New year's honours list
 

So few these days - see: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/n...ence-personnel

That’s a heck of a jump, does he get the pay to match it?

Signing off
 

This pretty much says it all about HM Forces. I did 28 years but it always has been and always will be, the officers train set! Over and out!

Nutty

He is RAFAC - what was VR(T) - and they are all substantive Fg Offs and remain so. Bob Timothy has been through Flt Lt and Sqn Ldr - all acting (paid) before he was a Wg Cdr.

The full list can be seen here. https://www.raf.mod.uk/news/articles...urs-list-2024/

Reading that full RAF list, I was surprised by the number of individuals who have lost their acting ranks. eg: Acting Chief Technician (now Sergeant), Acting Flight Sergeant (now Sergeant), Acting Sergeant (now Corporal).

Is this a manifestation of the 'new' RAF?

Plenty of non-commissioned recipients as I read it, especially Warrant Officers. Admittedly they fill out the lower awards but it would be rather surprising to see Cpl Sir Anthony Bloggs amongst the listings!

Well in a way yes.....people get acting rank to plug gaps all the time and then go back down.

Thanks … there wasn’t so much gap plugging in my day, more a case of waiting for the next slot to come available. Certainly reverting to the previous rank was virtually unknown.

Not entirely unknown. At a UAS summer camp at Tangmere in the early 1960s, we got to know an acting Group Captain who was on a foreign language course before he was posted to a sensitive air attache job. Four years later, on my first posting as a Fg Off, he turned up as OC Admin Wing on my station - and a Wg Cdr. The poor man was so embarrassed he invited me into his office during his first week to tell me the tale.

Not at all unknown.
My Dad went from Air Officer (Home Fleet) in the rank of Commander to be HM Naval Attache "somewhere East of Suez" in the rank of (I assume Acting) Captain.
Three years later, back to Pompey once again as Commander. This was in the early 1960s.
It was a fabulous posting as far as I remember: big diplomatic house, a car & driver, house servants, gardener, the works. Swimming Club, Sailing Club, International School for my siblings - I was boarding in England and got to fly out twice a year, in a BOAC Comet. I had no idea how lucky I was

Two examples from early 1960s. My loss of acting rank (Flt Lt back to Fg Off) occurred in 1985.
But I did gain a wife (a Cpl at the time) who is still Mrs Batco.

Batco