ABIW The world is far too nasty a place for intelligent human beings, both of whom were/are part of one of the best teams in the world to conduct a pointless spat (no, it’s not banter) in a public medium. We both chose our career paths from (probably) the very same beginnings. Each of those paths has as much validity as the other. The key word is, was, and hopefully ever will be, TEAMWORK.
Although now living in a country a long way away I nevertheless salute the work that you are currently doing, particularly in support of what appears to be an increasingly fraught scenario in the middle east. I am also sympathetic with the stresses and strains of the modern day RAF which perhaps exacerbate some of the ‘blunty vs sharp end’ and ‘officer vs airmen’ – or even ‘movers vs loadies’ arguments that I read about on Pprune. It’s a shame. The team is about doing the one job that, hopefully, you love – misguided prejudice should not cloud the issue.
As I said previously, I enjoyed my time in the RAF and lived every minute of it. Nevertheless, I did not regret leaving when I did and I consider that the days of the 100,000+ RAF were, perhaps, some of the better years. I was proud at what I achieved, as you should also be proud of what you have achieved. I desperately would have liked to have been aircrew when I was in; you made it. Fortunately, I am now in a position where I can fly and my work for the company enables me to fly in some fairly challenging circumstances. I hope that you are as fortunate when you finally leave the RAF.