Operation Cancel Xmas
 

Again. Traditions die hard. Is it just the army, or are navy and RAF units on standby as well?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/l...oops-sr0z2wl6h

Leave may be postponed for troops

Christmas leave for 10,000 troops may be interrupted or postponed as taskings mount up on the “overstretched” army.

The service is performing numerous roles in support of the government’s coronavirus response, including mass testing, as part of Operation Rescript.

A winter support force of 7,500 personnel has been stood up by the Ministry of Defence to assist other Whitehall departments, with 2,000 troops deployed to Liverpool for the city-wide mass testing pilot.

Soldiers are also on notice to help manage flooding crises as well as preparations for the end of the Brexit transition period, including a “no deal” outcome, on December 31.

Jeremy Quin, defence procurement minister, has said that the armed forces are involved in 41 “military aid to the civilian authorities” (Maca) tasks relating to Covid-19......

A defence source said: “Of course some troops might be working over Christmas — we wouldn’t expect doctors and nurses to take it off.”

An army source told The Times: “It’s prudent and judicious planning to make sure we’ve got the nation’s back as an insurance policy if other government departments ask us to do things.

“There’s an expectation that that’s the kind of lifestyle you sign up to. That’s why people join the forces. We’re always on some form of readiness, as plans develop and change. Whether it’s flooding or something else, we’re always there and ready to go.”

Anyone unable to take leave over the holidays will be guaranteed time off in the new year instead, it is understood......

The Ministry of Defence said: “The nation’s armed forces will do whatever is necessary to protect this country... Thousands of public servants from the emergency services, the NHS, the armed forces and local government around the country will be on call this Christmas.”

Christmas comes but once a firkin ...

and when it comes,

I`m firkin` workin`

Slow news day??

Maybe times have changed but back in 75 (oh lordy I'm old) I signed up for a job which entailed 356/24/7 working. Nobody forced me. It was a great job, well paid, many perks, tons of down time, couple of fire fights (something else I signed on for) and by and large I could leave when I wanted if the going got too tough. Which it never did (I was pulled out, not pushed out).

And now I'm enjoying a pension the likes of which 99% of folks in civvy street can only dream of.

Are the miltary working over christmas...I ****ing hope so!!! It's their job.

PS Worked 7 xmas days as far as I can recollect, one of which was spent looking for a missing trawler, which was already in port :)

If you can't take a joke etc etc...true in 75, still true today

/thread

I don’t think the armed forces are complaining - it’s part of the job. I’ve worked over Christmas Day 25 times so far and that’s part of the job, too.

As has been said, a slow news day. What’s next? “Doctors and nurses may have more to do during pandemic”?

Is that all? As an FC we worked 24/7/365 as a matter of necessity and, as a singly, I was always either tasked, or volunteered, to work over Xmas so the married watchkeepers could get home to their families.

Still, the Russians quite often came down to keep us company, and on our toes...

To the matter in hand. Military Aid to the Civil Powers is supposed to be for unexpected emergencies.

With 4 years to plan and recruit manpower for Brexit, and 9 months to prepare for a winter of Covid, having the armed forces involved in 41 MACA tasks seems more like incompetence than necessity....

So you managed to get at least 9 days off a year then

I'm with ORAC on this one. Christmas and New Year were just normal working weeks and if you got one of them off it was a bonus. Likewise, weekends and Bank Holidays. If you don't like it, leave.
I also agree about Government incompetence. The dawn of the career politician was the beginning of the end for 'Great' Britain.

I remember it the other way round. Singlys got priority/favoured to try and get xmas off so they could go home to their families, as the married folk were already with their families. Then in the summer months it was the other way round, so married folk could get away with the kids over the school summer holidays.

I suppose it's no longer possible to swap a Christmas with a Hogmanay, if you have a Scottish mate?

One of my tricks was to volunteer for the Easter Grant, so if there was any "discussion" about who got off at xmas, I could always say, "well I worked the Easter Grant".

As a Singly doing Q over Christmas in RAFG we blew the extra Christmas budget on stuff to make it more enjoyable like Video rentals, sweets etc, stuff the Christmas decorations the budget was for... but one guy managed to whistle up a newspaper Christmas tree similar to the items he used to make in primary school..
We were sorted, we had a tree with cut up page three's on, stacks of films to watch, lots of sweets and stuff.. and our favourite duty cook whistled up some stunning Christmas fare..

and then the Station commander decided to visit the troops working over Christmas and saw us all sitting watching TV, our wilting Newspaper Christmas tree in the corner.. He was not impressed and sent his oppo off to the Officers Mess to bring back lots of goodies, a proper tree and decorations for us... saying when the QRA permanent staff Sgt comes back after the hols he would have words.. oops

:)

Eight years' service, no Christmas duties. Ever. I'll get my coat...

CG

I worked in the offshore industry all my life. Like you, weekend, public holidays etc didn't exist, so I did my fare share.
Sadly, it goes with the territory.

What's reassuring is that we actually do have trained professionals around to help out when needed.

