We don’t give anyone any money when it comes to uniform that’s why we stay tied to the MOD!
Tha vast majority of my cadets could not
Afford school uniform let alone cadet uniform so from
My point of view it’s a non starter
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I believe it was going to be tested to put uniform into RFCA’s for the wings in Scotland who are a billion miles away from a base. All was well until they asked what we were going to pay for the service. As we pay nothing RFCA’s rejected doing it.
In my mind its the best solution if you move away from an RAF base to either put a uniform into wings (like the ACF do at county level) and have a quartermaster at wing level or into the RFCA’s. None of these things will be free and we simply do not have the money to change from the current solution.
I currently order uniform by-monthly to try and link it in with our visit to AEF or put a request out to a local squadron to collect it when they are in. I dont normally have any problems.
What I would like to see is the option to have uniform delivered to any military location rather than just your parent station stores, they don’t hold it anymore so why can’t we just order it through parent station have it shipped to our local TA Centre for example.
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it is being done now as we speak. However it isn’t a person per wing its a person per RFCA area. There are some issues but it seems to be working reasonably well
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But this is why at “HQAC run shop” should be a separate entity to HQAC, perhaps run as part of the General Purpose Fund Charity, with the profits returned to the chairty.
That provides a few benefits:
- We don’t rely on the moon being the correct alignment, just order it as we would any other shop online.
- It would still require no extra effort from HQAC itself.
@steve679 As you’ve pointed out, there is obviously a market for uniform and kit, otherwise these 3rd parties wouldn’t be in business.
@daws1159, @big_g, obviously that is a conversation that civilian committees as Sqn’s and perhaps (my preference) Wing level would then be having. To support the the purchasing of kit by those who can’t afford it however they deem best.
Perhaps Wing’s or Sqn’s spend some income buying back second hand kit from cadets, or get it donated back and then sold at reduced price.
they do it for reserve units and MOD office establishments so it should be able to be done.
all thats needed is the will
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Why to a military location and not to a home address? There has to be one person on the staff who has someone at home during the day or as happens a neighbour takes it in.
Chances are the military location wouldn’t be open when we want to go.
Issue still needs to be controlled you can’t have Yodel leaving a box of military uniforms behind the bins/with a neighbour.
If you have a member of staff who is at home to receive why can’t they go to said Military Location during the day when they are open and collect? If you are looking at TA Centres (by far the most common military site near people) they are open during the day plus some evenings so already more convienient than what we currently have.
(Our orders are usually pretty big, not sure how my Mrs would react to 30 boxes of uniform being delivered to our house either!)
Because we’re not talking about people posting things out, we’re talking about the military logistics train. Both accountability and practicality would kill it straight off.
Daws’ idea is a very good one - uniform is still delivered from depot to stores, which the military won’t have any issue with, but it would become far more practical for most people. For example, I’m 40 miles from an RAF base or 10 miles from an Army base.
You still need to live close (within 10 miles) to a “military location” and we don’t.
And? Many people will live closer to an Army base (or possibly naval establishment) than they do an RAF base, so it will help many people. Not only that, but if we include reserve establishments then there’s also a good chance that kit can be collected at times more suitable for volunteers.
And they still need to have the right size for little people
(Subtley brining us back on topic!)
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I doubt it, but then does the RAF really give a monkey’s?
I my about 37 years of kitting cadets and always struggling to fit small cadets into uniform, I would say the RAF doesn’t.
Uniform szes have always been a problem luckily my wife is very good at doing alterations for BLUE and MTP recently we had a very small cadet join his shirts were down to his knees so they have been tailored to suit and as he grows out of them they will be retained for future use i insist that all retuned uniform is laundered i then fold it bag it and label it and then put it back in stock ready to be re issued as necessary
We only keep uniform that’s been well looked after and isn’t tatty, but we would love shoes and would like cadets who leave to donate their shoes but they often don’t 
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I keep very very little from cadets uniforms coming back, normally the jeltex, beret badge and brassard and possibly the jumper if its in top condition. Anything else that has been “next to skin” normally gets binned. Very occasionally they have been issued something brand new within a month of leaving we keep it, but only after getting a thorough wash.
As for shoes, we do have an exchange box of shoes and boots, to be honest we normally throw out half of shoes we get back in. Although all the shoes are cleaned thoroughly inside before re issue.
Im going to try adetdirect.com as I understood there is uniform for 150 cm tall.
https://www.cadetdirect.com/starter-kit-with-beret
Do you think it’s a good website?
Cadet Direct is fine, generally reliable, but also can be at the upper end of the price scale.
Check what your squadron can actually issue you, and look at what you can get for individual items that the sqn can’t do - you should get a beret, you might get a belt, you can probably find cheaper t shirts that are good enough when just starting out. Standard olive cotton tee from most places will suffice.
Looking at individual items, you can better price compare to somewhere else that has the same size (if they do).
You will also need to source a windproof smock if the sqn can’t provide one.
I can’t remember that last time we received more than 50 percent of an order from parent station.