Exactly - we'll have to agree to disagree, mainly for the sake of anyone looking at this thread in the hope of finding out something useful!
You call it a defence, I call it an explanation - there are those in the SAR Force who are resistant to change, but they, like me, are the pond life. The people in exec positions in the Force in recent years are mostly people with eyes wide open, either from a long background in SH (who usually arrive with an understandable desire to shake up the cosseted little SAR world) or from being the best of the bunch in the SAR world - some would seek to change the Force in a genuine attempt to improve it, others for self-serving attempts to get promoted, yet neither group has made much difference. My personal view is that this is more because it's harder to do than it may first appear, rather than solely because the stove-pipers have sabotaged any attempt to change.
it could be just the breath of fresh air that.SAR needs.
Agreed.