Yes, its a big upset for the people involved, but its the overall reduction in the Service(s) that should really concern us. I don't mean to sound callous but people are being chopped every week and we don't have hundreds of posts of wailing and gnashing of teeth over it. They joined well aware of the chop rate. They've been chopped. That it is not their failing does not make it an iniquity unless your line is that those less than perfect (like me)"deserved" being "fairly" chopped. That would be callous. It is a harsh reality of military flying training that we all accepted as part of the deal - most won't make it and it has been so for generations. They'll get over it. We all did.
The future of a once-proud nation reduced to a token military is an entirely more fundamental matter that we should be concentrating on, and not getting aerated over a handful of broken dreams.
Of course we all feel sorry for them as I hope we do for anyone who is chopped, but a fleet with no carriers or carriers with no aircraft, a maritime nation with no maritime surveillance, squaddies with useless comms and no helicopters and less fighter pilots than MPs scares the heck out of me. Let's not lose sight of the woods for the trees here. A couple of hundred extra highly talented young people in the job market is hardly of significance in the overall scheme of things. They'll get jobs, and good ones. The state of our "defences" is an entirely different matter.
Last edited by Agaricus bisporus; 15th Feb 2011 at 01:46.