RAF Regiment
 

A British unit that might make a good basis for a PC group.

James,

Outstanding, as usual! Love the pictures.

Tony

Well Done
 

James,

I enjoyed the article!!!

Mike

Good stuff, James. Keep 'em coming.

Nice write-up. I have an associate who served with the "rock apes" and, apart from a deployment to Iraq, seems to have spent most of his enlistment in Germany watching satellite television while pretending to defend the NATO nuclear arsenal from incursions by the various small woodland creatures that populate the Rhineland. He claims to have hated every minute of it, but (his real life experiences notwithstanding) I always thought The Regiment would be a cool background for a UK PC.

Nice write up...well done.

good work ! :)

As a Gunner myself, it's nice to see someone remembering the poor old RAF Regiment.

Most of my dealings with the Rocks in the 80's was in pub carparks, fighting over taxis.

It ended as a score draw after 6 years.

The Rapier units the USAF paid for to defend their UK Airfields were missed off, I can remember 66sqn that were based at RAF West Raynham, there were others 15sqn? maybe, but I can't remember.

Hello all, pulled this from my files for James and everyone..........

Louie,

Great work, thanks for sharing!

Tony

Louie, that's a great listing - thanks for putting it up.

I had no idea that pre Options for Change there was both a 63 Squadron and a Queen's Colour Squadron...

Really useful thanks - when I get chance I will look at upgrading in line with this.

Rewritten and expanded as promised.

I like this a lot. I joined up a mere five years ago, so I am not really able to comment on the state of the RAF Regiment during the period of the Twilight War. However, a few things I noticed which apply to the modern day RAF Regiment include the fact that you identify the RAF tactical recognition flash (introduced around 2005-6, I think) as a specifically RAF Regiment TRF. This TRF is actually worn by all non-Regiment members of the Royal Air Force, whereas only RAF Regiment personnel not assigned to squadrons (i.e. members of Ground Defence Training Flights, instructors, etc) wear the RAF TRF. Members of formed squadrons wear a squadron-specific TRF in subdued colours appropriate to the theatre. For example, 2620 Sqn has a TRF depicting a griffin, while 63 Sqn has an eagle with roman numerals for 63 underneath.

Pedantic, I know, but a lot of Gunners go out of their way to avoid wearing an RAF TRF even if they are supposed to, and the same for the Royal Air Force chest tape on the CS95 shirt. The RAF Regiment likes to try and differentiate itself from the guins as much as possible.

Thanks, really useful comments, not sure how I will use. Any idea on what the individual squadron TRFs are?

The squadron TRFs are typically the centre image of the squadron crest rendered in black on a green square. So, as I mentioned, 2620 Sqn (where I started my career) has a griffon, 63 has the eagle (with 63 in yellow roman numerals), II has the winged penis (apparently it's a flying wheel viewed end on), 3 has the bayonet and scorpion, 1 has the chariot, etc. Desert versions are also issued.
To make things more confusing, the FP Wing HQs also issue TRFs, but I can't for the life of me remember any!

Expanded and revised version
 

Expanded slightly.

Hate being a nitpicker over an otherwise perfect write-up!:L Just on the point of 3 Squadron based in Northern Ireland, couple of useful points to consider.

Éire technically is the name for the island as a whole. But I thought it was a nice little touch!

Secondly, the Rangers you mention are the Army Ranger Wing and are more akin to true special forces then elite light infantry. The Irish Cav are usually the unit used in most raids and harassments but considering the location of RAF Aldergrove, its an intelligent choice!

Nice write-up, before hand all I knew really was the existence of the RAF Regiment, not much beyond it!

Please don't be afraid to nitpick, I regard my articles as discussion points that evolve into something that everyone likes and hopefully uses.

Names in Ireland are emotive subjects with different names meaning different things to different people (Derry/Londonderry being a prime example!).

I haven't done much work on Ireland yet, I will probably evolve 3 Squadron a bit when I do so.

Thanks for the feedback.

Where Band of the Royal Air Force Regiment?

A further expanded rewrite (a few details have changed to fit in better with other things I am working on).