Warmtoast,
classic pic of a Hastings returning from a para sortie. We rarely attempted replacing the ill fitting para doors in flight. It was too easy to lose one !
My story of how ALM para training ceased. In the mid 1980's I was the Chief Air Loadmaster Instructor (CALMI) on 242 OCU. I was ultimately responsible for the training and categorisation of all the Hercules ALMs via the ALM instructors on the OCU.. Not only did it involve flying on all the roles, route airdrop and tanking but it also had a huge 'clerking' element.
One day the boss dropped a file on my desk with a 'request' that I put it at the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa pile of paper in my in tray.
The crux of this file was a paper written by No1 PTS recommending that ALM para training cease. Their argument was that the para commitment had reduced (reduction in army para numbers) to an extent that any future ABEX etc could be manned by PTS personnel. Thus the need to train Loadmasters as para despatchers no longer existed and substantial savings in money and training time could be achieved. These sort of statements are always welcome to the 'system'. Of course the obvious solution would have been a reduction in the numbers of PJIs ! Or hand all the para training over to the army !
I pointed out that one of the reasons that the ALM had been used as a paratroop despatcher was that after a drop the PJI became a passenger. Unless he could be repatriated back to base ASAP he was of no further use unless a para drop was organised away from base.
Actually my boss and I were both of the opinion that the decision had probably already been made and we were in the consultation loop merely as a matter of course. Money talks, especially if it is the saving of it.
One of the things that always perplexed me was that PJIs were allowed to retrain as ALMS up to the age of 30 (normal age cut off was 26 at the time).
So in my reply I recommended that one of the logical outcomes of the paper was that this anomaly be corrected.
And so it all came to pass.
It had little or no effect on the ALM branch, although a few diehards mourned it's passing. The ALM still flew on para sorties of course doing his normal duties and acting as the link between the captain and the despatchers but did not have any responsibility for the checking or despatching of the paratroopers.