As the one who may have inadvertently set this particular hare running I will not comment further on the book title. What I can say is that in respect of female ALMs being posted to the RAF Hercules I do know a great deal. As the CALMI at Lyneham I attended several meetings where this subject was discussed. My take has always been if you can do the job, then irrespective of sex race colour or any other arbitrary distinctions then that is all that is required. It was finally agreed that two ex VC10 female loadmasters would be posted to do the Hercules OCU at Lyneham. During the discussions we always had a rep from D/WRAF who had obviously never even been in a Hercules much less flown in one ! I will not bore you with the sometimes arcane discussions we had.
Because the WRAF ALMs had never done the para course they would be posted to one of the two 'route' squadrons after graduation. Having done this course was mandatory before qualifying to dispatch paratroopers. So the first two came and of course everything was fine.
Fast forward a few years and I am now the ALM Leader on 30. I get a phone call from the posters asking for my thoughts on an ab initio female ALM coming straight to the Hercules.
I told him I could see no 'just impediment' as that was how most of the chaps arrived. So it was agreed and his parting shot was 'we will send her to you ' !
Billie 'M' duly arrived, and what she lacked in height she more than made up for in enthusiasm. One of my better decisions. I can honestly say that I had less problems, professional or personal with the girls than with one or two of the male ALMs.