While I understand that there is a large amount of frustration with what has been said so far by both sides (Green and Lt Blue) I think we all need to focus on who is really at fault here:
SKY NEWS!! If one man wants to make a statement about what is his perception of HERRICK (i.e. a Coy AO) then I dont see a great problem with that. He should, however, get a trip in a GR4 or GR7 before he sounds off about A/C missing the tgt. He also needs a lesson or two about emails and the Freedom of Information act. I have ranted many a time in an email but made sure that someone else checks it; often altering it substantially to save embarrssment!
I have served for many years and have been involved in trying to co-ord FJ with NGS, Mors and Arty and never really appreciated how difficult it is for the A/C to ID the tgt when trying to avoid a. the ground and b. somebody trying to shoot it down. As with all things, mistakes do happen but there have been no recorded instances of Blue on Blue by the GR7 force, so we should be thankful.
Sky and all the other news bearing agencies need to be educated about the difficulties that all the services face when trying to sp Troops in Contact (TIC). The Service Chiefs need to mount a combined Info Ops strategy to ensure that the media understand the difficulties that Aircrew and TACPs undergo so that there is at least informed comment. Instead of some retired buffer giving his version of events (often years out of date) lets ensure that ours is the view thats heard and kill these type of stories off before they turn into this farce.
I am sure that the individual concerned has learnt a valuable lesson as a result of this and I sincerly hope he gets no more than a reminder about who has access to this type of info. He is under enormous pressure and everyone involved is feeling the pressure of a long period of intensive Ops.
Sky and the BBC should focus on the positives of HERRICK, not the negatives; everyone involved is working under tremendous pressures