RAF Regiment Officer/Medics

[Just Looking]

I'm in my final year of university and I'm considering a career in the forces, potentially as a medic but I have other options in mind one of which is joining as an officer within the RAF regiment. However I would like to know what the regiment does on a day to day basis (outside of active tours to Afghanistan etc) without the sales pitch of a employment team or some other forces member slagging the regiment off (I'm now well aware of their views), for example i believe there's a fair amount of the regiment based within Germany although correct me if I'm wrong. Also I'm interested in how the regiment operates in relation to combat medics, do you have your own? or do they come from the army's medical corp?

Cheers
JL

[London Boy]

At the risk of being jumped on again by any serving rocks, I can tell you how it was in the early 80s.

Yes, we had our own medics attached. And that was the standard for all squadrons. I ended my days on II Sqn Airborne.

RAF Regt sqns like other specialist units are fully self-sufficient, unlike say, for example, an infantry or mechanised regt of the army.

So, apart from medics we also had cooks & clerks, techs & mechs attached - all male, and nearly all para trained.

That was the great attraction of II Sqn for penguins, they not only got to work in the field when the sqn was on exercise, they got to jump in on exercises as well with the rest of the Sqn. It was a requirement for attachment to II Sqn, bascially if you weren't prepared to jump, you were directed to apply to another Regt sqn.

As regards daily work when on home station.

The major stuff:
1. Training for tours & ops - in my day N.Ireland and Falklands
2. Preparing for exericses
3. Exercises

The daily stuff:
1. On the ranges - all sorts of weapons, from rifles to mortars to grenades to anti-tank weapons - The Charlie G 84 and LAW 66 in my day. And all associated cleaning and tuning, even light repairs.
2. Vehicle training and use and some maintenance - Landrovers, trucks, and the light armour vehicles, Scorpion, Sultan and whatever the APC was called, I can't remember, I was usually in a Scorpion or the Sultan command vehicle (Help someone? The LARV APC of that series?)
3. Miscellaneous odd jobs on the sqn and around the station, including the odd parade for visiting dignitaries.
4.When on home stn, and not on exercise - basically Lots and lots of sitting around in the Naafi or just tooling around in Landrovers or taking weapons out on the range again.

There is a fair bit of sitting around waiting or sitting around preparing in the RAF Regt.

Hope that helps a bit.

Now we need a modern rock to come on here and piss on my parade and tell me that "it's all different nowadays grandad"

[rockape34]

... & Spartans - though we spent more time on foot patrols/OP's or in LWB L/Rs.

As stated by London Boy - "Hurry up and wait" used to be a reasonably regular occurrence.