High Spirits,
I apologise if I come across to you as dreary, and don't I know that CH47 is not the answer for everything and is probably not the 'one size fits all' capability or career that everyone wants.
But.....
Lets look around us, the reduction in the Army is huge, the reduction in the Navy is significant (and judging by the threads on this blog including young, enthusiastic Harrier pilots that thought up until to a year ago that they too had a career in a joint environment).
It is not just the guys in Benson that we should feel sorry for, but across the whole of Defence.
You use the word dreary, I use the word sad as I have seen (and regularly take part in) the true effect and output of Jointery across the bird table at Bastion, including some very brave and capable Merlin crews. But if we are now at the stage of bickering and presenting obstacles to this ongoing change within the whole of Defence then there is only one person that is really going to suffer, and that is the boy/girl on operations (potentially in contact) that needs our (joined up) support.
If we are arguing (even amongst ourselves) then what hope do we really have?