OK,
first off, I'm pretty sure HM the Queen is not in the habit of handing out gallantry awards to the underserving - twice.
For the uninitiated, the DFC was for taking an RPG through the airframe, badly damaging the aircraft, and for landing safely with the governor of Helmand onboard. He went on to take pqrt in a major deliberate op only days later which was 'kinetic in nature'.
The AFC was for rescuing two casualties from the Sangin valley, at night and in a sandstorm flying at low level and with no more than 200M visibility at any point - the IR anti-col of an FLIR equipped Apache his only source of reference for a 100 mile round trip (twice).
This was only days after taking a number of rounds and an airburst RPG whilst attempting to resupply the Paras.
Sounds pretty worthwhile.
Now thats put to bed, a quick word about the movers.
As an ex-mover, I was also Frenchies crewman when he was awarded the AFC, so I think I am fairly uniquely qualified to comment.
I know a great deal of movers who work incredibly hard and regularly go above and beyond to ensure things run smoothly. They get very little credit when things go right, but carry the can when things go wrong.
I also know a number of movers for whom the act of being difficult is to be taken to an artform. Thankfully, they are small in number, but tend to provide our lasting impression of the trade.
So, is the outrage justified?
I'm sure the majority of hard working movers will be a little miffed at the negative outlook of their trade. I'm sure those at which the critisism is particularly levelled will be most vocal and are probably too busy typing abuse into Amazon to read this anyway.
However, either Frenchie's allegations are untrue (something I severely doubt knowing Frenchie) or they are true, but those concerned are angry they were pointed out.
To those I would point out that Frenchie is also critical of other aspects of the Op experience - not just movers, and thats partly the appeal of the book.
Good luck to all, whatever side of the fence. But I would suggest it is time this was put to bed.