It is a relevant question. But. The bit that you posted earlier about Cdr JHC asking the light blue Merlin Force whether they wanted to go to sea (and no one raising their hand), is I'm afraid, utter tosh. Urban myth. It never happened. Some one, somewhere has made it up.
As an outsider looking in, I must confess that statement did raise an eyebrow or two. The questions I was asking myself was all about being in a military service, discipline, orders etc.
'Would you like to go to work today?'
'Do you fancy flying to Afghanistan?'
'Do you fancy spending six months aboard HMS Ocean?'
I was always under the impression that we are a disciplined, military service, we are given orders and if lawful then the first words that come out of our mouth will be, "Yes sir\ma'am"
(trying to get used to she-males giving lawful orders)
Reading some of the posts on this thread tempts me to throw a thought into the pot..
With all this internal competitiveness\rivalry\bickering, do we ever envisage a situation where the Ministry of Defence screams enough is enough and disbands the Navy, Army and Air Force and we start afresh with the Defence Force of Great Britain? I shudder at the very thought but if we cannot get our acts together then will this be a horrible option?