Having not seen the Torygraph article but from the previous posts it appears that the complainant was indeed an officer. He should bl--dy well know better than to air his personal grievances about the RAF in the national press, but he joins a long list of, sometimes senior, army officers who have done just that. Tim Collins proved publicly that you can reach senior army ranks without having the first clue about air power and the operation of aircraft when he proposed abolishing the RAF. His pilot-to-aircraft-to-mechanic ratios might have worked in the Royal Flying Corps but not on a Typhoon, Chinny or indeed AH.
HEDP, as a member of the master race, hopefully you can see over the green army's 'if it ain't raining it ain't training' mentality. If life can be made a little more comfortable and enjoyable on ops, that's a good thing not a bad thing. Any unit, army or RAF, (not just the Herc boys) that get their sh1t on one sock, can send out all the welfare/ents supplies they want through the normal air movements channels. Families can use the parcel service to their heart's content, just as mine did. There is NO RAF exclusive system at work here.
Like I said in my previous post, if the guy was a squaddie I would be disappointed by his comments. Since it appears that he is a hofficer he should pull his thumb out of his arse and organize some ents for his lads rather than just dripping when he sees others making their dets a little bit enjoyable. (might I suggest Max Power and Razzle for the lads, Country Life and Defence Recognition Journal for the wuperts). I can understand this chap's perception of and reaction to events perfectly and it sounds like he really is a knob.