The RAF and asthma - WHY?!
Just Google* 'Look At Life - British Cold War Jets [DVD]' and you will find various on-line outlets selling it!
*other Internet search engines are also available.
*other Internet search engines are also available.
[QUOTEIf you suffer from asthma or have done in the past, you cannot be considered for flying branches of the RAF. For ground branches and trades, people with a past history of asthma, wheezing or inhaler use may be eligible for service following review by medical staff][/QUOTE]
Which 15 years ago consisted of running around a car park, blowing into a tube, and then sucking on a vacuum, and not the type my missus cleans the house with !!. Then a nice winco said, mmmm we don't know, come back in 6 months. At least the nurse's let us go to the pub around the corner !
Which 15 years ago consisted of running around a car park, blowing into a tube, and then sucking on a vacuum, and not the type my missus cleans the house with !!. Then a nice winco said, mmmm we don't know, come back in 6 months. At least the nurse's let us go to the pub around the corner !
Actual cases
I've been watching this thread as I was rejected in the late 1990's for having a history of Asthma. However in later life it doesn't stop me from holding a full JAA Class 1 FCL without restrictions for aircrew in the civvy world.
But I am curious if someone could point to any actual cases or instances where problems have been attributed to asthma? I did have a cursory look years ago but didn't find much.
Thanks
But I am curious if someone could point to any actual cases or instances where problems have been attributed to asthma? I did have a cursory look years ago but didn't find much.
Thanks
Can I just add that CS gas on GDT did'nt make my asthma any worse and I was wearing a respirator with no probs at all(actually fell asleep wearing one during TACEVAL at Honington !) until the docs had their way and one SMO threaten to charge me if I did GDT again, even though I had not been told I could'nt do it !
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"I, myself, stand by my original opinion, though it seems genuine asthmatics or others with so much as a slight wheeze are looked at in distaste by too many people. Would you go into a home for the blind and mock them because the way their genes are coded are make them 'pathetic' human beings? Yeah, alright, two pretty different extremes, lol, but both are merely down to the way genes happen to exist. And OK, sometimes people joke about it, which is fine, but others really are serious and seem to have some sort of superiority complex..."
Jonesyboy, firstly, nobody is mocking asthmatics. Secondly I have witnessed several asthma attacks throughout my life of variable severity. All of which cause a certain amount of debilitation and discomfort.
Now think of the scenario when our intrepid pilot has got to the front line in which ever fleet you choose. He has been shot down in hostile lands; his co-pilot has a broken leg and cant walk. The hun are coming over the hill at a great rate of knots so our pilot decides to lift him up and carry him, he manages 100m before he feels the chest tightness and wheezing. He knows that an attack is coming but he cant do anything about it as its now life or death because the hun are right on their heels. He cant get enough air into his lungs and eventually both him and his co-pilot are caught 500m from a PB.
Its not always about the individual, its also be about the "team". You are only as fit as the least fit member of your team. There are several occasions and circumstances when it just isn't practical for any trade, not just pilot.
A few examples -
RAF Regiment - Training in Kenya at 6500', suffers shortness of breath anyway due to the altitude but worse due to asthma. Our Gunner starts to wheeze after tabbing 5kms in 25 degree heat in full kit, body armour and a bergan weighing 25kgs. He is wheezing so much and is getting very anxious now that he starts to over heat due to the effort of trying to breath and is now a heat casualty with no quick access to medical aid. His life is now in the balance!
Medic - Deploys to Afghanistan to do the relatively low physical workload job of IRT. They get a call out to go to a Patrol Base after an IED strike. On arrival there are mass casualties that need CasEvaced ASAP. Our medic runs around treating casualties and lifting stretchers, he is working hard and now is out of breath. His work rate is high and he is getting so little oxygen due to his asthma that he collapses unconscious. His patients now have no medic to treat them and one of them dies.
Chef - Its the yearly CCS currency and our asthmatic chef is in the respirator test facility. He goes for a canister change and screws his drills up and ingests a few lungs full of CS gas. Guess what happens..... He suffers an asthma attack.
Storeman - Is in R & D where the main doors are open, like most days. He is in the back of the warehouse when he hears some noise at the back of some boxes. He scrabbles under some shelving between some boxes where he finds some kittens. He instantly gets the tightness in his chest, he doesn't have his inhaler because he only needs it when he is round animals. As he is wedged between some boxes he panics and feels claustrophobic. This makes everything worse and its now a vicious circle. He collapses between the boxes at the back of the warehouse in the storage area that nobody visits. He lies there for 2 days before someone finds him.