Thanks to all of you who'll be on duty this year.

You are CAS and I claim my £5!

What's so special about Christmas anyhow, cold wet miserable and nothing on the telly

At least Buster and Co had the right idea

I must admit, my three years in RAFG I never came home for it, Christmas Day started off in the Ahem...WRAF block for a Champagne breakfast and tended to follow the alcoholic theme for several days... :)

I must admit receiving a letter from my dear old Mum during my tour and wondering If something drastically bad had happened as she never wrote to me normally... opening it, it read..

Dear Son,

Are you still alive?

Love Mum

:rolleyes:

That was it... nothing else lol, ohhh I wish I’d kept it. The rest of the family couldn’t believe it... still to be fair I hadn’t called her in over a year.. 😬🤭

I am reminded that my mother asked me why I hadn’t written a letter home for the first 4 months I spent in the Falklands.

Apparently my response that nothing had happened didn’t impress....

One in 24 years. I'll join you. :ok:

Mind you as a Police pilot after I left, just about every other one. :cool:

There were lots of jobs in and attached to the RAF requiring manning [oops! staffing] 365/7/24. Christmas, New Year duties and summer holiday periods were regulated by good bosses such that there were fair distributions. The real problem was 3 years or so tours of duty.], which implied a few short straws.
My solution was to volunteer early in the the tour for the crap shifts, and hope the boss stayed long enough to remember.
I came unstuck one year when, having virtually foregone summer leave, and desiring a LONG break next summer, the boss changed. Into a bastard.

[QUOTE=Richard Dangle;10928519]Slow news day??

Maybe times have changed but back in 75 (oh lordy I'm old) I signed up for a job which entailed 356/24/7 working.

You forget, in those days we didn't quite work 24/7. We did get some free time, it started at 2359 every night and finished at 0001 the next day. Mind you, since then some bugger has introduced 2400, so they don't even get those precious two minutes off any more!

Me too TTN.

...or as the DI said - I own your little pink body.

Well he would say that wouldn't he. (Circa 1967)

IG

At one point, my Mum actually included a stamped, addressed envelope in one of her letters to me.

Cool Story
 

Times they have changed in the 45 years since. Much like they had changed in the 45 years prior to you joining. In my 14 years of service I have personally worked for 11 Christmases of those 8 of which have been deployed on operations far away from home. The Royal Air Force is a much smaller organisation now and even fewer pull their weight when it comes to deployments. Luckily you joined in the lazy 70’s.

I remember one head to head with my flight commander when the Squadron I was with had a detachment running in Italy for several years. It went on the lines of:

"Wensleydale - we need some personnel on 6 hours standby over Christmas in case someone goes sick on detachment - it will mean staying locally and not drinking much I am afraid."

"OK Boss - I'll have my leave cancellation form to you shortly...can I take my week in January?"

"No - you are still on leave - you are just on 6 hours standby".

"So I am on standby and can't go anywhere such as a visit to parents, but this is my leave?"

"Yes"....

...and on it went until a visit to the Boss and common sense.

There are also lots of jobs in civvy street that require working over Christmas and other public holidays. What's so different?

Xmas video fron CAS and a Warrant Officer
 

Has anyone seen this year’s video? There’s a lot of chat on FB, but I can’t find it.

Not that I’m an old boy, but the working Xmas thing draws breath, paid well for 24/7 I worked 4 out of my 14 years and half a dozen NYE. TOIL was very handy, and unless we were NS it was still chilled.

try post #4 of Xmas Message

Popeye, if it does not show up in post click quote and it will open in another window showing the address

I can confirm that ..

Civvy job, 365 x 20 (not quite 365x24), and we worked shifts covering 'morning/lunch' and 'afternoon evening'. Every year the bosses put up memos on the notice board reminding us that there would be no days-off over a 2-week period covering xmas and new-year We all moaned and grumbled, but got on with it. If you were lucky, your 'days-off' coincided with xmas, but then they wouldn't coincide with new-year; and vice-versa. Oddly enough, we worked with a lot of Asians (Indian or Pakistani descent), and there was never a ban on days-off over the periods of Diwali or Eid!

Also, the 'no days-off over xmas and NY' edict didn't seem to apply to the senior managers, so something usually happened to make them come into work at the most inconvenient time (for them).

One year, the top boss came in to see us all on xmas morning, maybe spread some cheer, shake hands and thank us personally for all our hard work. In a quite astonishing gift of personal generosity he bought in boxes and boxes of mince-pies for us all. There must have been 20 boxes in total, some for the morning shift and some for the afternoon shift. At vast personal expense he'd bought us Tesco mince-pies, so not really high quality ones. No cream, no brandy-butter, just cheap mince pies.

The boxes were duly opened and shared around, the boss did his 'thank you' speech. Somebody cheekily asked the boss what he got for xmas, and he asked the questioner what he'd got - the reply was (as he looked at the box of mince pies) "I got a single mince-pie with a 'best before' date of 2nd December".

Suddenly, nobody wanted mince-pies any more.