Experiment over lab rats

[Tin basher]

Now that Trenchard's 100 year experiment is over (1st April 2018) how do you fellow lab rats rate the experiment?


1920's 30's flying club and jolly hockey sticks, 40's finest hour, 50's enter the jet age, 60's 70's cold war and RAFG, 80's reducing in size and the Falklands, 90's more shrinkage and gulf war 1. 21st century, even smaller RAF, enter the drones, middle east still a mess, pay and conditions at their lowest ebb, no maritime capability. What have I missed

 

[dessp2]

My RAF time is finished, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. In terms of onward, we are actively encouraging our eldest lad to pursue the RAF apprentice scheme. He has just turned 15 and we want him uniformed, trained and in the RAF at 16. We are both (ex) RAF and still think it is the best thing we have ever done. Plus the service offers him a lot more than Lincolnshire can. At least then he can say he has one up on me as I joined on my 17th birthday.

 

[busby1971]

Looking back, for all its negatives it’s still the only Service I would join, and probably the only one that would have taken me.

At least two very good memories for every bad one.


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[FOMz]

Very true... I was too intelligent for the Brown jobs and never licked any windows, so wrong for the matelots.

Happy Birthday to the RAF...

 

[Digzster]

Just goes to show how a good thing can be royally screwed up by those playing the latest "management games".

OK, things do have to change but, surely change should be for the better?

Not seen any better changes since 1990. Glad my time is finished the way it has gone (especially in the past 10 yrs).

Looking at current terms / conditions / pension, I'm surprised anybody would want to join up now.

 

[Spearmint]

Looking at current terms / conditions / pension, I'm surprised anybody would want to join up now.

New joiners aren't the jaded dinosaurs some of us are as we look back through rose tinted sunglasses. They don't have anything to compare it to, same as when we joined.

I remember being told my my Karate Instructor (A Painter & Finisher up at Kinloss) when I was 16 not to join as it's all going down the pan and changing for the worse......DT_Xtremez_42:

 

[ktuludays]

New joiners aren't the jaded dinosaurs some of us are as we look back through rose tinted sunglasses. They don't have anything to compare it to, same as when we joined.

I remember being told my my Karate Instructor (A Painter & Finisher up at Kinloss) when I was 16 not to join as it's all going down the pan and changing for the worse......DT_Xtremez_42:

He wasn't wrong though was he? Perhaps just a few years too early

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[FOMz]

Two lads down my road are currently in the recruitment process... one as NCA the other as a Gunner. Both have spoken to me, both are very keen and good on them both I say. I have made sure I don't sound negative towards the RAF of today when I talk to them and ask how they are progressing. it's different to the one I joined 30 years ago, but it's still the RAF.

 

[Spearmint]

He wasn't wrong though was he? Perhaps just a few years too early

Yup, but plenty of OBE's have been handed out in that time.........DT_Xtremez_07:

 

[Rigga]

Although I did actually enjoy the majority of my time in the Mob, I don't understand the folk who say they would go back and do it all again...quite simply; that is impossible, so why say it.

I do appreciate the morals, skills and ethics the RAF taught me, but the places, personnel and facilities, in the main do not exist anymore. Things have moved on, whether we consider them improved or not, and we should promote those new ideals - if we agree with them. If we don't with them - stop harping on the past.

Don't forget that the Tornado was once the unqualified new 'wonderjet' that everybody dreaded and that, even today, all New Starters are guaranteed to be the Jaded Dinosaurs of the future...


PS - 2 v. large glasses of a golden nectar consumed....

 

[Gonterseed]

I agree with what FOMz and Rigga are saying, it is a different RAF to when we joined. For me it was the 70's through to the 80's. It will never be like it was back in our day. For a new recruit, I don't suppose they'd want it to be anything like it was then.

Just 'cos us oldies could have 3 w@nks a day (or at least work with 3 w@nkers) then knock off and give our (or their) ball and chain a good portion doesn't mean to say our version of RAF measures up to modern expectations.

 

[Witty_Banter]

Two lads down my road are currently in the recruitment process... one as NCA the other as a Gunner. Both have spoken to me, both are very keen and good on them both I say. I have made sure I don't sound negative towards the RAF of today when I talk to them and ask how they are progressing. it's different to the one I joined 30 years ago, but it's still the RAF.

I have to admit, I can't wait to escape - but at the same time, I'm recommending to my own kids that a few years in the RAF (not the other services) when they leave school would do them good, and is probably the best pay they'll see at age 18.

(Not sure I could talk positively about a full career though, considering the flux over the last 20 years and how utterly useless the Govt have been. Defo worth it for a few years as a young'un though).

 

[I Look Like Kevin Costner]

If your area only has tesco shelf stacking, joining the mob is still a bright idea IMHO when young.

 

[Witty_Banter]

If your area only has tesco shelf stacking, joining the mob is still a bright idea IMHO when young.

Incidentally, Tesco are cutting staff just now, predominantly in the evening shelf-stacking area....

There's a lot to be said for military service when young (young enough to put up with the generally low standards of accommodation, facilities etc).