Oh god, this has turned into yet another CS bashing event - what a surprise.
Look, I'm a MOD CS whose spent years working in direct support of UK forces, both in the UK and Iraq, doing all sorts of stuff, best not discussed here, which has directly impacted on keeping UK troops alive. I'm also a reservist, and I've spent years doing a near identical job in uniform, both in the UK and Afghanistan. I'm concious that in the eyes of some, confessing to being a civilian and a partimer makes me untermensch. However, I am bloody proud of the fact that in both civvies and uniform I've been able to make a difference, that I've helped do things that have helped to keep people from all 3 services in one piece.
I'm not going to pretend that the CS is perfect - its far from perfect and we have our fair share of muppets. However, for every muppet we have, we have plenty of first rate, incredibly dedicated people who genuinely give a damn about supporting the forces to the best of our ability. There are a lot of CS out there who deploy (quite a few have done enough time to qualify for, but obviously not get, the ACSM) and we really do want to do the best we can for our forces colleauges. I'd say that the same ratio applies to the forces - I've spent years working purple, and have met some first rate types (particularly from the RAF), and have also met some throbbers in roughly the same proportion.
If CS sometimes seem a bit down, don't forget that we are working in an incredibly difficult environment where 1 in 3 MOD CS will be made redundant within the next 3 years. The total level of post SDSR cuts we face is 25,000 - thats 25% greater than the cuts all 3 services combined face.