I remember chewing the fat once with my Wg Cdr boss (who knew that Wg Cdr was as far as he was going, because he had pissed off those that did the promoting by actually standing up and shouting when he had to) about the sense of an upcoming operational sqn deployment, since many of the crews had serious concerns about the 'new and improved' version that british waste of space were so chuffed about (like the HUD turning itself off 1/2 a second or so after rotate). My comment was alone the lines of 'I guess the only way someone will listen to the crews is if the worst happens and they are brought home in bags' His reply was simply 'True. Shameful, but true'
Many people have given views and sentiments that I share, I can see what is going on around me, and I despair! But I shall not allow myself to be the one to let it break, because my mum and dad taught me about professional pride and the SNCOs I have been lucky enough to work with taught me about esprit de corps.
No-one, be they Joe Public or Politician / Minister will really care about us until it all goes wrong or people in uniform are killed. It leaves a nasty taste of realism in the mouth that I find very hard to stomach, but like my Wg Cdr said - True