A great article for sure.
Forty odd, it gives me absolutely no pleasure to type the words that I have. Though I am not a true blue, I love the Corps and feel that the greatest opportunity has been bestowed upon the AAC since the tank was given to the Cavalry.
The definition of a soldier is simply that he or she is a member of a professional Army. The only reason the AAC are among the list of teeth arms is because of the TOW misslie system, not the 9mm Browning or the SA80 in all it's guises! So is it about time that the commanders at all levels looked towards training its soldiers to be the best at what they should do rather than what they can do out of convenience! (it is easier to run a day at the rifle range than it is to organise a air combat tactics day).
Bob_Weight, I wonder where you are looking, go to EGUW and you will see that the last thing on most people's mind is aviation, it is more important to pass a BFT than it is to get a good 6 monthly. Go to any of the crew rooms, ask a basic question about min or max ranges of SAM's etc, you get will get a fine array of blank looks, I don't wish to sound disrespectful or belittling, just honest enough to see what is happening, not what I want to see.