Chaps, you are absolutely 100% right - we do deserve to be proud of all the people at the coalface (and those that support the coalface under increasingly difficult circumstances!).
I felt moved to post last month on the Harrier dispute thread (page 9,10 ish) when it came to light what CAS, in a written statement to the neutral investigation team, said regarding FJ pilot "intellectual and mental capacity attributes" which clearly denigrate the rest of us.
".......the majority of key appointments are held by FJ pilots (indeed exclusively at 3* and above at the moment). This is not by accident.....the very intellectual and mental capacity attributes that help distinguish a FJ pilot.....drive these statistics."
No apology / retraction / explantion has been forthcoming - I doubt it ever will!!
H-W