In which case, I've been shot at a few times (direct and indirect) and I'm a Blunty!
My point entirely although I was specific in talking about C130 crews - pretty much everyone who is deployed into an operational theatre is in harms way & I feel should be a military person. The CS peeps who deploy seem to get rather large allowances for being there which would seem to negate the savings from civilianising the post in the first place.
however, those stars would also be FJ or SH pilots (maybe with an odd Tornado WSO for E&D qouta reasons).
Why should the 'stars' of the future be from just those fleets? The AT fleets have been continuously on operations for the past decade, & I don't believe that an SF pilot, for example, would be any less able or qualified to reach the highest ranks. Even the 'route queens' now do virtually nothing but in theatre flying.
As FJ pukes are allegedly to be allowed to command AT squadrons (not enough FJ ones to permit the 'right' people to have a command) then an AT background presumably will no longer be a bar...
Provided of course that all the AT pilots don't just say 'f**k it, I'm leaving for BA/ Cathay/ Jet2 etc'.