Ahm oot, catch you on the flip side

Well the time has come. A significant number of years in the organisation as boy and man, but all good things must come to an end eventually. Card and keys returned I turn my back on the ACO. I’ve been places most couldn’t and done things some wouldn’t. I don’t regret my time spent but can’t carry on. Good luck to you all whatever the organisation ends up being.

x

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Sad news and a great loss to the Corps I’m sure.

Maybe you’ll tell me who you are now!!! Lol.

Sorry to see you go Prune, though it comes as no great shock.

Enjoy your new found life, it’s samizdat I’m sure, but I’ve heard rumours that people on the other side have things like ‘wives’ and ‘children’ and ‘weekends’. If you get through the wire, try and let us know what the west is really like…

You aren’t alone in taking this step.

Sorry to see you go, but as said you aren’t the only one.

Good luck old boy, thanks for all things that you did for the cadets. Enjoy the pastures new.

Are you staying on here or giving that up too?

Best of luck on the outside! Enjoy the freedom, the evenings, the weekends and not having to take stupid phone calls about RFCA visits, Johny’s washed his 3822 or where your treasure reports are when you’re meant to be at work!

Thanks also for being a solid member of ACC and sharing your wisdom with us all!

I reined in the time I do at the weekend as the younger staff needed to start doing things that they aren’t particularly interested in. I’ve also taken another couple of measures and apart from the crassly incompetent management, it’s OK ish.

Tis a great shame that you are leaving, the corps and ACC will be a poorer place without you.
The RAFAC cannot carry on losing experience staff.
I hope your valedictory despatch was a good one.

Is it wrong that I kind of hope the ‘validictory’ speech was undertaken while Prune was tanked up, holding a can Kestrel Super Strength, shouting ‘fugging fuggers’ and with a large map of Africa down the front of his jeans?

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No you’d want to do it stone cold sober, names and making plenty of eye contact.

To paraphrase … “frankly my dear they don’t give a damn”.

I too am sorry to see you go. We’ve crossed swords many times, almost been apoplectic at each other’s comments and generally given each other a metaphorical black eye but the one thing I’ve never doubted was your commitment to the ACO.

It’s times like these that HQAC should sit up and take notice of the number of resignations coming through the system and ask themselves ‘why?’ ‘What can we do to change this?’

But they won’t and many more will follow you because Cmd simply don’t care. ‘Valuing our Volunteers’ my

My time is up in a couple of months and then I’ll be joining you on the other side of the wire.

Best of luck, Prune old boy and don’t tell them your name!

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The questioning should start at Wing when someone says “I’m resigning”, but even Wings don’t care and they are more directly affected. The only people who actually care are squadrons as they go into periods of instability.

A couple of the ‘awkward squad’ left and it was good riddance, despite the fact the squadrons they ran didn’t get new COs for months and have gone through a number, mostly bright young things, as they aren’t in ‘fashionable’ locations and recruitment was always difficult. You get the impression the two that went were made of sterner stuff.

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On receiving my third clasp to the cfm I was asked by another officer. “Do you like all this or are you too stupid to leave?”, go figure.

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I keep asking myself something similar, but at the end of the day I enjoy seeing youngsters achieve things and grow in confidence etc as they stay in the Corps. It’s this and this alone that keeps me going.

It is however becoming a question of how much longer do you put up with the over-riding incompetence and incoherence of the management at the top. With this is mind becoming a CI doesn’t seem to be an option as you’ll still be confronted by the same frustrations.

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I’m giving CI a go to see if it’s any different; too early to tell so far.

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Best of luck!

Having resigned my commission and stepping down from a command at the same time, it wasn’t liked at Wing, but they hadn’t listened when I was going through a poor time in my life and said I wanted to become a CI.

As a CI I haven’t been entirely immune from the BS, but I took to deciding what I do and how much very easily after many years of doing things as being in uniform I felt obliged. I do two nights most weeks, but take at least part of the school holidays as my holiday. I don’t miss doing many of the weekend things that I went to because I felt I had to.

The thing I’m now finding is that the way things are or seem to be going in the Corps as staff I feel impotent and I’m now eyeing the Civ Comm as I feel the Civilian Committee should be an itch they can’t scratch and represent the staff and cadets as HQAC can’t do or threaten Civ Comm with anything like staff can be.

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