raf station rules

Need some advice, my son is stationed at wittering and lives in the barracks with many other service personnel. he has a single room. he has recently been taking his girlfriend with him on returning to the station, apparently she lives in the barracks with him during the working week! his mother and i are quite concern about this and feel that this must be against the rules, can anyone shed any light on whether this sort of thing is allowed?? we don't want to contact the station and get him in bother but on the other hand if it is not allowed he will probably get caught then have to face the consequences and if we could find out the truth it would help us a lot. he has said that she is allowed to live in his single room with him, but what about security? what about toilet facility's etc etc etc!
thanks in advance for help with this totally off topic request

I used to deliver/collect goods to a few RAF stations over the years. I always remember Wittering as being extremely efficient on their gate duties, very thorough indeed.
If she is staying, not only overnight, but overweek, then it is a fair bet that it has been noted. I would trust your son on what he is telling you. Apart from that it sounds as if he is old enough to make his own mistakes.
Give him the benefit of doubt

thanks for that very quick response, very helpful
i would like a more definite answer to this question as we worked very hard to get him into the forces and we would not like for him to loose all he has gained, by a stupid error,

Try the military forum over at PPRune but be careful not to give the game away. Walls have ears - don't complain about the ice cream.

Hi, I understand your concern. It certainly wasn't possible in my time but I left in '88. However, I was working in Air traffic at RAF St mawgan right up until it closed in 2008. I was a civvy working with the RAF. I'm sure that one of the airman in the section was living with his girlfriend in his room and she had previously been living in Spain (she is English). Like you, I'm not sure of the actual rules. I know things have changed drastically since the eighties. In my time they had a seperate accomodation block for the ladies (WRAF's) in to which no male was permitted, at least when anybody was watching!
Now, as I understand it, they do have mixed accomodation, "WRAF blocks", indeed the WRAFS themselves, are a thing of the past. So it may well be "legal" now??
I can try and contact some NCO/Officer contacts I still have and see if they are able to clarify. None are at Wittering.
I will PM you if I can discover anything......ok?

thanks so much the more info i can get on this the better, i am not trying to catch him out but at his age his mind has wandered somewhat south! i don't want him to get in trouble so this was the only access to info i could think of, kids....

I can well understand the anxiety you have, ww2nut. I spent 34 years in the mob and I know that if such an 'arrangement' had come to light on any station I served on, the view from officialdom would have been dim. I know things have changed a lot, but I suspect not that much. I would advise that your son regularise the situation soonest. What we had to do in my time when we wanted to shck up with someone was rent a place off camp and live out. I think that will be safest solution in this case too.

There are many scenarios to consider. For example, what will his girlfriend do when he has to do a week on gate guard? What if he is sent off at no-notice as a crash guard following a harrier crash? What will be the reaction of his block mates?

All in all, a potentially tricky situation, I fear, and time for Dad to use all his guile and cunning.

I am a serving airman and I can tell you that whilst over the years the rules have been relaxed, he shouldn't be allowed to have her live there.

Junior Ranks, single accomodation is for the use of the occupant only. These days, he is allowed to have a member of the opposite sex visit (although this is very much station dependant), but they normally need to vacate at 2300. Most blocks these days are mixed, although the corridors remain segregated by simplex locks, so they normally do have male and female toilets. Modern SLAM blocks which are being built across MOD sites are more like a hotel room, complete with en-suite shower and toilet. Obviously, this does create a certain amount of shennigans between the sexes.

The RAF of today is not like the Air Force of 20 years ago (when I joined). Rules are a lot more lax and many are not fully enforced unless there are complaints. Yes the guys still have bull-nights, but normally the cleaner - yes the cleaner - will do the corridors and ablutions and it's up to the individuals to clean their own rooms only.

The SNCO's and WO mess, and the Officer's mess have much more freedom with regards people staying over night.

Whilst I do believe it is against the rules, he's unlikely to get anything more than a slap on the wrist although there is the possibility that he may be put on a charge for it. So I wouldn't worry too much. A charge these days is not like the days of old.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Timbo

It does seem to be generally 'allowed' these days, and I have known several cases of it, not sure if it is against Station Orders and turning a blind eye to it, or if it is ok now, you might be surprised how lax somethings are now.
One thing is for sure, it will be noted - I used to live in a block and couldn't do much with out somebody knowing about!
As for blocks being segregated (even by simplex lock), I have never witnessed this all seems very mixed.