Cpl C, your accusation was that his experience was invalid because he’d spent a lot of time being away from the RAF, despite him being an RAF flt cdr, sqn cdr, and stn cdr. The insinuation was that those who don’t spend all of their lives in the RAF bubble don’t have a valid contribution to the future of the RAF. That is clearly wrong.
That is a fair shout, but again, does not being a Stn Cdr and AOC make you good for CAS or not being a Personnel Officer, and being a Dental Officer, make you a good Chief of Staff Personnel? If you look at the CV from the RAF website, it does look very brown and purple, does that make you the right person for making a vision for the core RAF having spent most of your career in JHC and the wider Joint areas?
I would offer ‘no’ to all of the above. I may be wrong, but such radical change will only go one of two ways.
The senior leadership positions are the greatest ‘apprenticeships’ that exist in the RAF - surely experience/knowledge of the core parts of it are key to a successful transformation? I would have said that his experience grooms him better for VCDS/CDS than being one of 3 at the top end of pure light blue? That is no dig at the individuals, but more a dig at putting the right eggs in the right egg cups.
I really can’t fathom the Service over the past 10 years with such appetite to tear up the way things are done with scant regard for the detail. It would be fine if things work, but they don’t - JPA, PAY16, DIO, MFTS, to name but a few have all been utter disasters. Each have seen the Sqn Ldr - Gp Capt staff ‘experts’ be poo-pooed and the ‘visionary’ Air Officer being allowed to run with it. Each time it has failed. Why? I would offer that a lack of experience to properly challenge has been a major part of that failure.
As for prior performance, surely that is relevant if the whole future of the RAF is being rested on this plan or campaign? The problem is, people often blindly follow such without questioning it; often the wrong kind of people, too.