During Op Veritas, when trying to run an 8 ac AT det in the Omani desert on the back of a fag packet and with some bits and pieces left over from Exercise UN-Safe Sareera, my Ops staff comprised a very small number of superb Ops Support staff (all ranks), with the odd aircrew-mate thrown in.
They were from all over the RAF but mainly from Lyneham and Brize ATC and Ops. Without these stalwarts, the UK Mil Contingent in Afghanistan would have been left starved, thirsty and out of firepower. Our Ops were so short of staff (despite repeated requests for help), that we had to employ a retiring Nav to train up one lass to help de-frag ACOs/ATOs/daily SPINS and war-going NOTAM stuff. Mostly, however, the crews had to do this themselves - personally, I felt safer doing it that way, even if it took an age - but it could have been so much easier for the crews.
Nonetheless, the ops staff worked tirelessly for long shifts in extreme climates and in dire accomodation, with little or no support from the UK/Ascot Ops and without much reward save for knowing the airbridge to Kabul/Bagram was still running. Furthermore, I am sure they did it all again in Op Telic.
I learnt a lot about the resilience of the Ops Spt branch from that experience.
For those aircrew who are quick to decry your ops staff - most Ops Spt people are a fine bunch - just sometimes they lack the experience and training - which is no fault of the individual - it is the fault of the system.
It always seemed to me that at Lyneham, we had just got them 'up to speed' with AT ops, when they got posted away -B~gger!