The main thrust of the angst here appears to be some, if not a lot, of resentment over the Merlin folk going to El Centro.
I happily stand to be corrected but have they not been quite busy in the desert for the last few years? I am not sure how many times they have had a gucci deployment along the lines of El Centro, been there several times now and great it ain't, but surely they are allowed one decent trip to compensate for all the time away on Op's.
It's my humble opinion that rather than criticise the Merlin management for having the spuds to get this thing done those with a slightly green tinge should be asking their own chain of command as to why they cant have at least one decent deployment every now and again.
This sort of thing is not unique to the Merlin as pretty much every other type in the RAF inventory deploys in this manner every year, except of course for the SH force which has a great tradition of doing it on the cheap.
I applaud the Merlin hierarchy for having the balls and the gumption to combine some excellent training opportunities with the chance to reward folks hard efforts on Op's in this manner and if one or two on here had Commanders with a little more imagination more of the same could happen across the JHF.
Oh and bast0n, stop being such a civvy bed wetting girl and get over yourself
