Bismark,
Maybe I attributed slightly too much to one individual, but he certainly did a great deal to try to show the potential benefits to the UK of keeping SAR military. Whether you feel that that was self-justification for its own sake, or a genuine attempt to offer extra capability with the existing set-up (which won't be achievable with purely civ SAR), depends on how cynical you are!
And to whom do you attribute the "..if we don't get some cross-pol going...we will lose any position in future SAR...sort it!"? The SAR Force has had very few supporters in high places for some years, so I doubt that anyone in the MOD or high up in the RAF initiated this! Most of the energy came from much lower down the hierarchy.
Crab,
I never said that lots of SAR people were clamouring to go SH (though some are!), nor did I specify pilots or rearcrew, nor enjoyment levels...but the fact is that there is more cross-pollination now than there was 5-10 years ago. I don't have exact figures to hand (nor do you!) but let's face it, it's been pretty hard to get a Puma slot recently because they have stopped training people of any background! So it's kind of inevitable that the number of people going Puma - Sea King has exceeded those going in the reverse direction.
TOTD