Military Recruitment.

I have a very good friend whose son applied to join the Royal Navy in 2019 as aircrew when the navy said they were short of pilots. As progress was slow, it was suggested by his University Air Squadron CO in June 2023 that he should also apply to the RAF.

By January 2024 he had completed all the stages and was just waiting to do his Aircrew Medical at RAF Cranwell. He got the call and was paid by the generous taxpayer to take a flight and a train, and stay overnight at Cranwell prior to the medical. About 5 minutes into it, someone noticed that his initial recruits’ medical was a naval one rather than an RAF one. He was told that things could therefore proceed no further until he got a basic RAF medical. This is despite the fact that medical arrangements are meant to be tri-service, and that as aircrew whether in the Navy or the RAF you will in many circumstances be flying the same aircraft.

He went back to his university and organised an appointment for the basic RAF medical – which is done by the same people who do the army and navy, but the results are logged on a different form.

So about a month after his first visit, he was back at RAF Cranwell in the first week of March of this year. This time the medical officer handed him a letter saying that the medical would not be taking place because his grandfather suffers from a retinal dystrophy, and that even if there was only a 1% chance of him developing this condition this was unacceptable for aircrew. His grandfather’s condition had been on both the original naval and RAF applications, and there was no discussion or attempt to discover whether there was any chance of our friend’s son developing this. To add insult to injury, the examining medical officer said that he could no longer fly with the University Air Squadron which he has been doing for over 2 years, and has almost completed the basic military flying training course. Within hours he was told that his application to join the RAF would be terminated, unless he planned to appeal in which case it would be put on hold.

Over the next 3 weeks whilst also preparing for his final exams, he researched his grandfather’s condition, which is caused by his parents both unluckily having two faulty genes of the same type. This caused partial sightedness in his grandfather and two of his siblings, whilst two other siblings and all offspring of the two subsequent generations all have very good sight. He also managed to track down the UK expert at Moorfields eye hospital, who after various scans of his and his father’s eyes was able to write a very thorough report. In this he was clearly able to demonstrate that there was no chance of our friend’s son developing the condition, as it would already be evident (his grandfather and siblings started developing it in early childhood). He also said that his eyes (and those of his father) were virtually as perfect as they could be, and that the chances of him developing any sort of retinal dystrophy was the same as any other member of the population – which is about 1:80,000.

Our friend’s son knows that the appeal was signed for at RAF Cranwell in the second week of April, six weeks later he has heard absolutely nothing. The University Air Squadron medical officer was told ten days ago that he was the next in the appeals process and that it would be done w/c 13 May, but still no news. They know that as a result of his date of birth he has to complete the medical and be enrolled into the RAF by his 24^th birthday, and one can only suspect that they are spinning out the appeal process so it does not have to be admitted that the examining medical officer acted in a completely cavalier manner.

Most medical examiners are members of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine, I draw your attention to their Code of Conduct.

Is it surprising that the military have problems recruiting, when one considers the time wasted and the arrogant contempt with which recruits are treated? In the same week, the scandals of the Post Office and infected blood have shown a closing of ranks by those at the top to preserve their reputations, at the expense of those who have to fight every inch of the way for justice. We see the same behaviour in the military, where if they see this story becoming public will no doubt turn on my friend’s son in the same petty way. This is WRONG WRONG WRONG, but it demonstrates yet again that many aspects of the British state are rotten to its very core.

The RAF is short of pilots, in part because they are short of trainers, in part because they don’t pay them enough. In addition, there has been a diversity, equality and inclusivity drive to achieve a level of more than 40% female and 20% ethnic minority members by 2030 which inevitably means discriminating against white males. Surely the priority for a fighting force is to have top class pilots and engineers, and we should be blind to colour and sex? In the case of my friend’s son, are they simply finding ways to reject white males?

This piece was submitted anonymously, to protect the identities of those involved.

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