Quarter of RAF trainee pilots to be sacked

[GrahamO]

catazou

While 110% in agreement that us civilians are not (intentionally) normally put in harms way, and in agreement that the Military Covenant needs to be revitalised before the ungrateful oiks in society forget about the valiant work of the Armed forces........

Your "Civilian" will almost certainly never have had to arrive home on a December evening and tell his pregnant wife that he is "off tomorrow" to the other side of the World to intervene in a dispute about "Land Rights" and he doesn't know when he will be back.

True in the literal sense but we too get posted to far flung locations to work for weeks on end with little choice if we want to keep our jobs. Its also a lot more common for the international sales person to have this done more often to them than the average member of the armed forces. Think 9 months of the year travelling - every year - not just when there is a flap on. Debatable certainly, but lets not pretend that the military are the only people to have this done to them.

Most "Civilians" do not live in a world of imperatives or where the telephone rings at 2 AM and you have to go to work immediately and you have no idea when you will be home again.

"Most" you are correct but then I suggest that 'most' military don't have this done to them either. As many of the boys on the MOD are about to find out, the reasons and the risk may be materially different, but I think you will find its a lot more common in the civilian sector than you might believe. I regularly get 4am calls from dozy customers who forget about time zones.

Its not as black and white as you may believe. The risk is undoubtedly different, but its not as if the Armed Forces are the only people who operate 24/7.