Hengist - you're partly right. I lived in relative luxury compared with the cr@p of IOT field living when I shared a tent in Germany as a holding officer with the Harrier force many years ago. But the big difference then was that there was a sound reason to live in our 'cammed-up' world and also everyone worked pretty well the same hours. We'd all get woken up at first light as the genny started and the lights came on, at CoP we'd bog off to a nearby army place for a shower and then repair to a schnellie for some bratties und Bier before crashing out for the night.
That's a whole bunch different to the reports I've been hearing of people coming and going at all hours waking most of the others up, camp beds virtually touching eachother and dozens all crammed into the same tent close to the active runway. Some of those coming home have displayed the symptoms of exhaustion and gross fatigue. There's no excuse for such an existence - it's all down to the miserable bean counters! There wasn't any alternative to field living when we were camped out by the Harriers, so tentage was quite appropriate (and plentiful, reasonably comfortable and relatively capacious). There clearly is - just as there was in the Gulf War - a readily available alternative to field conditions at an international airport; the only thing stopping it being used is loss of face by the bean counters who would have to admit defeat.
[ 25 November 2001: Message edited by: BEagle ]