Conscientious Objection
Interesting article in the papers over the weekend comparing Suez Crisis to todays excitement.
Buried in the article was a short reference to a young Flying Officer who refused to go on a bombing mission in his Canberra (from Cyprus), got Court Martialled and served a year’s imprisonment for ‘for not carrying out a warlike operation without the utmost exertion’
I won’t mention his name as a google search reveals a chap of the same name heavily involved in aviation training. They might be one and the same. (Maybe a fellow PPRuNer knows the truth)
In the last year and a bit I’ve heard of two incidents of Hercules captains being threatened with court martials for attempting to refuse missions, unfortunately in both cases they gave way to the threats. Its not my place to elaborate much more on those cases, but in both cases I was amazed that the very chaps who you would hope to back you up, dissapear up their own @rses when the pressure is on, (which is why the Captain's decision should be final)
So, and I think you know where this is going, is it ‘if’ or ‘when’ that someone finally has the balls, and will we get to hear about it? Are there many examples of noble Blackadders telling their General Melchet's to think again?