BEagle
I trust that your comment regarding "mercenaries" was made with your tongue stuffed firmly in your cheek.
My dictionary states that a mercenary is primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics - something that neither the BWOS employees nor the RAF Secondees in KSA could ever be accused of. Their daily existence on the knife-edge of customer whims was worth every penny that they were paid. It was the management and the customer that lacked ethics!
And yes, you've touched a nerve!