Originally Posted by
AARON O'DICKYDIDO
Don't just read page 113, read the whole chapter. It is very instructive!
I was aware of the LMF/ Waverer policy but not how variable its application could be. And whilst I knew that your chances of being selected for aircrew and officer duties were enhanced by having been to a public or grammar school, I had not picked up on the medical opinions (driven by Air Cdre Smartt) that one's predisposition to what we would now describe as a psychiatric injury was a product of one's breeding! But those were the prevailing attitudes of the day... My wife's grandfather was on a Lancaster crew that was withdrawn from ops 2 trips earlier than planned, after the whole crew had a 'chat' with the doc about the condition of their pilot and he agreed a rest was called for. To be fair, they had done 30 missions by then, had lost 2 gunners (one dead, one wounded) and had survived being shot down and a night ditching, which puts it all in perspective. And he was on a second ops tour 6 months later.
20 years after this film was made, I had some dealings with the LMF route while I was (unusually!) in a personnel job and became involved in helping to manage a case at one of the FTS where a young man had a psych problem that ought to have been easily treatable (some 'simple' anxiety issues). The rules in play then were enshrined in "Leaflet III - Personnel Unable to Withstand the Stress of Flying Duties" and roughly translated meant that either you were fit and therefore just didn't want to fly, in which case you were chopped, or you had a medical problem, in which case you were also chopped! Once someone (OC PMS or OC PSF) decided to take Leaflet III off the shelf there was no way back. I pointed out to the hierarchy that this was a bit arbitrary and unfair, and we got some work started to try to unravel it but I was back on an FJ sqn within a couple of months and never found out the result.
Sorry for the thread drift.