I guess Sgts and above have their own mess so they don’t have to eat with all the scum of the lower ranks.
Traditionally;
Junior ranks mess - everything up to and including Cpl.
Sgts’ Mess - Sgts and FS.
Warrant Officers’ Mess - WOs only.
In some places, it may be a Sgt & WOs Mess.
I can’t think of anywhere I’ve been that had a separate WO Mess
And I presume all officers have their own mess. These days with everyone being equal it seems a bit O.T.T to have the ranks in different messes. Wouldn’t it be cheaper and easier to all mess in the same place? Esspetially if their all eating the same food, or is it Junior ranks get beans on toast while officers get a 5 course, The Ritz level meal.
Contrary to popular cadet belief officers don’t dine in spectacular fashion. It is much the same as everywhere else.
As one officer from my sqn went to an RAF base once for training and said the food is dirt cheap. So I guess its stranded stuff like Ham Egg and Chips, Curry, Pasta, a bit of a buffet.
As the job sounded good as you can get lunch for like £2.50 and rent for £10 a month including everything, but you pay the rest by doing the job. As if it is that cheap I’d definitely take the longest and hottest shower in the world.
There used to be a few.
I cant think of a surviving one now.
All combined sgts and wos mess
At one mess I once ordered duck a l’orange. What was presented on a plate wasn’t. It had been cooked to within an inch of its nutritional value.
Civilianisation of the messes has not done any favours to the standard of cooking. Some messes are better than others.
I just looked up what that is, and it looks like even a bad one would be delicious. But also looks like it would take a while to make, but worth it.
Promotion in the RAF usually means a new posting, a move to a new job on a different Station. Day 1 you arrive with your new rank slides on, job done.
Everyone isn’t equal.
Not in that sense. The whole point is that in your downtime you don’t run into your boss, and get to have your peers around you.
Either way, this has wandered from the point. Promotion is different in the RAF to the cadets, but as someone looking to join the RAF, it’s pretty much irrelevant for you to get fixated on that now.
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Even though I am many miles from being promoted, I still think about it a lot because the idea of being promoted and being, ‘above people’ in a sense strokes the ego. As when I was thinking about the benefits of joining as an officer over an airman and NCO, is that officers get saluted and get called sir, and they also get swords for drill, rather than the practical differences.
Aaaand aside from saying “that’s the wrong attitude and one which hold you back” I feel like we’ve gone far enough down the rabbit hole.
The process has been explained well enough further up I think.
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