When it comes to long hair, in the 70s and 80s, hair length was pushed to the limit as it was at the time the fashion and they would have been apoplectic when we had a cadet who took to punk and their hair was cropped number one on the sides with the rest pink. The SWO wasn’t happy but went with it, although the punk garb didn’t go down well when ‘in civvies’.
I don’t ever recall when I was a WO of having anyone leaning on anyone, mind you we didn’t have jumped up, made up roles like RWO or CACWO and quite why we need them now is something of a mystery. They serve little or no purpose and WWO used to be a supernumary role with their squadron duties taking a precedence, not an actual Wing Staff job for the boys or girls.
I don’t think we’d have as many problems IF staff and cadets were all able to get the uniform they need from source and not as has always seemed to be the case, sending demands in a more hit and hope manner, than definitely going to get. When I commissioned I had to wait 18 months to get what I was scaled for. Luckily I had my old stuff from being a WO so didn’t have to beg/scrounge.
We’d see the WWO if we had a Wing Parade. They started WO conferences just before I commissioned, but these were of no value as it became apparent many there shouldn’t be allowed to own sharp objects and maybe in hindsight was the start of the slippery slope to where we are today.
The wearing of “non-regualtion” items has gone on for years… as it does in the regulars - simple approach,
- being inspected or tested = where the right thing
- if wearing the wrong thing = dont get photographed and/or publish it
Simples
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We are not the regulars, we are not the reserves we are a youth group and maybe it’s time that people got a grip of that fact and asked “what’s more important what they are doing or that minor uniform infraction?”
When the organisation can’t even provide the basics it’s supposed to (berets, beret badges, identification badges and light blue shirts as current examples of things that are difficult if not possible to obtain) before we even go into the world of greens, how can it have such a slavish obssession to dress regulations that only people in the organisation will even notice anyway?
I can’t wait to get the first “your cadets haven’t got any identification badges” email over a social media post just so that I can tell whoever it is a few facts of life.
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Alternatively, why can’t they be given equal priority?
It’s generally not difficult to achieve and the whole reason these gripes keeps coming up is because there are people who consider that one HAS to be more important than the other.
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98% of the time there is no issue as both can be done and so no one knows. Likewise when the Media Officer/OC looks at something and goes “nope we can’t use that image because X is wrong” no one knows.
It’s only when the fully grown adult looks at something and goes “you know what, there is something not perfect but illustrating the story is more important” that anyone knows and when that does happen they get treated like a child by people who seem to have no sense of perspective.
trouble with all this is that as soon as its put on the net its pretty much there forever and the “activity” might seem to be the more important, sometimes it has to be the right call - checkout on google a remembrance sunday in 2013 with a cadet marching with no beret at all… I would not consider that minor I am afraid - its a public event, the public often complain about such things.
If the public complain about the dress of an organisation they aren’t a member off, you should hit them with a shovel.
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outstanding 
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So should none of my cadets parade in public since none of them have the correct badges? What about the period where you couldn’t get shoes because the RAF had no contract? Or like now when you can’t get shirts for the same reason? More than once in the last 20 years we haven’t been able to get berets at all due to supply issues.
If the public want to complain about children being incorrectly dressed they should be told to bore off quite firmly.
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sorry you are right - youth club it is…
Amusingly, if some tedious cretin were to complain to the RSM/CO of a Guards/cavalry regiment on public duties about the dress of an individual soldier, they would either be ignored or told to go away in the style of a fornicator.
I assume that the RAF Regiment would take a similar attitude.
But, you know,a youth club has to have higher standards than a Guards Bn…
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We don’t - hence why our shoes are not all polished like glass mirrors.
We are however asked to follow the rules which we agreed to when we signed on the dotted line.
In so far as are we bothered about looking correct? YES - as evidenced by the reaction on this thread plus many others like the RAFAC pins.
If we didn’t care then why say we’d follow the rule book at all?
There was a letter about uniform a few weeks back. Is this a resigning matter? Not really. Anyone got a twitter link?
re-tweeted on to https://twitter.com/1460aircadets from https://twitter.com/Keithc23543821 (who has a second photo)
The problem is a lack of proportionality when these things are looked at above.
Let’s take KitKats example, photo of a cadet without a beret on Remembrance Day.
Does anyone bother to check the reasoning or do they go straight to the unit and say “take that down” I can guarantee you they go with the second option, they don’t take into account that the unit can’t get them one because stores are crap. Or should that cadet be excluded from taking part or be made to stand alone while everyone else has a photo taken because the organisation has failed them?
The vast majority of my cadets do not have Identification Badges, why because HQAC’s system is broken and they can’t provide them. Am I expected to not allow them to parade in uniform? Or am I expected to not publish any photos of my cadets in Blues for however many years it takes for the issue to be resolved? (It’s been 18 months so far).
Or do we just carry on and parade and publish knowing it’s wrong and just bat off any cretin who whinges?
I think you can guess where I stand on the matter.
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Reassuring looking at this again though how CAC has weighed in as she doesn’t want to lose the staff.
I think the perspective part has been echoed on here - people thinking the same, who’d thunk it?
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I’m guessing siding with the perfect uniform brigade?
Don’t take my comments as necessarily my viewpoint. The comments are black and white but the subject matter is more of a browny-grey.
Well, trying to stay in perspective, I can’t see an obvious reason why the cdt couldn’t have removed his jumper for a few second for a more ‘appropriate’ photo. Anyway, we’re not privvy to the ‘asked to remove photo’ discussion but there can be little doubt that this was the cause for resignation.
To me, it reads like a storm-in-a-teacup predominately brought about by an adult WO who should have known a little better.
Interesting that the other three cadets wearing only t-shirt and LWJ have managed not to succumb to hypothermia in the time taken to snap a photo.
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