The bluntest trade you can think of - In Afghanistan and a mortar lands nearby and covers our service person in shrapnel. They are screaming at the top of their voice with the pain of losing a leg. They start to panic because they can see their own leg lying next to them. This triggers their asthma. Very quickly someone arrives and sees how much distress our unlucky airman is and very quickly injects them with Morphine (which everybody carries). This now lowers the airmans respiratory rate (side effect of Morphine) so low that they fall unconscious. As he was screaming in pain before bystanders assume he has went quiet because the pain relief is working. It isn't he has now swallowed his tongue and died of asphyxiation!
I could go on but you get the point, you would not believe some of the random and ridiculous places you find yourself in, in the military where these things CAN happen. The medical guidelines are there for very good reason and that is to keep the machine working as it should.
Short version, tough luck! I want to win the lottery but life just isn't fair sometimes.
HG
Jonesyboy, firstly, nobody is mocking asthmatics. Secondly I have witnessed several asthma attacks throughout my life of variable severity. All of which cause a certain amount of debilitation and discomfort.
Now think of the scenario when our intrepid pilot has got to the front line in which ever fleet you choose. He has been shot down in hostile lands; his co-pilot has a broken leg and cant walk. The hun are coming over the hill at a great rate of knots so our pilot decides to lift him up and carry him, he manages 100m before he feels the chest tightness and wheezing. He knows that an attack is coming but he cant do anything about it as its now life or death because the hun are right on their heels. He cant get enough air into his lungs and eventually both him and his co-pilot are caught 500m from a PB.
Its not always about the individual, its also be about the "team". You are only as fit as the least fit member of your team. There are several occasions and circumstances when it just isn't practical for any trade, not just pilot.
A few examples -
RAF Regiment - Training in Kenya at 6500', suffers shortness of breath anyway due to the altitude but worse due to asthma. Our Gunner starts to wheeze after tabbing 5kms in 25 degree heat in full kit, body armour and a bergan weighing 25kgs. He is wheezing so much and is getting very anxious now that he starts to over heat due to the effort of trying to breath and is now a heat casualty with no quick access to medical aid. His life is now in the balance!
Medic - Deploys to Afghanistan to do the relatively low physical workload job of IRT. They get a call out to go to a Patrol Base after an IED strike. On arrival there are mass casualties that need CasEvaced ASAP. Our medic runs around treating casualties and lifting stretchers, he is working hard and now is out of breath. His work rate is high and he is getting so little oxygen due to his asthma that he collapses unconscious. His patients now have no medic to treat them and one of them dies.
Chef - Its the yearly CCS currency and our asthmatic chef is in the respirator test facility. He goes for a canister change and screws his drills up and ingests a few lungs full of CS gas. Guess what happens..... He suffers an asthma attack.
Storeman - Is in R & D where the main doors are open, like most days. He is in the back of the warehouse when he hears some noise at the back of some boxes. He scrabbles under some shelving between some boxes where he finds some kittens. He instantly gets the tightness in his chest, he doesn't have his inhaler because he only needs it when he is round animals. As he is wedged between some boxes he panics and feels claustrophobic. This makes everything worse and its now a vicious circle. He collapses between the boxes at the back of the warehouse in the storage area that nobody visits. He lies there for 2 days before someone finds him.
The bluntest trade you can think of - In Afghanistan and a mortar lands nearby and covers our service person in shrapnel. They are screaming at the top of their voice with the pain of losing a leg. They start to panic because they can see their own leg lying next to them. This triggers their asthma. Very quickly someone arrives and sees how much distress our unlucky airman is and very quickly injects them with Morphine (which everybody carries). This now lowers the airmans respiratory rate (side effect of Morphine) so low that they fall unconscious. As he was screaming in pain before bystanders assume he has went quiet because the pain relief is working. It isn't he has now swallowed his tongue and died of asphyxiation!
I could go on but you get the point, you would not believe some of the random and ridiculous places you find yourself in, in the military where these things CAN happen. The medical guidelines are there for very good reason and that is to keep the machine working as it should.
Short version, tough luck! I want to win the lottery but life just isn't fair sometimes.
HG
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
and even in UK on exercise.
All in respirators, sqn cdr down and has to be evacuated. 16 stone, inert, and had to be taken 60 yards out of the hangar. By the time we had dragged him at speed we were short of breath, respirators fogged up and could have collapsed.
Being an exercise people were being told to collapse - how do you tell the difference?
All in respirators, sqn cdr down and has to be evacuated. 16 stone, inert, and had to be taken 60 yards out of the hangar. By the time we had dragged him at speed we were short of breath, respirators fogged up and could have collapsed.
Being an exercise people were being told to collapse - how do you tell the difference?
