You know what really makes me laugh?

This could apply here pretty well.

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Glad to see that the HQ ACF have a colour cartridge in their printer.

Image on Twitter of individual’s commissioning scroll shows the seal in red; better than our mono-chrome RAFAC scroll :roll_eyes:

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It’s not the HQ that print them it’s a central supplier who do all the scrolls across the armed and cadet forces. That being said I’m surprised your seal is black. My CFC has a red seal. Maybe you should query that up the CoC.
I saw a friend’s Army commission the other day in his study. It’s pre-printed with dotted lines for “fill the gap” which someone has done with a badly aligned typewriter. So it could be a lot worse.

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Makes me even more apprecisitve and glad of having my VR(T) scroll

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I agree with @Farmerdan about querying that through your CoC. My scroll has a red seal - and photos I’ve seen of others (on here and elsewhere) also show red seals.

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At least you have a scroll, commissioned Jan 18, OIC Jan 19 no scroll, no No1’s no bothered !

You may want to chase your Wing HQ. I commissioned 2020 and did OIC last year, received my scroll last week.

I cant get my initial kitting let alone a no1’s though!!!

I’m hearing that initial kitting is getting patchy again?

Ive been told that all kitting is becoming difficult.

To the extent that i wonder if this is the end of blues in our org.

Forward looking, if the availability of blues at sqn, whq and parent station remains at this level, we wont be able to kit cadets across the Wing beyond mid year.

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The RAF has not been able to get around the fact that “we” are bigger or the same in terms of numbers than them and has never specifically ordered mass uniform for us, when maybe it needs to.
In the old days (no apologies for being around a long time) there were a lot more people being recruited into the RAF and we were able to by and large, kit adults and cadets reasonably easy as they needed .
Even if we become a ‘mottled greenish/brown machine’ I doubt kitting would become better/easier.

You are still able to kit cadets?

We haven’t been able to kit a cadet out without scrounging around other squadrons begging borrowing and acquiring cause of so many items just not being fulfilled when ordered since at least pre covid and that large amount of stuff that supposedly sits in all squadron stores as has been completely drained in the squadrons where it did exist in the multiple years this problem has been going on.

Using just two examples I think there must be about 70 ties that we have previously ordered for example that have never been delivered going back to 2019 and are listed as outstanding on the paperwork we get with the bits of kit we do receive and yes they have been chased by us and wing answer is generally :person_shrugging: from stores. Berets are the same although we do get some of them irregularly in very specific sizes but not the sizes we mainly need.

We’ve paraded in MTP since we returned to Face to face training.

We’ve had dribs and drabs of blue uniform, but nothing close to enough to sort out the majority of the sqn.

Only becaise we reuse uniform.

Who doesn’t reuse uniform though? (Assuming it’s still serviceable)

Even reusing uniform isn’t fixing this issue we’ve well past having any PWS in Sqn stores and more cadets come in needing uniform than leave having any uniform to return to be reused. A lot those that leave don’t have any uniform to return because they’ve never been issued it cause we don’t have any to issue.

Much as I’d be sad to see Blues go, the fact is that if we are to have just the one one catch all uniform it needs to be MTP.

MTP is also easier to buy privately than Blues. There’s a well established surplus trade.

I can see us going down the private purchase route. Possibly supplemented with a branded polo.

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It’s going back to the '30’s when A.D.C.C. cadets paid for their own uniforms at 6d (2 1/2p) a week .
Mind you when the '72 pattern was introduced you couldn’t get a wooley pulley unless you paid for it!!!

We’re struggling with berets and badges. The new versions of each aren’t compatible with eachother. The badges then break when you try and put them in.

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Speaking to the staff at the unit that I help out on Uniform isn’t an issue so maybe the problem is geographic?

The parent station you deal with is definitely a major part of this. We’re fortunate, we do ok out of Shawbury, but only if we bypass Wing, who try to order everything centrally.

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