Al,
The section that I used to work for at Waddington used to be run by a Wing Commander who had five squadron leaders and 16 junior officers working for him...when the airshow arrived from Finningley the section was given 5 major airshow secondary duties to manage. Many years later and the section has been part civilianised. It is now run by a Squadron Leader with two junior officers and guess how many airshow secondary duties it still has! How many are run by the civilians? Yep.
When I retired I held nine major service secondary duties - the loss of the officers on the section made no difference to the tasks that had to be carried out. I was in charge of one of the major enclosures and in one year there was an attempt to make me in charge of all crowd barriers at the same time. Add to this my increased primary duties and there was little time left for other living! All I can say is that I am happy to have retired when I did.
I am sure that there are many blue suiters at Waddington who have breathed a huge sigh of relief that the airshow (and its two week leave ban) has gone, leaving just the armed forces day as a thank you and another compulsory working weekend for many. Lack of manpower is not an empty excuse - it is a primary reason why the airshow has become increasingly difficult to organise as the "no-cost" part of the labour force has significantly reduced.