RAF & RN - Considering a change of career in my forties...

Hi All,

Sounds a bit crazy as per title. Currently age 45 and considering some roles in the RAF or RN. This is a complete change for me and my main concern is fitting in at basic training with those younger than me.

Anyone with any experience with entering the military much later in life? How did you find fitting in? I think I'm just a little crazy but definitely want to try. I guess I'm worried about sacrificing my current job for a daring adventure into the unknown. I guess the changes you make when you're older have further repercussions if they don't go to plan to than when you were younger.

I guess these branches of the Armed Forces wouldn't be advertising these roles for these ages if they think us mature folk couldn't handle it!

Thanks for any advice,
Chithy

Original post by schanh

Hi All,

Sounds a bit crazy as per title. Currently age 45 and considering some roles in the RAF or RN. This is a complete change for me and my main concern is fitting in at basic training with those younger than me.

Anyone with any experience with entering the military much later in life? How did you find fitting in? I think I'm just a little crazy but definitely want to try. I guess I'm worried about sacrificing my current job for a daring adventure into the unknown. I guess the changes you make when you're older have further repercussions if they don't go to plan to than when you were younger.

I guess these branches of the Armed Forces wouldn't be advertising these roles for these ages if they think us mature folk couldn't handle it!

Thanks for any advice,
Chithy

I think you are too old for RN as most of their roles have a maximum entry age of 39. The RAF do have some that go up to 47 (48 on attestation), so you could be lucky.
I served for 22 years in the Royal Navy and although there were some older people joining up, you do need to be very fit as it can be quite demanding. I imagine the RAF is very similar. There are some jobs where you spend more time sitting than carrying out manual labour (logistics / weapons system analyst for example), but you still need to be able to pass annual fitness tests.

Reply 2

schanh

OP

3

Original post by bamtutor

I think you are too old for RN as most of their roles have a maximum entry age of 39. The RAF do have some that go up to 47 (48 on attestation), so you could be lucky.
I served for 22 years in the Royal Navy and although there were some older people joining up, you do need to be very fit as it can be quite demanding. I imagine the RAF is very similar. There are some jobs where you spend more time sitting than carrying out manual labour (logistics / weapons system analyst for example), but you still need to be able to pass annual fitness tests.

Thanks for you reply. I’ll take the fitness aspect into consideration.
There are several roles in the RN in the Royal Auxillary Fleet branch where there’s no maximum age. I think this is because there’s no fitnesss assessment to my knowledge.

Original post by schanh

Thanks for you reply. I’ll take the fitness aspect into consideration.
There are several roles in the RN in the Royal Auxillary Fleet branch where there’s no maximum age. I think this is because there’s no fitnesss assessment to my knowledge.

The RFA are Merchant seaman who work for the MOD. So basically civilians. In the event of sailing into a War zone or an area of conflict, they come under a 'Reserve liability' They do have fitness, medical and age standards, but as you say, this is less strict than the RN

Reply 4

Ikaruss

9

Hey buddy, first of all, good on you for wanting out of your comfort zone and diving into the unknown. You only live once etc !

However…… can I give you my tuppence worth? I was in for 30+ years and in my time it would have been incredibly rare for older people ( probably 30s upwards) to start a career in the military. It was, and is, a young person’s game, particularly for the fitness element but also for the fact that you can be trained and moulded into the military ethos and team mindset. Difficult to reconstruct someone with a long history of experience and opinions in civvy street. There’s a reason why the services appear to be raising the age limit for a number of roles - not necessarily because they want you, but because they need you. To fill the gaping holes caused by a failure to recruit their historical core demographic ie 18-24 year olds.

Yes, the military can be a brilliant way of life and I certainly had a lifetime of excitement, fear, travel, sorrow and lifelong friendships but, consider this aspect: as a serviceman who reached the top of the non commissioned tree, I had influence and responsibility only within my local working environment and within my station. Outside the wire, in my second career, I’m paid significantly less but have significantly greater geographic influence and responsibility than I could ever have imagined in uniform. There I was a small cog in a machine, outside I am the machine. That’s because the military is strictly hierarchical with defined limits on your sphere of influence depending on rank. It’s a big difference that you need to consider. I was able to take all the experiences and training that the RAF could throw at me for personal development, but have only been able to fully exploit that potential, outside in civvy street. Just something to consider.

I loved my time in the RAF, but when I was invited to rejoin ( as recently as a week ago!) I had to smile and explain that they may be desperate but I didn’t realise that desperation extended to wanting state pensioners 🤣

So, in essence, I wouldn’t tell you not to consider joining, but I would tell you to consider some aspects that you might not have thought of beyond the obvious fitness differential. At the end of the day you might be in a place where you don’t care about the issues I’ve mentioned above and that’s fine. It’s your choice based on what your aspirations are and what you want to do with your life.

Good luck

Ikky

Reply 5

schanh

OP

3

Thanks for your thoughtful response. I guess you made it all the way up to Warrant Officer? :smile:

Would you do it all again at the age of 45?

