I am a very proud wife of a serving Engineer and yes we have lived in lovely parts of the country but as a family we make the most of a bad hand! The quality of life can be limited due to deployments and the extra pressure that is been put upon Service Personnel depending on their Trade.
On the whole the RAF life is great. The RAF gives the service person a skill and provides job security. My husband enjoys his work and enjoys travelling on deployments. However, the uncertainty of when deployments are (exact dates of departure and return), and the length of deployments really take their toll on family life.
I’m enjoying the RAF from a personal perspective but the impact on my family is becoming the single biggest factor to leaving the service.
I hear phrases such as the ‘need to break the dependency culture’. This is deeply offensive - we do not wish to be dependents, but prohibitively expensive housing (especially in the SE), few career opportunities - thanks to frequent house moves and the cost of childcare means we often have very little option. Like my husband I have a degree and post-grad professional qualifications, but find myself treated as some sort of imbecilic scrounger by the housing/ personnel/CEA administrative systems.
The advantages of private sector work, better pay, less movement, no six month absences for trips to the South Atlantic etc, etc are starting to look more and more attractive.
Both having worked in private industry before my husband joined the RAF we feel that actually it is still a good life style, especially whilst children are young, the impact on me as a wife of has hampered my career but for arguments sake so has having the children!
I’ve always considered myself a lifer until recently. The changes to pay and increase in SFA charges saw me lose money in my monthly pay (after a 1% pay rise) and the constant failings of the maintenance contractors for SFA have led me to re-evaluate my priorities and I am now seeking to progress my career around what’s best for my family in the long term. I hope to continue within the RAF, but I am increasingly encouraged to keep my options open.
It’s too late for surveys............
The infrastructure around the camp is falling apart due to lack of maintenance. The SFA is in dire need of updating and better routine maintenance.
Life in the RAF may well be better than life out of it, but it’s a close run thing which is why people are actively considering PVR’ing more than they used to.
Managing family life in the service is difficult and the benefits of serving (e.g. pension, pay and promotion etc.) are being eroded. The large proportion of military personnel will have to find another job after the military.
Hard work is a given in the military. But the package for the family has been eroded. Lose the family, lose the serviceman/woman.
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www.raf-ff.org.uk
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