Same old story with the RN re' OOW duties etc is that we've always done it that way and 300 plus years of tradition stops us from doing it any other way. BTW the damage control and fire fighting courses at Whale Island and deck handling at CU were all quite straight forward and weren't that bad even for us crabs. Whats a fearnought suit, soft wood wedge and running lashing between friends, I've even been known to get involved with the donkeys d*ck during RAS evolutions. The hardest part of embarked ops is learning to drink CSB and avoiding the 1st Jimmy during rounds!!! People aren't born master mariners or airmen they evolve/develop. As for jointery, 360 Sqn was a great example of how it could/should be done if the worker bees are allowed to get on with it without influence from the career driven city fathers. Just think if the transfer of Merlin debate wasn't going on and there was a push to embark Chinook and Apache onto OCN without any input from the CHF then I doubt our RN mates would be searching for so many lame excuses as to why it couldn't happen. Let the 'black catting' begin