DV,
Thank you for the response. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the abuse of STFs was a significant and wholly inexcusable failure of the part of the Service staffs involved.
This contributed to avoidable incidents and accidents and in some cases loss of life.
Note I'm not advocating a witch hunt. But even now, there are those in the Service who think the abuse of STFs (or their bastard child, 'in theater modifications') can still be justified. They need to learn some big lessons quite quickly. If they don't, the MAA are (rightly) going to start throwing some serious hand grenades around.
Best Regards as ever to all those out there doing the job,
Engines