Original post by schanh

Thanks for your thoughtful response. I guess you made it all the way up to Warrant Officer? :smile:

Would you do it all again at the age of 45?

I've been thinking about whether I had anything useful to contribute, but as Ikky has just done all the hard work, I'll waltz in all officer-like and confirm his sound assessment!

I think the heart of the issue is your last question to Ikky - would he do it again? In his case, aged 45 ( :eek:

) would he re-enter is a completely different proposition to the one you have - he would be a 're-tread', you wouldn't. Until recently, and the recruiting challenges, almost all the over 30s going through training were people who had either served before and were re-joining, or were airmen going for commissions. In both those cases, their direct military experience gives them a very positive 'in' during training. They are inevitably called on to be senior cadet early on in training, the directing staff can rely on them for maturity, coaching the flight etc. And the other cadets also rely on them, so they cannot be ostracised, indeed, they are central to the success of training, both basic and professional. As an ab initio, you simply won't have that role, you will be as useful to the Service as an 18 year old straight out of school and you'll be treated the same.

And because the Services are hierarchical, while it is possible to get accelerated promotions, for the very few superstars, the reality is that if you join at 45 and leave at 55, for example, then aged 55 you will be doing the job and have the responsibility and pay of a 28 year old (18+10). You should make it to Cpl, but Sgt may be out of reach, .

As Ikky says, if you want the adventure and can ignore the pay and conditions, give it a go. BTW that's a purely RAF perspective, no idea what the RN situation is, culturally the Army is likely to be worse. Personally, I'd investigate what the Reserves are saying about age limits.

Reply 7

greg tony

17

Original post by schanh

Hi All,

Sounds a bit crazy as per title. Currently age 45 and considering some roles in the RAF or RN. This is a complete change for me and my main concern is fitting in at basic training with those younger than me.

Anyone with any experience with entering the military much later in life? How did you find fitting in? I think I'm just a little crazy but definitely want to try. I guess I'm worried about sacrificing my current job for a daring adventure into the unknown. I guess the changes you make when you're older have further repercussions if they don't go to plan to than when you were younger.

I guess these branches of the Armed Forces wouldn't be advertising these roles for these ages if they think us mature folk couldn't handle it!

Thanks for any advice,
Chithy

You have already been given some brilliant advice, so will keep mine short. For context I did 9 years in the RAF and left in my 20s, and enjoyed it overall. However, the idea of adventure is not exactly true for most roles. For a lot of roles you will be sitting down or in an office somewhere in UK or abroad (i did ATC and ASOp). There are of course some expeds and detachments you can do, but in my experience these are few and far between, and less so year by year. So please dont make the mistake of believing the adverts and promo material, not for RAF anyway. The RAF really messed up with recruitment post the financial crisis, so are still feeling the effects, they were extending contracts to anyone they could when i was there, even people who had never been promoted after 10 years (normally circa 5 -6 years for most people in my trade). So i would take the age limits as a sign of widening the net out of neccessity rather than choice.

Regarding fitness, you are less likely than an 18 year old to manage but that does not mean you wont, plenty of unfit and lazy 18 years old join up everyyear and get destroyed by some 50 year old WOs. The thing i would find difficult though is taking orders and being spoken to like rubbish by someone 20 years younger than me with less life experience. This will happen during training, and i think being young, naive and unsure of yourself helps whereas i cant imagine going through it now in my 30s.

Really good luck if you join up mate

Greg

Reply 8

Ikaruss

9

Original post by schanh

Thanks for your thoughtful response. I guess you made it all the way up to Warrant Officer? :smile:

Would you do it all again at the age of 45?

Hi Schanh , this is a really difficult thread to respond to as you’re inviting my opinions on your career decisions when I don’t know anything about you or your circumstances, what military career you’re contemplating and what your goals are. Hypothetically, if it was me as a 45 year old (I wish 🤣) with my current circumstances, and knowing what I know about the current RAF (only passing experience of the RN and Army), my simple answer would be no. A crude analogy would be like trying to relive your schooldays as you had some happy memories of them. In your mid 40s you’ve formed ideas, opinions and habits and probably already have a sense of who you are and where you fit in. Do you really want to slide down that ladder and start over again?

You’re spot on, I reached the unique RAF rank of Master Aircrew (MACR) which is equivalent to Warrant Officer Class 1 in the other services. Some would say WO is the best military rank as juniors look upon you as a God and senior officers know to respect you or face your wrath. I never used my power downwards but often gave Junior Officers a withering glare and ‘advice’ which was part of my remit. But my favourite moments were in the presence of Very Senior Officers who occasionally became full of self importance and BS. For those, I used to adopt my best Jeremy Paxman persona to burst their bubble.

If you want to discuss circumstances off table, I’m more than happy to continue this by PM if you wish. I don’t bite, honest!

Ikky

RAF & RN - Considering a change of career in my forties...

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