Hi,
I am looking to become an Officer as I have been persuaded but want some more advice before I make the move, will it be good for me or not?!
Can anyone explain the process from scratch and tell me everything I would need to know and also to explain to me the OASC and OIC in more detail.
Sorry if there is another thread but can’t find any others
Okay so I’ll give you a rough idea of my view of it all. At the moment I have literally today just drawn my uniform after receiving a pass at OASC, so I can’t talk you through OIC.
I’m an ex cadet, ex Flight staff cadet at a VGS, ex CGI, and now ex CI. I decided to (I’m young 22) return to Cadets when I finished university. I was technically a C.i during uni helping out back in my home town Sqn during the summer and uni holidays. After six months at the unit as a C.i I decided that I wasn’t getting the most out of the cadets so I decided to go in to uniform.
I informed my CO who passed me a bunch of papers that are the old style RAF application form. It is all very military box filling with no mention of cadets any where. Once you complete the forms the CO give you an interview to find out why you want to go into uniform. Very simply their looking for things like you want to be a leader for cadets and staff.
Once you pass the interview the CO will send your forms to wing and the Wexo will invite you for an interview. It took about 3 months to get my interview invite. Wing interview is called a Wing Board.
The wing board consists of two possibly three wing staff officers. I had three my Wing Com, Wexo and WWO. I was very nervous but the interview is split into two halfs.
The first is all about you, your school life(yes even if your in your 50’s) and your hobbies outside of school. They want to know how active you were. Then they ask a bit about your current commitments, work life, hobbies and cadet involvement.
The second half is all about the Cadets and RAF, they start with the corp structure, regions, wings, sectors and sqns, they wanna know numbers of sqns etc. After that they want to know about civ comms structure and padre structure. Then they go into the RAF air command, sqns, RAF base names, locations and sqns. Name a few planes.
All in all the wing board last 35-45 mins. After the interview the board have a 10minute discussion on you make a decision and the invite you back for feedback.
I passed and was allowed to book my OASC date. Your wing E1 will contact you and ask you to book a date.
Once you have a date you then attend OASC in Lincolnshire for two days. The first day is a group discussion, group plan ex, leaderless task, leadership exercises and an individual plan ex. It’s a long day which requires you to be really confident and very forth coming in all exercises. The plan exercises need simples and logical plans to achieve objectives requires basic speed, distance and time maths.
The next day is just your interview. Mine was with two RAF Flt LT’s who use exactly the same format as the wing board but ask in more detail e.g you said there is E-3D Sentry’s at RAF waddington which Sqn operates them and how many airframes. They go into a lot more depth on the personal reasons for joining the ATC and are more focused on why you want to be an officer.
They give you four weeks to get the feedback in a letter sent homes. Mine took 8 weeks but by week 6 my Wexo rang HQAC found out I passed and told me.
The letter gives you bird feedback on OASC and has letter confirming your rank of Plt Off VRT if you pass.
It also has a blue form allowing you to draw uniform from your local RAF station stores.
Hope this gives you a brief update of the whole process as I have found it so far
thank you for the detailed reply, I am very convinced to make the step.
I know you are quite new to being commissioned but would you say enjoy the role of an officer?
So far definitely yes! I feel you get treated with more respect, people pay more attention to you and more opportunities are available to you as an officer. I hated not being in uniform when everyone else is, like camp photos etc.
Ck, spot on report. I just received my letter last week saying I passed too. Thank heavens!! I concur with your comments about questions asked you about school. I’m 51, very late going for VRT, but I had to really think about school as it was a distant memory.
Hi Outlaw, don’t know if you’ve been to OASC yet, but can concur whole-heartedly with what ck has said. Go for it. It’s a tough work-out especially if you’re an old bloke like me, but well worth it. Really satisfying.
Congratulations! I’m glad to hear you passed.
Thanks ck, appreciated.