HPT the request did not originate from the Sqn. There was no trace of any paperwork ever having left Lyneham. Foam was mentioned in a post op report but amongst other things, the Stn Cdr had no recall of ever having done anything with it. Mind you he also failed to recall the conversation I had with him about being targetted by a MANPAD in Afg!
Similarly an American pilot on "the flight" gave a fully funded presentation pack-up, including a manufacturers rep for foam for the MK1 fleet, to his Flight Commander. But when giving evidence at the Inquest, the Flight Commander who was given the pack up in his in tray could not recall ever having seen the report and promptly said it wouldn't have made any difference anyway, he wouldn't have pressed for it. This was a rough account at the Inquest, I stress not word for word;
His documents included the Crest stuff (not produced by FC) - Cooper would you have read it?
EA No.
Cooper So you wouldn’t have taken any notice of it?
EA No
Cooper Without reading it?
EA Correct.
Cooper But wd you have stopped the task if you’d read it?
EA No - same answer re......
Coooper He had put your nose out of joint.
EA no sir.
Cooper Anything he had given you, you would have ignored.
EA probably.
Cooper Then what did you do with the doc?
EA Don’t know.
Cooper For anyone interested in ESF, they cd have read about it.
EA Yes. But I had a job to do and was busy. I had decided that other methods were higher priority.
I know this is old ground for many people, but during the recess the Inquest investigator discovered that there had been TAT meetings held in the run up to both Afg and Iraq that identified the Herc fuel tanks as an extremely weak area to small arms attack and subsequently highlighted the pressing need for wing tank foam for operations in both theatres. The conclusion reached at these meetings (which included int staff and DEFRA experts) was passed on directly to 2 Gp. The TS request for foam never originated from Lyneham, but sadly, never reached the ears of DEC or IPTL. It all stopped at 2 Gp, hence my comments..And it goes without saying that the Sqns were not informed of the threat either. Sadly the two grass roots attempts failed at the first hurdle. BTW I read a redacted version of the TAT reports, it was sickening, God only knows why they were ignored twice. The video that has been widely shown of a round exploding a fuel tank was included in the pack-up presented by the US pilot.
Last edited by nigegilb; 3rd Oct 2010 at 21:58.