mt or regiment

[manic69]

my son is thinking of joining up as a mt driver or the regiment, as an ex matelot i do not know enough about the day to day life in the raf to advise him as to which of these is the best job. i know diffrent trades ,diffrent life but the reg looks more hands on and intresting or can you go tcw/tsw as a mt driver and get on ops a bit more , any advice will be great

 

[mrdan]

Im not in the reg yet but it depends what sort of life he wants. If he wants to get out there and see front line action from time to time then its the reg for him. Also from what I have heard you learn alot of skills with the Regiment. Im sure others will tell you the same also.

 

[he_who_dares_rodney]

Im not in the reg yet but it depends what sort of life he wants. If he wants to get out there and see front line action from time to time then its the reg for him. Also from what I have heard you learn alot of skills with the Regiment. Im sure others will tell you the same also.

Define "front line action"

Both trades have their moments I'm sure

I'm ex MT so I'll have a go at that for you although I have been out of it for a while (I remember the guy on the recruiting poster as an SAC - Hi Nick)
I still have plenty of mates who are in doing the job

It's an alright job like every job it has it's good and bad points
There are boring days when the hanger needs swept or a bit of painting to be done but as an ex Matelot I'm sure you suffered that as well
He'll get his qualifaications on a variety of vehicles although again it's not all racing about in artics from day one
Also the qulaifications will carry over to civvy street
There used to be plenty of scope for travel the fast jet and Helicopter sqns always used to take drivers with them where ever they went

Work wise it all depends on the unit
Some do 9- 5 some do shifts
I worked 2 days 2 nights 4 off and sometimes on days off got to go away aswell
We used to run to Guttersloh on our days off shift with engines from Wittering
I assume that will have changed for H&S and WTD reasons

Likewise depending where you where there was lots of work shifting kit etc

There used to be some slots on TCW / TSW and even some Reg Sqn for drivers but they slowly got filled with there own bods as MT gradually got cut in the 90's
Somebody else maybe able to update you further on that

I should imagine that with the current tempo of ops they are busy both home and away at the minute
IIRC a convoy of RAF Tankers ran some aviation fuel up to Al Ammarah which I suppose could be "front line" action as route 6 was certainly "busy"
However I'm sure that any Reg lads wil tell you if they are honest that it's not all war fighting and they have boring periods to as does any trade
I liked it and I have a decent job in transport from it as well but I am biased

Heres the link to the MTD website it's mostly for retired and ex but there's some 2MT pictures and other stuff on there

Good luck to him regardless

 

[ailiebird]

I agree with he who dares rodney. It does depend on what he wants out of the RAF, totally different jobs. As an ex MTD who left just over a year ago, I can tell you that MT has changed a lot since I joined. Most of MT on stations will work on tanker pool and very few have blue jobs on Statin MT as this has been handed over to civvies over the years. Your lad will have the chance to work on TSW and 2MT as I think most will see a tour or 2 with these during their career. Overseas postings a few and far between for MT (except V.I.P. posts), but I enjoyed my time and got to travel around the world. OOA ops are a regular part of the job as well.

As for RAF Rgt, I can not speak in depth, but again lots of OOA, and they seem to have a very good bond between each other.

Again whatever he chooses, good luck to him for the future

 

[manic69]

mt or regiment

cheers guys , will pass on your info to my lad and see what he wants to do, he is leaning more towards the reg side of things , he is a good student a* on most subjects i think he is selling himself short and could do much more in the raf

 

[mrdan]

cheers guys , will pass on your info to my lad and see what he wants to do, he is leaning more towards the reg side of things , he is a good student a* on most subjects i think he is selling himself short and could do much more in the raf

He not though of going in for officer?

 

[woollymouse]

If he's good with his hands, has a good grasp of science and wants to travel the techy world is probably the place to be. Although not a techy myself I do know plenty and most of them have been to places the average person could only dream of.