The book, amongst other things, criticises Senior Officers and Civil Servants within the DLO and DPA for not paying any concern to the views or opinions of their immediate subordinates and Junior Officers. When this point was raised with the DCDL (in open forum) his response was:
I was aware of the book but, not having read it, not of the colourful quotes about the DLO…I am also confident that the dismissive views of the then Junior Naval Officer who wrote the book are not shared by those officers in the armed forces who are responsible for delivering operations around the world. And for evidence of that, consult the articles written by the former Vice Chief in the June 05 DLO News and former Commander in Chief Fleet in the November 05 DLO News.
The DCDL effectively points out that he regards the VC’s and C-in-C Fleet’s views and opinions to be more accurate and far more valid and those of a Junior Officer. By saying this though, is he not proving at least one of Mr Page’s criticisms to be accurate? Although I am not defending the claims made in the book, I do feel that the DCDL's dismissive 'well, what would he know, he's just a Junior Officer' opinion does little counter Mr Page’s arguments.