So I asked about using my old service number instead of the 303…. Told not if it’s Pre-JPA, pretty naff considering it’s the same length and format as my legacy ATC number and it’s on my veterans card….
If anyone asks what my service number is, I can tell you my old one without a second thought, the 303…one I have to login to VP to find it 
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I’m exactly the same, can tell you my Sergeants number and my original commissioned one but no idea what my current one is and doubt I’ll ever bother to learn it.
I’m still using my pre-JPA Army number. Similarly, some of the officers on my Sqn have enlisted aviator pre-JPA numbers (with the letter at the beginning rather than the end). It’s only those who originally joined after JPA came in with 30… numbers.
I don’t know if I still ‘have’ my old officer number ending with a letter - i.e. if it is still in any way valid - but for RAFAC purposes it seems I can only use my JPA one (303*****). I wonder if it depends on previous service e.g. your Army number (presumably 8 digits, no letters?) would have been fine to add to JPA as there were no letters?
Some (a Sgt on my Sqn) have got the letter and numbers without issues. Mine is B822…. So should fit
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And those who left before JPA came in, to my understanding.
I would love to be able to use my old Service number!
It was a special 4 number sequence at the start that was allocated to those going to be NCO aircrew (AEOp) - prefixed with a letter. I got commissioned, & the same letter moved to the end. Lots of different grouped numbers for different airman branches.
At one sqn, I was tasked to coordinate some of the aspect of a short deployment - one of the jobs was to get service numbers / names / next of kin from the crews concerned. Adjt was away, most of the guys were playing uckers or otherwise on the sqn - “what’s your Service number please?”
Got towards the end of my list & a navigator gave me his Service number - the same 4 number sequence at the start as mine - the last 3 were quite a way after mine, about 150+.
So, I asked him when he had gone through Finningley as an AEOp. No, no, no, I’ve always been a nav…!
Nope, not having that; eventually he agreed that he had been a siggie but had been commissioned & gone to nav trg (the best man at my first wedding had done that - he ending up on Tornados, first wave in for GW1!). I couldn’t find out why he didn’t want this to be known; I was quite proud of my move upwards - had an AE brevet sewn behind the left lapel of my tunic tops!
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completely agree, can’t remember my 303 number but my service number will always live with me.
nice idea of the brevet. There’s always been a snobbery of the first four digits.
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I’ve joined recently and have had my pre-JPA service number allocated.
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Ah! The old Finningley Campaign Medal from AEELS
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