GBZ
Ummmm that, on first look, seems quite insulting. I know/knew quite a lot of lineys who are of sgt rank and below who were the only reason we got airborne on many an occasion. The rank held was pretty irrelevant to the skill set they owned. Back bone of the RAF what was.
Sadly many of the good ones are off now as they perceive themselves as undervalued (?!) and with their expertise can earn good money elsewhere.
I'd swap a shift of old school techies for a large swath of high ranking policy makers and, ahem, managers at Air Command in a jiffy.
Pretty condescending comment really, reference the Chief bit, however if it was humour that has gone right over my head my apologies.