AVM Sean Bell Vs Mr Keith Moon.

[Al R]

Tue 4 Mar 13:45 Radio 4. AVM Sean Bell explains how the military teaches coping with failure: BBC Radio 4 - The Value of Failure - Next on (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03xl7ff/broadcasts/upcoming)

If it's half as good as 15 minutes of Keith Moon was this morning, it should be ok. Brilliant stuff.

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, The Fun Stuff, Homage to Keith Moon (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03whqb5)

[Dan Winterland]

Sean's an expert. He was my QFI!

[maxred]

Thank you for posting AiR, the homage to Keith Moon, was superb, absolutely superb.

Stopped everything I was doing, sat back and listened for the 15 minutes. Great stuff:ok:

[thing]

That was brilliant. Moon the Loon, one of life's great characters, always destined to burn bright and short. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

[mopardave]

Nice one Al R.........fascinating! I shall be tuned in to radio 4 this lunch time.:ok:

[Heathrow Harry]

Another KM story....... with OLIVER REED!!
I was living with Keith Moon at the time and they were just about to start filming Tommy, Keith and I had spent all morning driving Soho’s sex shops buying dildoes, rubber stuff etc for Keith to use as props for Uncle Ernie.



At lunch time Keith decided to drop into Ken Russell’s office and mentioned that he’d like to meet Ollie before they started filming, Ken immediately got on the phone to Ollie and suggested a meeting, Ollie invited us to Broome Hall afternoon so we were off to Battersea Heliport where we boarded a helicopter to take us there. We arrived on his front lawn shortly afterwards, unfortunately frightening his pregnant horses, Ollie was standing there in the doorway holding 2 pint mugs of whisky for us. He was a charming host and invited us to stay for dinner.


Dinner was served on a huge medieval oak table and before we started eating Ollie jumped up and grabbed two large swords which were hanging on the wall, giving one to Keith. The two of them ended up having a sword fight up and down the table, that was the appetiser! After dinner Ollie invited us down to his local pub, The Cricketers, where we all got very drunk, with Ollie and Keith undressing, each one trying to outdo the drunken antics of the other, they were so alike that it was no wonder they became great friends.


Later on, back at Broome Hall, Ollie insisted we stay the night, we were up for that, expecting to be sleeping in a magnificent bedroom, however, his entourage took up all the furnished bedrooms and we were led out to the stables!! Keith said we would pass up his invitation and go home, but Ollie would have none of it, and next thing we knew he was standing there pointing an old shotgun at us, so we said OK we’ll stay, we ended up sleeping on couches in the living room!

[Basil]

HH,
Now THAT is a story!
Only once known two guys have an alcohol-fuelled sword fight and one lost an eye and had his frontal lobe damaged - bye bye flying career :{

[Al R]

Good programme although Sean mentioned he was a Harrier pilot in his first sentence.. unusual, surely?

"Risk is an essential ingredient of success"

:eek: I'm sure the Financial Conduct Authority would have something to say about that.

[Basil]

Best advice about failure I ever had was as apprentice engineer at age 15:
"The man who never made a mistake never made anything!"

With thanks to MoD engineer: Johnnie Walker, Gourock.

p.s. Unfortunately, over the years, I did seem to take his advice too liberally and literally ;)
Yeah, yeah, and the drink named after him too - that was really the chap's name.

[Hangarshuffle]

I was never taught how to cope with failure. Seriously, every training course I ever attended we were pushed hard and were expected to succeed. Failure (and yes all didn't go entirely well in my long career) was not acceptable and I received no sympathy. We were expected to take a winning mentality through our careers all our lives.
I missed the programme, what did he say?


Moon was a fantastic drummer but also very flawed individual (touched by genius?, his drumming is like no others I've ever heard or seen) and the "Live at Leeds" album remains one of my all time favourites.

[Al R]

Here you go.

BBC Radio 4 - The Value of Failure, Military (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03wpj8v)

I didn't know that the bombs ("Tornado Down") failed to release before the jet got shot down. Unless I heard that wrong.

[Hangarshuffle]

Yes listened to it now thank-you. He mentions the balance several times towards the end, the balance between success and failure. (Fair play to that pilot for coming through the ordeal of capture).
Its just that when he says you have to take risk and be comfortable with that...so many of risky operations go wrong.
Both politicians and military leaders who say they are comfortable with risk make me...uncomfortable. Its sometimes as thought they cant acknowledge the cost of it.
All I see in my minds eye are the empty places left, the whole misery of it. I couldn't be a military commander and send people out, as I've got older I've become far, far softer. Not a bad thing really.

[Al R]

There is sometimes a disconnect between capacity for risk and capacity for loss. Both types are needed and he makes the point (rightly) that without capacity for risk, nothing would get done. One thing I learned was how to deal with failure when my military career went down the pan. But if you over egg that particular pudding all the time, you might become too risk averse? I'm like you, being an ageing softie is a comfortable place to be.