jet whilst adorned with a beard for the past two years and the world has not stopped turning.

May I please repeat. Times have changed. This is not the 1950’s any more. For better or worse.

BV