Hearted Youtube comments on Fast Jet Performance (@FastJetPerformance) channel.
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I'm of a military family. The majority of my extended family have served in the armed forces. My Dad was in the RAF for over 10 years, so it was in my blood growing up. Following a year as an apprentice fitter with the NCB, I joined in 1970, just turned 17 and signing on for 9 years. I'll always be grateful for the training, both technical and attitude, which set me up for life. However, that wonderful feeling of pride and belonging gradually changed to one of being wholly and completely owned and trapped. Seeing old school friends in civi-street, with freedom and much higher salaries, I was fortunate when a regulation came in which allowed anyone joining under the age of 17 to commute their service to 3 years, from the age of 18. So after 4 years regular service and 3 years in the reserves, I was gone. On leaving I quadrupled my salary as a fitter with British Steel and, with further education, having gained my private pilot's license, and working my way up through the civi ranks over the years, I retired as CEO of my own company. The RAF formed me and changed me, but it also taught me to see the world in a different way. Above all the RAF taught me critical thinking and how not to be afraid of swimming against the flow. Not good for the RAF, but very good for me and mine. I'm 71 now, but I'm still in touch with ex-RAF mates, and we look back on our time in the service with fondness - and abject dismay at what it has become. Your video is 100% on point and reflective of a far wider developing dystopian scenario than just the RAF. Thank you.
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My recent woke RAF nightmare:
I come from a long line of RAF and (formerly Royal) Indian Air Force pilots, officers and NCOs, including an air gunner in WW2 and a Chief of the Air Staff.
My ancestor Lt Shrikrishna Welinkar was a WW1 fighter pilot with No.23 squadron who was shot over the Somme in the summer of 1918 in a Sopwith Dolphin, and since then, each generation has served in some capacity. My grandfather had been with Bomber Command on Canberras, then Beverleys and Hercules in Cyprus and the Far East before flying as a QFI. You could say it was in our blood. I had certainly always wanted to be a military fighter pilot since I was a young boy. As a Royal Naval cadet, I had flown high-G manoeuvres in the Grob over Yeovilton aged 17, on a course among 9 other lucky cadets from across the UK.
I was recently rejected by the RAF as a pilot just 2 weeks before the very last interview at OASC (after waiting for 28 months), allegedly because I had suddenly become "too old". They changed the age cutoff from 25 to 23 a few weeks after I turned 24 and didn't think to tell me. Having been 21 when I first applied pre-covid, and despite having passed every academic/aptitude/fitness/medical selection stage (not easy, but I managed to pass CBAT with a very high score), it was a real scandal. They would not accept any appeal. The long process was blamed on the pandemic. It is actually more due to disorganisation.
Despite this, instead of "dropping out" of the process, I went to the final interview with the prospective of being a Weapon Systems Officer ("wizzo").
This was the path I was on, and I was determined to serve. Not for a fun career and early retirement, as is often the case, but for the defense of our civilization and succeeding in a job that suited me, which is what you want in any member of our armed forces.
During the 12-minute barrage of questions, I was shot down when answering candidly about my inspiration to join (family history and desire to serve with like-minded, patriotic individuals, challenge, passion for flying...). The young lady officer did not like my answers and cut me off. "No, why do YOU want to serve?" As if the family connection is not a valid reason. Then the "why is diversity and inclusion important?" question came, and, being "anti-woke" myself, I answered very carefully and honestly: that these are important in as much as they can unify a group of varying individuals around a common mission, whether the "diversity" is about immutable characteristics or not. The interviewer did not seem happy. The rest of the interview was cold, and two days later my rejection letter was dismissive, claiming that despite my aptitude scores being "quite good" (they were excellent, but anyway...), I didn't possess the knowledge needed nor was I "officer potential", with a limited academic record (I had been reading aerospace engineering at uni but didn't finish). This despite having a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of the RAF, its operations, history etc. which was not asked about in the interview. And I don't mean to sound arrogant, but I certainly had officer potential. Numerous senior officers over the years encouraged me to apply to the forces, mostly army and navy, I had been a cadet, led large groups abroad and on exercise, DofE etc. You name it.
Not a single apology has been given for how it was handled in the end. Not impressed. I have lost much respect and affection for the Royal Air Force as an institution, as have my friends and family. I hope they get their act together. The pilot training pipeline is clogged because our government is committed to training pilots from other countries as well as using poorly-equipped third-party contractors under the new "MFTS" training system.
Anyway, perhaps the RAF was hoping that as a "brown person" (I look Arab. Half English, half Indian) I'd leap for joy and soliloquize on the virtues of D.I.E. My interviewer was a blonde lady, very white skinned, like my mum. I don't think much of someone based on their skin colour. What matters is their cultural background and attitude. But what was gutting was knowing from the get-go that there was clearly a deep adherence to a woke agenda, rather than pure competence and passion. I am not perfect and perhaps just not what the RAF was looking for, but the tone and nature of the rejection suggests there were other factors.
I despair for any young patriot, no matter their skin colour, who wishes to try and serve given these unnecessary obstacles.
Onward and upward! I was advised not to apply to the RN while waiting on the RAF. Of course I lodged my application in with them soon after failing OASC at Cranwell, but two weeks ago the RN decided they are no longer hiring new pilots. Trying for Observer... Wish I had applied to the RN as a pilot initially! It's a horrible feeling after a lifetime of preparation to likely never train as a military pilot when, on merit, I could have. 🙏🏼
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Tim, you are spot on.
I am 63, got my own house, no mortgage, married , one son of 30 at home, too expensive for him to buy here in bucks, rents also stupid money.
At the moment i feel helpless, i cant see a way to get out of this depression i feel, Labour are making things worse, they dont talk about immigration, legal and illegal, the people that voted for Labour are seriously brainwashed, you talk about concerns over immigration and you are branded racist, its hard to focys on anything but i will follow your advice and keep working out, i wish i was back in the lste 70's early 80's, carefree and nost prople were happy, now everyone looks sad as what the gutyre holds under this tyrant of a PM.
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It's an amazing point re instructors. In WWII probably the most fatal mistake on the western front made by the Luftwaffe, was failing to rotate out experienced pilots to the rear to instruct the new pilots, not in flying, but in COMBAT (this wasn't just policy, but more about personal ego and machismo of the German aces, who saw it as a personal failure to be removed from the front line). The RAF and the USAAF did this rotation with all experienced pilots with kills, so our young pilots were taking to air, with the basics of BFM in combat. The young German pilots could certainly fly the plane, as they had been taught to fly the plane, but had zero BFM combat knowledge, because the instructors had no real knowledge of this, so couldn't teach them. As the experienced Luftwaffe pilots on the front line were gradually lost through attrition, by 43 to 44 it became a turkey shoot, as the young Germans simply had no idea. I remember a quote from a mustang pilot, saying that it became almost embarrassing and he felt sorry for them. They were just basically massacred, until there was pretty much no German planes whatsoever in the skys when D-Day happened. That's how bad it can get when you ignore having experienced combat veterans teaching, relying on just decent pilots, who can't do the combat stuff. You can lose a war over it.
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