Oh how I miss the Good Old Days !! When I joined up in 1964,everything seemed so settled and secure ; we had 7 (yes seven) carriers; two were LPH ,HMS Albion ,HMS Bulwark, and five were CVA ,HMS Eagle,HMS Ark Royal ,HMS Victorious, HMS Hermes ,and HMS Centaur. Aircraft in service included Sea Vixen ,Scimitar,Buccaneer,Gannet, Whirlwind 7, Whirlwind 9,Wessex 1,Wessex 3,Wessex 5,Wasp,Scout, Sea Balliol,Sea Prince,Sea Devon,Sea Heron,Hiller,Meteor ,Vampire, Sea Venom ( Airwork Services FRU),Hunter T8C,Hunter GA9, Hunter GA11 and even a couple of Dragonfly helos (BRNC Dartmouth ).
That year,1964,was the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Fleet Air Arm,as the Royal Naval Air Service had been formed in 1914 ; there was a big celebration & flypast at RNAS Yeovilton,with detachments from all Naval Air Squadrons and Naval Air Stations ( Yeovilton,Lossiemouth,Arbroath,Portland, Brawdy,Lee on Solent, Culdrose, Hal Far,Sembawang) and a "Royal Guard" of 100 for The Duke of Edinburgh ( I was in it !!). I hope to be invited to the 100th anniversary celebrations ,if there are any , in 2014 ! ---last year's Buckingham Palace Garden Party was most enjoyable !.
So what is my point,you ask ?? Well ; all those ships ! all those aircraft ! all those aircrew (which in those days included RAF, French,and American pilots & observers ) ! --- Where the F--K have they all gone ?? And why ?? Look at the state of the FAA today !! It is BEYOND BELIEF !!
1 "carrier", if you can call it that ; no dedicated fighter aircraft ; no proper AEW aircraft ; a few EXTREMELY expensive helos ; just two Naval Air Stations ; just one "assault" LPH ,slow,unlovely & unloved ,which probably wouldn't last five minutes in a war-zone . You couldn't make it up,could you ??
But at least we can now feel safer in the sure and certain knowledge that,even as I type these words, the FA 18 Super Hornets are being taken delivery of in the USA, in order that they and their aircrew will be fully operational by the time the two ,BOTH fixed-wing capable CVAs come into service, although the Government won't actually admit that .....yet !!