Hold the personal abuse...
Anyone who believes that OC Eng at Lyneham is solely and personally responsible for this change is seriously deluded - and there seem to be a significant number of individuals in that category. If you want to blame anything, blame a system that, despite claims of 'real terms' budget increases, is seeing its spending power reduced year-on-year by rampant inflation in the defence industry and, as a result, is being forced to make some difficult choices. Stations are expected to find 'efficiency measures' by Groups, driven by Strike, driven by the Centre, driven by the Treasury. Easiesy way to efficiency measures is by cutting manpower, Eng Wg = biggest manpower pool = easiest target. I have no doubt that the changes that have taken place will have been discussed (and reluctantly agreed) by the Station Management Board (including the sqn cdrs), with endorsement from Group and Strike. OC Eng is the poor individual who has to make it happen - I know, I've been in a similar situation myself, trying to drive through a change (with which I personally did not agree) against massive resistance. While you may not agree with the changes that have been made, has anyone considered that OC Eng may also not agree, but has been put in the position of driving the change through regardless? I think some of you need to look at your posts and consider that abuse of Lyneham's OC Eng, as a small cog in a big machine, is actually inappropriate.
For what it's worth, given the choice (and many don't have it) and the fact I've experienced both, I'd rather be on a sqn - but that doesn't mean that centralised servicing can't work. I have also been at Waddington, where centralised servicing of Sentry was implemented at the start and, because nobody knew any different, it worked very well. Given time and a bit of understanding, so might Lyneham...
16B - there is a direct command chain link, it's just stepped up a level to the Staish, who I'm sure takes a great deal of interest in what his sqn cdrs tell him and would call OC Eng in if he felt it necessary.