Having just got back from the Stan, and after attending a few shouts with the Harrier blokes, let me say how proffesional those boys (and girl) are. It was a real bonus to have an RAF Harrier crew to give some SA and fire power.
For sure it is really easy to throw stones from the comfort of you computer desk. Let me add, that regardless of how high and warm it is in the cockpit, over Helmand it is hostile.
If any GR7/9 crew are looking in. Thank you, and see you out there again too soon.
QFIHAWKMAN.
There is a big difference between the boys on the ground and the man in the air. For sure the comfort zone is greater in the air, and the infantry have a tough job to do, but they get on with the job in hand. They have security in numbers, if you play the statistics game, as a member of an infantry Btn an individual is one in five hundred (or so). As aicrew you are 1 of 2 (or so) so the odds begin to stack up.
Maybe, when the hawk gets a gun with more than a few dozen rounds and the pilots man-up, then pick up a stone and have a throw. Till then!