Funny, maybe.

I don't care how you want to paint it, it is no way for a commisioned officer to talk to the press.

SFFP,

I have never seen such an unwarranted outburst at a fellow PPruner as yours to the Winco last night. It typifies your ineptitude to appreciate other peoples views on the matter, and I am astonished by your comments. I do hope that

I can't be bothered anymore to continue trying to explain things to you. You clearly know more about this that the rest of us put together - maybe even more than the journo' himself. You will undoubdtedly go a long way in this Air Force, and my only hope is that someone on the Hercules fleet, with a little more experience and common sense than you helps you out soon, because you certainly need it.

Stickmonkeytamer - I loved it! The only worrying thing is that it is probably quite near to the truth! No doubt that idiot SFFP will prove us all wrong, and come charging to the ladies rescue, but I did enjoy reading it nevertheless, thanks.

TSM

... I blame the graduate entry scheme and backdated seniority.....

...... if she'd have been a Flying Officer (like co-pilots are supposed to be), then everyone would have known she was going to talk b:mad:cks. ;)

No offence Caz - you've been stitched by the system.

Link: Times Article

Interesting that there were no positive comments at the bottom of the page. Where are all you supporters claiming it was taken 'out of context'?

The inevitable and predictable blow-back.
Saddening.
I hope for all our sakes that SFFP will not now be imparting the benefit of his charm and wisdom to the readership of The Times.

"It’s like:"

Do officers actually talk like this now? Do they say "whatever" and "wassup" too?

Stacker, you erk,

Its not a case of us officers sticking up for you erks.............its a case of someone spouting B@@llocks to the press...........now run along and stack some more things:ugh:

I suspect that two of the comments under the article in The Times were put in by Pruners.

I enjoyed the article for what it was, an informal verbal account of how a young female RAF pilot spends her working time. She comes across as a nice, balanced, if still rather naive, young girl with a sense of humour. Gave me a refreshing and positive image of the RAF. The pencil comment was unfortunate, but so what and the public would not pick up on it. And if you think she talked to the journo off her own bat for her own glorification without clearance from the PROs and chain of command, who probably chose her for the interview, you are way off beam.

I have subsequently been left with a much more negative image of the RAF and your collective chipped shoulders since reading the tripe written here on Prune, bigoted, ignorant, envious, sexist and downright viscous in several cases. This put in by people who are claiming self-righteously that it was Caz who has let the side down.

Give me strength!

I hope you read the above post Ariston. As for that attempt at humour by SMT, well that is just rubbish and does no one anygood.

... even worse (if correctly reported), she said "planes"!

On day one I was told two things never to say:

"planes" - unless referring to wood-smoothing carpentry tools

AND

"raff" as a pronunciation of R.A.F (yes, we had fullstops in abbreviations then!)

....... omigawd .... I'm beginning to sound like BEags :ugh:

I repeat my 2 points for the benefit of Windup Mouse and Samuraiprat.


1. It is no way for any member of the armed forces to talk to the press, especially an officer/leader.

2. What the &*$@ where the CC/CR people doing letting this get to press? I'm quite sure she didn't do this of her own volition (talk to the press) which makes it all the worse that someone deemed her comments fit for publication in the National press.


Please disagree with me all you like, but I have neither been sexist, bigoted, envious (?!) nor defamatory about this young officer. I have only pointed out that her comments, amusing as they may be, are inflammatory and somewhat naive when seen in print.

Thankfully for us all, I'll say no more on this thread (until you goad me into another pointless post that you won't actually read).


ps. Teeteringhead - I'm with you on both points. I've never been in the raff.

Clockwork Mouse.

You are incorrect, she did not come over as a 'nice, balanced, if still rather naive, young girl' She came across as a silly, rarther ill-informed and somewhat arrogant young lady, who gives the impression of being 'better than you, because I'm a pilot'

I applaud your sense of loyalty to her, as with SFFP, but you must face up to the fact that she has let the side down and let her own side down quite badly. That may, in part, be the fault of her colleagues and superiors, but she is undoubtedly to blame for the comments about groundcrew.

I agree it is time it was put to bed, but you chaps must understand the amount of ill feeling this has caused and still appears to be causing to our junior ranks. Your further vitriolic remarks against them is only adding to their annoyance and frustration of the events, and I gurantee that you will not win them over by your commarks.

I would suggest that you get the young lady concerned to come on to pprune and offer an unreserved apology for her remarks, and have done with it. Maybe then we can get some closure on the matter and put it to be for good. In the meantime, in this age of 'on the spot journolism' perhaps you could inform everyone of the dangers of speaking to the press either on the record or off it? It may just avoid another problem like this.

