TheSeeFarShadow . .. .Are you tired (brings hands up to face and rubs eyes). Nice rant, someone has obviously wound you up, but do you really think the pointy thinks could do their job without ground support.. .. .Don’t want to start the aircrew V the rest discussion again, I think it’s been covered enough and most trades acknowledge that their job is to assist in keeping the planes in the air.. .. .I totally agree with you, blunties are a total waste of time on Det’s and should all be sent home ASAP (PMA please note). They leave their families and friends and swan off to foreign lands for 4 months (or longer) at a time and their sole intention is to p!$$ off aircrew.. .. .In my experience of Det’s the following blunties had no reason for being there:. .. .Adminers (everyone’s favourite on these pages) – All they do is sort out pay, allowances, aircrew in flt catering (some Det’s), travel arrangements, compassionate cases, make local currency available.. .. .Cooks (you can’t chef an egg can you!) – All they do is cook food, what a waste of time.. .. .MT – Swan about all day, sorting out hire vehicles, making sure people have the required local driving paperwork, get vehicles repaired, driving bowsers, driving big trucks full of stuff from place to place.. .. .Movers – Keep jumping on and off nice clean transport aircraft unloading / loading freight, passengers.. .. .Techies (general – non aircraft related) – so many different trades fixing things you don’t need on Det, generators, computers, air conditioners, anything electrical, the list goes on.. .. .Medics – Why on earth do we need medical support on Det, the local Doc’s all speak perfect English, are really friendly, know all of the vagaries of aircrew medicine and their equipment is all clean.. .. .Rock’s – Bimbling around carrying their various weapons, NBC sentry equipment, Rapier, never had a Det attacked, why bother.. .. .Posties – Getting the post through (personal and official), can’t be that hard (Bloody Army for Gods sake, who invited them to our Det).. .. .Suppliers – Surely if we need anything on Det we could just use the Amex card, obviously you can buy jet engines, flying suits, wiggly amps etc in the local market . .. .PTI’s – They provided people with things to do on their down time, mini-expeds, never have any secondary duties.. .. .Coppers (a personal favourite) – Physical security of Det (with Rock’s, it’s that teamwork thingy), Computer Security, Document Security, liaison with other policing agencies (V V useful for getting aircrew assets out of pokey so they can man the pointy things), ensuring off base places (if any) are safe to visit, Oh and they also do police work (making sure Det personnel don’t beat the crap out of each other or steal everything in sight (do not even think that aircrew don’t do these things – I know you would be wrong)).. .. .As for the other braches of the military, why are they there at all. I remember the pride I felt in ’82 watching the Nimrod crew yomping into Stanley, the elation of watching the ALM’s raising the Union Flag over the embassy in Kuwait in ’91 and the satisfaction of seeing ** Sqn aircrew marching into Kosovo.. .. .Do your job and let us do ours, we’re there to support you so let us. Remember that if the rules & regs seem petty, we don’t make them, they come down from on high (must be AVM PTI’s, AM Suppliers and ACM Cooks).. .. .PS. If the crews didn’t have enough vehicles, do you not think the UK based planners or sqn recce / advance party should take some of the blame?. .. . <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" />. . . . <small>[ 29 March 2002, 09:35: Message edited by: Cpl Plod ]</small>