RLE
I take your point and I accept what you say. CAS is more of a political and strategic job and the war fighting is something for other Air Officers to take charge of.
I still have a niggling feeling though, that if I were still serving and was charged to fly into badlands at considerable risk to myself I would prefer that the person that had fought our corner at the highest levels had a little more understanding of Air Power. Seeing Knighton and AVM Maria Byford, as another example, as VSOs who clearly have no operational experience of Air Power taking positions at the top of the RAF just seems weird.
The same conversation was had regarding non aircrew Stn Cdrs. We can argue all day long about which trade makes the best leaders but I will struggle to accept that someone who does not fly can really fully understand the raisin d’etre of the RAF.
In my twilight years of my service (ie last year) I felt increasingly that aircrew (by that I mean pilots because that was my job) were becoming marginalised and made to feel unimportant. Maybe that will become even more so as time progresses.
You can say I’m wrong but that was how it felt. And let’s be honest. When all is said and done you still need aircrew (for the foreseeable future) to climb aboard an aircraft and fly to bad places. Maybe we should care how they feel. Maybe they are happier following the direction of someone who has a good understanding of that. Or we can just ignore them and let them all leave. We just better hurry up and automate all their jobs before it’s too late.
BV