On 6 May 1989, exactly 24 years to the day after the very first Red Arrows’ display, I went for an interview for the newly-created post of Public Relations Officer for the Red Arrows. I had to take a day out from my job at RAF Sealand near Chester to attend the interview. I was in for a surprise.
For three years since leaving the intelligence world I had been Staff Officer for the North and West Region of the Air Training Corps: ‘North and West – Biggest and Best’ my Boss there, Group Captain John McMinn, always proclaimed proudly to anyone who would listen. Sadly, a few years later the biggest and best was disbanded in a cost-cutting exercise and the 180-plus cadet squadrons were transferred to other regions and the region itself was no more. Thankfully the disbandment was not put into effect until John McMinn had reached retiring age.*
John and I were both what were known as RAF Retired Officers - RAFROs or simply ROs for short. Unlike officers in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, retired officers wore no special insignia. Apart perhaps from the visible signs of advancing years, I was indistinguishable from any active service squadron leader. One of the real perks of being an RO, although not everyone would see it as a perk, was that once appointed the individual could remain in service, should he or she so wish, until the age of 65. In 2011 that does not seem such a radical idea but in the 1980s and 1990s it always seemed to irk the Civil Service hierarchy. Civil servants were required to hang up their equivalent of flying boots at age 60 whether they wanted to or not.
The Ministry of Defence branch of the Civil Service, a branch that appeared to have grown dramatically since 1997, probably eyed the RO corps with a certain degree of jealousy because they regarded ROs as officers who had passed their sell-by date and who, by hanging on to rank, power and privilege, were depriving real civil servants of jobs where they could hang on to rank, power and privilege. To counter that the Department of the MoD responsible for RO recruitment and careers always aimed to have the job specifications for retired officer posts written in such a way that only retired officers were qualified to fill them. I changed that when I was about to retire.
* Sadly John McMinn died on 14 April 2011.
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