FAA FFP
These stories of rushed preparations and aircrew not ready jogged my memory. If I remember Nick Richardson wrote about it in his book: No Escape Zone: One Man's True Story of a Journey to Hell.
In that book he told of getting ready for air to surface drops by carrying out a single sortie on the Frasca ranges at Decimommanu. Of course he was subsequently shot down in trying to locate a target if my memory serves me right.
I am starting to see a common thread here of rushing into things only half ready. Is this symptomatic of the esprit de corps and working practices of the FAA (I would be surprised) or is it a sign of chronic under resource, which only gets exposed when the chips are down? For example what should the RN have had ready in 1982, compared to what they did?
More recently, I know that the RN never met their part of the deal when filling JFH cockpits, is there a systemic or structural failing here?
My thesis being, that whilst Sharkey claims sea borne is cheaper. In the past we have got what we paid for - rushed and poorly prepared, with mistakes common place.