Perhaps Sharky should do the same on his public forum.

Has Sharkey really singled you out by name on his blog and insulted your integrity, personality, state of mind, intelligence and appearance?

If so, I'm impressed by his incredible perspicacity, particularly at his age. There must be something about FAA aircrew. :p

What would have happened if the Falklands War had never occurred
or the Harrier hadn't done so well and all versions of the Harrier had
been retired without having had an air to air war ?

Would he have been so vocal ?

500N,

In short, no - I doubt it.

If however one of our other iconic capabilities had been singled out not for reduction but total disbandment maybe they too would find someone prepared to raise their head above the parapet.

For example - if we decided we didn't need the Royal Marines or the Parachute Regiment - someone with a significant amount of operational experience in those spheres would (I'd wager) step into the fray.

Perhaps we should be asking why no-one from the Nimrod community is making a similar pain of themselves. After all - that was the worst outcome of the lot.

Because no matter how much anyone whines, the Nimrod will not be coming back. At least the RAF can see that.

No, I think there is a smarter campaign going on to resurrect the fallen capability and one that doesn't require the RAF, including former serving members, to turn on its fellow services and slag them in public. :=

But of course the Sea Kings were a load of rubbish at ASW. :E ;)

I had a go at reading Sharkeys world at work over lunch. Fortunately DII software is s o o o far behind the real world that his blog would not load. I wasn't sure I could be bothered to read it on my phone and when I did I had to stop reading. Never in the field of human history have I read so many half truths, cherry picking, and blatant untruths! (Well at least since I last had a look at a political party manifesto). He would do himself a lot of favours if he actually stuck to fact not hearsay and pure fiction; then be might just come across as an undoubted expert in his field.

One has to wonder if he has ever actually done any study into the UK's air contribution to GRANBY, WARDEN, BOLTON, TELIC, ENGADINE, HERRICK, ELLAMY, NEWCOMBE and numerous others. The RAF resting on its laurels since the BofB??? Get real Mr Ward; it's pathetic.

Shame on you. That's how we got into this mess. :ooh:

(Isn't it easy, sometimes, to misrepresent people by partially quoting them or quoting them out of context?)

Who is quoting who out of context?

I haven't done it to you, and any quotes of Mr Ward are quotes that are factually incorrect, irrespective of context. :=

Shame on you.

You're not making any sense, Mate.

Feed the troll - all publicity is good publicity
 

Guys - we're now up to 4 pages of free advertising for Lord High Admiral Sharkey of FAAshire.

Good on you all - you're supporting his cause.

:ugh:

Nimbus20 - I take yr point, but as you may note from an earlier post of mine, if you search Google for Sharkey Ward, these threads come up 3rd in the list so any unsuspecting member of the public will at least get a chance to see what others in the know think of his rantings.