This is a sponsored article in partnership with the Royal Air Force…
Our careers take up a huge chunk of our lives.
Therefore, it is important that no matter where we end up, we find ourselves in place where we are accepted for who we are as an individual; no matter what race we are, what religion we follow, or what gender we identify as.
For Sergeant Sunita ‘Sunny’ Aven, a career in the Royal Air Force was not something she had been dreaming about as a child, but she quickly discovered that it was a place where she could be her true self – and then go on to help others do the same.
Speaking to VT, Aven revealed that growing up as the daughter of Indian parents in a small Welsh village meant that her family was “hugely recognised”.
“We were the only Asian family in the village at the time,” she tells me. And despite her father choosing not to instill his Hinduism religion in her and her sisters, Aven still says that her household was strict in comparison to her friends’.
“If we were told to be home by half-past nine, we were home by half-past nine,” she says. “That’s very normal in an Indian family upbringing.”
However, despite her father facing pressure to organise arranged marriages for Aven and her sisters, he allowed his daughters to make their own decisions.
So, like many people in their early 20s, Aven found herself struggling to decide what she really wanted to do in life.
While on a break from studying Hotel Management in college, Aven was helping her sister out in a nightclub in Cardiff.
“She had asked me to help her out with a VIP night,” Aven tells me. “I was working behind the bar.”
She continues: “I was chatting to this gentleman who was in the Air Force and he was telling me about his life. And I thought, ‘Oh, that sounds like being in university - but getting paid.’
“So, a couple of days later, I went across to the careers office and joined up.”
“Was it something I’d always wanted to do? Absolutely not,” she says. “It never really entered my mind that the military was an option [for me]. But I was kind of in limbo; did I want to continue with college or did I want to go and work?”
Aven adds: “I do often say I joined the Air Force for a laugh, really. Just to see what it could give me. And here I am 20 years later.”
Just like many other people from diverse backgrounds who decide to join the military, Aven found herself having to navigate the concerns of her parents.
“[My father] had this misconception that it was a racist organisation and no place for a female,” she says. “I guess, typically, what I’d expect my father to be like.” However, Aven wanted her father to give it a chance.
“Following training I was committed to completing a 3-year return of service before I could come out if it wasn’t what we expected it to be,” she says. “So, off I went, and I’ve loved it ever since.
“When [my father] saw how happy I was, he was absolutely fine and was like, ‘Well, I don’t need to worry about you anymore.’”
After completing her Basic and Phase 2 training at Royal Air Force Halton, Aven joined the admin branch of the service and was posted to RAF Brize Norton’s HR department.
She tells me that no matter where she was posted, she has never been treated any differently as a woman or because of her race. Here, she also met friends that she still remains in contact with decades later.
“I was then detached to the Falkland Islands for four months and did a tour there,” Aven continues. “The Falkland Islands is a tri-service unit so I met a lot of people there from the other two services as well.”
Over the next few years, Aven balanced her career and personal life. She spent time working with the Parachute Jumping Instructors from the Royal Air Force - once again finding herself as the only female on the squadron - before being promoted to corporal and posted to RAF Saint Athan in Cardiff.
During this time, she got married and welcomed the first two of her three children.
But after returning to RAF Brize Norton, Aven’s life took an unexpected turn as she prepared to return to the Falkland Islands after welcoming her third child.
“I was suffering with migraines,” Aven tells me, and during a shift back in 2010, she collapsed at work.
“When I came around in the office, I just said, ‘Look, I’ve got a really bad migraine, I just need to go home,’” she tells me. With her husband flying at the time, Aven was concerned about who would be able to pick up her children and was convinced that all she needed to do was have a few hours' sleep to try and get rid of her migraine.
“I remember having a massive argument with my Flight Sergeant, saying, ‘Look, I just need to go home.’ Because I was worried that if I didn’t sleep it off that it was going to last longer for me to not be able to pick up the children,” she says.
However, being a corporal at the time, her Flight Seargent pulled rank and ordered Aven to the medical centre. Two days later, Aven underwent life-saving surgery.
She tells me that had her Flight Seargent not ordered her to the medical centre, that she should not be here today.
After arriving at the medical centre, the Senior Medical Officer informed her that she needed to go straight to A&E.
“So I went to A&E and the consultant there said to my husband and I, ‘You need to be operated on pretty rapidly,’” she tells me. “I went to have a scan and they found this aneurysm sitting behind my left eye.”
Aven then stressed to me the importance of her Flight Sergeant’s decision that day: “I know, if I wasn’t in the Air Force– If I had worked in a bank or any other organisation and I had collapsed at work and then came round and said that I just needed to go home, I’m quite confident that somebody would have probably said, ‘Okay then, Sunny, we’ll drop you home.’
“And I wouldn’t have woken up.”
Eventually, Aven’s aneurysm was coiled and clipped and she was medically downgraded.
But despite the scary development, she tells me that the support she received from the RAF was “phenomenal”.
Despite struggling after the operations, the Air Force employed a nanny to help with the childcare, so that Aven was able to focus on her recovery and her husband was able to continue working.
Throughout our conversation, Sgt. Aven - who also used to work with the Ethnic Minority Recruiting Team - shared many instances of the Royal Air Force implementing small solutions that can make a huge difference to an individual.
For example, she tells me about one Afro-Caribbean recruit who had become concerned about her hair as her graduation drew closer.
After her 10-week training course, the recruit's braids had started to come loose. So, Sgt. Aven arranged for her to visit a hairdresser that specialised in Afro-Caribbean hairstyles.
“That made a significant difference to her, as a person - something so simple,” Aven says. “That was a simple fix but something massive to an individual.”
On another occasion, Sgt. Aven assisted an individual who had joined the RAF from India but was struggling to learn English.
She says: “The RAF got an English teacher on board to help him so that he could
remain in the service, it just took him longer to graduate”
Sgt. Aven then highlights to me: “In the environment that I’m working in - everyone’s an individual. No two people are the same. So, if we can find a solution that suits that person, then the Royal Air Force absolutely will do that.”
And that really is the message I learned from speaking to Sgt. Aven; that every individual in the RAF is accepted - no matter who they are.
“I’m from the lived experience… I’ve lived this,” she says. “I joined up in 1996 and I had a three-year career break. I’ve lived it - being a female and from an Indian background as well.”
She adds: “I am I’m the only female of colour on this squadron. Do I feel like I am? No I don’t. I just feel like I’m Sunny.”
And although Sgt. Aven does admit that the Royal Air Force is not a career suited to everybody, it is a place where people can be their true selves and where a career quickly becomes “a lifestyle”.
“If you are considering it, then give it a go,” she tells me. “Yes, you do have what’s called a three-year return of service. But three years goes in a flash. We’ve just lived Covid for two, and how quick has that gone?”
“You will have the four essentials of life being in the military, and that’s food on the table, a roof over your head, clothes on your back, and money in the bank,” she adds.
I end our conversation by asking what the highlight of her career has been, to which she says: “Do you know what? The most amazing people that I’ve met have been in the Air Force.”
For more information about life in the Royal Air Force and to find your role in the RAF, visit https://recruitment.raf.mod.uk/.