Jindy,
If directed at me, the cap doesn't fit! The RAF that you allude to was a completely different one from the 1940s, as today's Air Force is different from one of 2 decades ago. The brutal truth is that the level of operational experience across the RAF exceeds anything that has occured over the last 50-odd years, and this is reflected in the campaign medal tally many of us now have (6 at last count, excluding QGJM). This is why I - and I suspect many of my serving colleagues - have little in common with the blazer-wearing, crimson faced, bewhiskered old buffers demanding a Defence Service Medal for 2 years spent in W Germany or elsewhere. If they were on operations, fine, otherwise they should count themselves lucky for not being away for extended periods of time from friends and family, amongst communities that would cheerfully kill them!
OF1
If you think that appearance of the Services and their behaviour as reported by the medja doesn't matter, you are living in an extremely naiive world. Of growing importance is the role of social media - blogs, facebook, twitter, ad nauseum - after all, these new media brought down the Governments of Egypt and Tunisia; having a direct bearing on events in Libya and Syria, and caused a proto-revolution in Iran in 2009. Users of T W I T T E R have usurped the authority of the High Court, indeed been in contempt of it. Social Media could also be the undoing of HM Forces. Soooo.....when a story about the behaviour of British troops is released into the cybersphere it takes a life of its own and can be extremely damaging - irrespective of its veracity.
To illustrate this 18 months ago I was involved in an incident which rapidly made it into the media and onto various blogs (this site included). Threatening messages - calling for my imprisonment or worse - were published on a number of websites (Telegraph Comment, and PPrune, to name 2) and I was to be 'door-stepped' at my (very) private home address by one of the red-tops, who 'received the story' (probably by way of payment) from a 'Top Brass in MOD'. Luckily DMC in MB intervened and lessened the media outrage, yet it continued, self-fuelling - on the internet for several weeks. These viral stories bore no resemblence to the events as they happened but at one stage UK participation in several Joint UK/US programmes was jeopordised because of unsubstaitated comment on the web - programmes, I regret, that I had nothing to do with!
So in sum,
British Fores operate under a level of media scrutiny that exceeds anything ever experienced before. Additionally, social media can be used to pass messages and 'stories' without editorial control; indeed the lads using social media in theatre can, unwittingly, be a major threat to OPSEC and PERSEC. Societal norms have changed, reflecting our changing society. It is no more acceptable to refer to South asians as, say 'Pakis' as it to be drunk at work - in any job, let alone whilst on operations. Imagine, if you will, stories that are probably circulating about 'drunk, pork eating kuffirs killing innocent Muslims from Libya/Afghanistan/Pakistan/ (insert Arc of Crises country of your choice)'. I bet my bottom dollar that these stories are circulating and gaining credence. Let's not give the Queen's enemies any UXOs that could be used against us.
(for some reason FAceBook comes up at PPrune in this post....see what I mean?)
Last edited by Whenurhappy; 31st May 2011 at 07:23.
Reason: amended to delete QGM and insert QGJM! I am not a Walt....