Thanks Scrounger
They actually look really good, but the price looks as though it’s for only one slide! Therefore ignore my previous comment about there being nothing in it? Double the price then![/quote]
The website begs to differ!
Well I got a pair.
It Means that irrespective of rank the price is the same ie a set of flying officer tabs is the same as a price of group captain tabs.
RTFB! I’ve just noticed in the descriptive text further down the page as Talon mentions! AL2 to my previous comment then! Looks like they’re the same price!
Tbh the web description isn’t very clear.
I’m glad you mentioned that, I thought I might have been having another senior moment!
Do UAS APOs have to wear VR pins in No.1’s?
Saw this on their site:
[attachment=224]432x500.jpg[/attachment]
How long before we get a few walting around in a set? :whistle:
Which site? Is this an April Fools thingy?
He’ll embroider an elephant onto the rank slides if you ask him nicely…probably.
I wouldn’t read too much into it - it probably just means someone has asked him to make a set so he has put it on the website. He’ll embroider an elephant onto the rank slides if you ask him nicely…probably.[/quote]
But how long would it be before Ripoff Direct start to roll out their own…
Just another site trying to make a buck by selling stuff that isn’t legitimate.
VR(T) FS Aircrew? Really?
He isn’t going to say no to people who ask for them is he? Remember, the customer is always right!
Certainly if there is a market for something, someone will be happy to provide for it.
You’ve got to wonder whether the production costs were worth making a run of FS Aircrew VR(T) rank slides though? :dry:
[quote=“wdimagineer2b” post=24289]Certainly if there is a market for something, someone will be happy to provide for it.
You’ve got to wonder whether the production costs were worth making a run of FS Aircrew VR(T) rank slides though? :dry:[/quote]
I imagine it doesn’t take him that long per slide as he doesn’t have a minimum order quantity for them. I have ordered one off slides before. Also useful for “joke” rank slides. 
I did meet an LAC Loadmaster once, when I was still in the RAuxAF (legit, ex-regular NCA).
Once he made it back up to Sgt, he would’ve been able to put his eagles back up (I base this upon the fact that we had quite a few WOs who were ex-regular MACRs). On this basis, anyone ex-rearcrew, WO/NCOs with a half-brevet, do (well, did in my time) keep up their rank-eagles, even on re-muster or transferring-in to the active reserves. Or put another way, the rank-eagles show an achieved/qualified status, not a branch. Almost like ‘fist of sparks’ badges being worn by remustered GRSF techs , serving in Pers Admin.
So: in principle, there could be an NCA SGT(ATC) in existence. Or even an ex-MACR WO(ATC).
But not (currently) an FS(RAFVRT)…though I used to serve alongside FS RAFVR(GD), often. They had to wear their VR idents in No2/3 at that time, as did their/our RAuxAF Offrs. But us auggie NCOs just didn’t (unless weird trend-buckers, like 4624 movers…and 4626 medics)
wilf_san
Yes, but often many don’t; I dare say some don’t because they don’t want to, but others sometimes never received them (I’m still waiting for mine) and also some stores tell them not to put them in as we wear them very rarely and poking pins through the lapels damages the No.1s and they cant be re-used. The latter happens a lot for bursars as they just keep their UAS 1s, but it also happens to others because they will be handing them back in after just less than a year so they can be redistributed.
[QUOTE=“Stand Out”]Yes, but often many don’t; I dare say some don’t because they don’t want to, but others sometimes never received them (I’m still waiting for mine)[/QUOTE]
What!? That’s totally ridiculous. If they are required (again?) to be worn by UAS APOs, then they should be getting worn. Are you able to clarify: were they actually always meant to be getting worn by UAS Officers (stipulated by QRs/APs, I mean), and it’s just been getting ignored?
At the 1947 Reconstitution point, all VR Officers and ORs were required to put their metal/cloth VRs back up. At that time, the UASs were just in the process of being transferred, one squadron at a time, from the ATC into the RAFVR.
But the 1943 AMO that revoked the wearing of Auxiliary and VR pins and cloth badges was in itself completely-rescinded post-war. I’ve never been able to find any direct evidence of WW2 Aux or VR downed aircrew actually being shot or mistreated by Axis forces as a consequence of being identified by uniform as being non-regulars (nor of any special mistreatment of non-regular PoW aircrew being held in Stalag Lufts). And in any case, the Aux aircrew generally ignored the instruction, as for them (then and now) their "A"s were a massive source of pride…now sadly, only worn in No1s
But, that (along with the alleged ‘morale discrimination’ against VRs, which was sometimes practiced by both regulars and Auxiliaries) was maybe the accidental evasion route via which UAS APOs have, historically, been able to avoid wearing their "VR"s.
[QUOTE=“Stand Out”]and also some stores tell them not to put them in as we wear them very rarely and poking pins through the lapels damages the No.1s and they cant be re-used. [/QUOTE]
Not valid. The No1s could easily be reissued to other incoming UAS APOs, or reissued to RAuxAF Offrs, who would upgrade the VR branch titles to A-team pins, or to RAF/PMRAFNS /dental etc branch graduates, who need their lapels converted to being hole-y anyway.
And dare I also suggest that there is also the specific inarguable merit in p/w UAS No1s simply (or even exclusively) reissued to graduating officers from that rare and mysterious branch of the RAFVR, known as ‘Training’?
Anyway, the spiked pins leave a tiny hole in the lapels. Pull the badges, soak either side of the lapels with damp cotten wool overnight, dry, press, issue to next mainstream Officer, sorted.
Ah, wait. Are they issuing the wrong size of VR pins? Or the old original shanked ones?? Please measure them, I bet stores have become confused, and it’s become an accidental tradition (as most are, to be honest). Good grief, I think I see what’s happened.
[QUOTE=“Stand Out”]The latter happens a lot for bursars as they just keep their UAS 1s, but it also happens to others because they will be handing them back in after just less than a year so they can be redistributed.[/QUOTE] This is what makes me wonder if ‘unbranded UAS APOs’ are actually a 1960s-and-onwards phenomenon, rather than since 1947. Were they actually always meant to be wearing pins, in all orders of dress, and the regulation is only now properly being enforced (nearly)? That would not surprise me at all.
I have seen documented proof (dated half a century ago) that the AFB have always been curiously in two minds regarding RAFVR identification. The ‘accidental’ non-wearing of VR branch pins was a highly-contentious topic at one time, yet there only seems to have been proper enforcement applied to the former GD branch, and Training branch. UAS appear to have been kind-of missed…until now.
wilf_san
Totally irrelevant to the thread, but I loved this. I miss my 'A’s 
[quote=“tango_lima”]
Totally irrelevant to the thread, but I loved this. I miss my 'A’s :([/quote]
With you on that one. Shoulder eagles look wrong without them, totally.
On a related note: back in ninteen-tickety-two (well, 1996, actually), when I was still a ‘transitional reservist’), I clearly remember a bizarre episode where a small group of auggie female OR recruits came down, from a DF, to SHQ for our AFI (it may have been called AOC-in-C’s Inspection, in those days, but no matter).
Confusingly (and wrongly) their Stn tailors had badged-up their No1s with cloth "A"s and brass "A"s. Now that generated a lot of flak…I thought the UWO was going to go into orbit.
wilf_san