The reality might be different. But with regards to perception, I wonder if anyone now involved with defending the RAF against cuts, reflects on whoever it was who approved those mainly, appalling docusoaps which showed 'real life' at Kandahar (Lisa (19, from Staines), the zany, bubbly Admin clerk has to leave the bar and close down her Social Networking session early to sneak off to secretly see lover Lee (21, a firefighter from Hull), and they have a heart to heart at a Detachment fancy dress party about the difficulties of conducting a secret relationship against the barbeque lit backdrop of the white heat of war) etc. By contrast, I don't recall seeing anything other than sweaty, gritty, grime filled reality when seeing the army at work.
You missed the later episode showing the Army PTI at the massage parlour then. Or the one wih the extremely portly RMP SNCO traffic cop.