Whilst the mean streets of Bazbados, Maysan and more so Helmann's, are undeniably bandit country (great respect to the infantry), tooling round in military aircraft in The Rak or The Stan is no bed of roses either. What a shame that this soldier cannot appreciate that his light blue brothers-in-arms, particularly SH, operate in the face of great danger, as the recent DFCs testify. Every bugger has an AK, hot LZs are thick with HMG and RPG, the place is awash with SAM-7s and you're sitting in a massive, noisy high-value-asset. For a squaddie to voice such opinions would be dissappointing, for an officer, appalling but not unprecedented. I wonder if he will still view the RAF as civvies in uniform when he takes a round in the butt and gets a Vortex/Ascot casevac to Blighty?
There is no shame in having parties or other jollities in theatre when circumstances permit. Unfortunately, the mentality of certain elements of the army is particularly dour and an absolute morale vacuum. As time went on in Iraq I observed the number of REMFs increasing, army bureaucracy and bullsh1t increasing, fun and morale decreasing. There was nothing like cracking a beer at the Camel's Toe after a day's tasking in 50C heat - unfortunately the RSMs seem to prefer dets to be dry, dull and miserable.