The Winco

Why should she? Just to satisfy you pompous arrogant twits? You are after all so perfect. It is you lot that won't let this go. This really pales into insignificance when you consider the amount of people being killed on a daily basis on the streets of Iraq. You lot should be hounding Tony Blair for the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq not going on about one badly written article in the newspaper.

"You lot should be hounding Tony Blair for the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq..."
I think you're on the wrong forum.

Winco

''She came across as a silly, rarther ill-informed and somewhat arrogant young lady, who gives the impression of being 'better than you, because I'm a pilot''

I can assure you she is in no way arrogant, silly, or ill-informed and she does not think she is better than other people because she is a pilot.

She has done an interview, which I suspect she wont do again, however a large deal has been made out of this, more so than is needed.

Lets look at the bigger picture ,with press interviews and look at the constant lies of our politicians and our wonderful PM and judge why we are in Iraq in the first place.

MoD and RAF - terrible PR department
 

What journo tosh this story is - she's obviously done a "day in the life" piece with good intentions, but it has gone out totally unedited by any PR person in the MoD, resulting in "snippets", which out of context make her and the RAF look a little silly.

I suspect that the RAF/MoD was approached for the story, and she has been flung into the arms of the journo with little appropriate support, or indeed none whatsoever.

Blame the PR - or the lack of.

All those with pencils
 

Having spent 4 months working 6 1/2 day weeks while on call for 4* 24hrs of each of those weeks at BAS, it was my guys repairing the runway inbetween aircraft landings so that it remained open. And while those in offices complained whenever their aircon wasn't cool enough and the techies worked their gu*s to turn the aircraft around in the heat (direct, reflected of aircraft and ASP) we continued to pay lip service to the heat stress index to continue to repair the hardstandings. So for those of you operating that saw semi-naked engineers (RE's) on the airfield that was because they had been out there far too long but wanted to get the work done.

As for myself, perhaps 2 1/2 days a week had 'normal' hours but I'd like to state that while I was up and down at strange hours with call-outs I always tried to not disrupt the rest of the tent, and one of them was the IntO on odd shifts too and he never distrupted the rest of us and I'd like to think that the majority of people were that thoughtful. The CRO would probably have been an educator carrying it out as a 2nd primary task but obviously not fully 'educated' in the art of OOA media!

The day in thelife of a trucky - priceless, far too familiar! So what am I saying? Please don't think of those of us that don't fly as not caring or trying. We may not have as important-a-job as the air-crew do but we put our best into what we do that supports our mighty service effort! Oh, and when I left the tents didn't leak!!! But that was obviously a year before.

3bb

What I merely said was that she came over in that way, or do you also disagree with that? A lot is being made out of it because people like you keep defending her, instead of agreeing that she made a mistake. That is all I am suggesting she does - own up, say sorry and ask for it to be put to bed. As long as the likes of yourself keep defending her, it will continue on and on.
She is NOT a politician, so I fail to see what your point is here. We have come to expect from our politicians, but NOT from a Commissioned Officer in the Royal Air Force, or can't you see that side of it?

samuraimatt
Was there any need for your name calling? You look a fool when you stoop to that - try to grow up a little and act with a certain degree of maturity. If you had taken the time to read my last posting, I did actually explain that an apology would go a long way to closure of the matter, and thats whay I suggested it. Calling me a 'pompous arrogant twit' puts you in the same league as NFFP which is sad for you.

Maybe the time has come to ask the nice moderator chaps to pull the plug on this one eh?

The Winco

I quite agree.

That way it will stop you and your cohorts from continuing this hounding of an RAF Officer. I am sure she is embarrassed enough with the outcome of the article without you banging on about it in this high and mighty way.

Isn't there some media training that personnel are supposed to have before letting the press loose on them? 7644 Sqn perhaps?
This looks like a classic own goal by the PR spin machine. Like it or not the media plays a crucial part in almost all modern military campaigns, in fact some would argue that the media can win or lose them. 'Civilized' countries often don't have the resolve to do what is required win, especially when they are shown the results on a daily basis.
What happened to keeping your details out of the press (especially when in theatre!), aircrew have been taught this, aren't all personnel now taught this in pre-deployment training? This is how we should think trough out our time in the service, not now and then. It's not like anything could happen to you or your family back to Blighty either (see press for details), just how difficult is it to trace a name to an address, phone number etc. If you don't believe me Google your name, are you ex directory, what's on your name badge?
Top tip, stay away from cameras and reporters unless you really know what you are doing!:ok:
Don't get me started on Bloggs from theatre! :\