What a Bloater!
 

Bahrain this Month - Distinguished Serviceman

Came across this article in an online Bahrain magazine about an ex-RAF helicopter pilot.

Who IS this cheesehammer?

Whilst I appreciate there may have been some editing out of his control, but what a bloater…..of the most tenuous links with the Royal Family!

Rumour has it this pilot was “asked to leave” the Service - so not sure how that can be classed as a ‘distinguished’ career?

I’d also like to share the links I had with the Royal Family during my ‘very average’ career:

1. I’ve met the Duke of Edinburgh, when I was on a church parade as an Air Cadet.

2. I once had the privilege of driving past Her Majesty’s residence in central London.

3. On a number of occasions I have flown in the same airspace as her majesty……several weeks apart.

😝😉

Oh and I too have a Commissioning scroll on my wall, but I’m sure it’s a printed signature rather than ‘personally’ signed?

Am I being mean here or is this article a bit ‘cringy’?

Thoughts?

Yes you are being a bit mean. If it was a U.K. piece yes bang to rights, but for any expat rag in a royal family centric country pretty par for the course. Some tongue in cheek perhaps peeping through

"Well the money's great and its good to know I can go back to a sensible country whenever I've earned enough"

These pantomime turns crop up all over the place , even on PpruNe.
Apart from the " Meteor Pilot" who couldn't remember what marks he had flown, I was once cornered by a claimed ex WW2 pilot who had been "Ön 633 Squadron" . I jest you not.

He could have added to his tenuous Royal bloating.

Ex-Merlin -> Based at RAF Benson -> Previously the home of the Queen's Flight?

What an opportunity missed.

As an aside, not sure if it ranks up there alongside his amazing record but...I was once chatted up by a queen. Ahh, nights out in Amsterdam...

Yes, you are being mean. This is bog standard PR stuff that air ambulance and police type units release all the time. I was “interviewed” many times for PR stuff. Thank the lord that it’s still good to have RAF on your CV. You’re choosing one of literally thousands of articles out there.
Dont know the lad personally, but good luck.

What irks you so much about this ? Does it affect you directly ? The Brits love to pull a peer down.

I have been variously mis-quoted or my words have been fabricated for me to fill a few inch columns - the impact has reassuringly been nil.

`And the Queen served in the RAF IN WW2`...Thought she had been a driver/mechanic in the ATS...

As others have said, you’re being particularly mean here. There’s nothing wrong with the article. He’s bigging himself up but that’s what’s being asked of him and it’s all very innocuous. Good luck to him, he’s clearly going to be earning a lot more than I am but that comes with the territory. Is that the root cause of your beef?

RAF PR people generate considerably worse material, usually full of inaccuracies.

BTW, have shaken hands with Anne and Andy, and done GofH for HMQ. 😎

Probably information gleaned from a longish interview, with selected comments being exaggerated, taken out of context, misinterpreted and mistakes made. Reporters are known to replace a word with a synonym that really changes the tone of the comment.eg, "the plane plunged downwards for 50 feet, narrowly avoiding a collision with another airliner only 1000 feet away.".

and was steered valiantly away from the bus full of nuns arriving at the primary school, before Biggles managed to land safely on the playing fields. Something like that ??? :8

“ After the engine blew up and the wings fell off acting Flt. Lt.Cactus-Tumblweed, heir to the Sheepdip Co. fortune and married to the lovely Wilma Wasp, heroically directed his flaming, falling wreck away from the orphanage and cute puppy farm by ejecting, thereby changing the centre of gravity and consequently the flight path of the careening Lawndart Lancer MK 4. For his heroic actions Cactus-Tumbleweed is expected to be decorated for saving life ( his own ). Promotion to higher rank is likely subject to expected defence budget cuts. Upon hearing of this Her Majesty was quoted as saying: “What has he done this time?” An audience is expected with Her Majesty as soon as it can be proven that hell has frozen over according to a palace spokesperson.”

This thread says more about the op than it does about the individual from the article. I sense that they may well be known to one another and the op has some long-held bitterness.

Nothing wrong with the article. Standard kind of stuff and, as others have said, these narratives barely ever reflect the context in which the comments were made. You could say the same about almost any press article.

If I'm not mistaken, it's Sam Thompson.......

I've done a few interviews over the last year or so in connection with a book I wrote. Often when I read the article afterwards I cringe because of how it sounds when paraphrased and edited. I wouldn't be surprised if Sam Thompson felt the same.

In the last bit of the article, he (or the writer/Editor!) states that 'the Queen served in the RAF during WWII' ...is that correct, I thought she was in the Army?

...not bashing the article, just interested in the history bit!

As we know the rest of the world are far more interested in our Royal Family than we are! No surprise that the interviewer/writer would have wanted to hone in any royal related details of his career more than anything else, as said above I'm sure that the way the article has been written doesn't reflect what was actually said. When you consider that Bahrain is a Kingdom reverence to royalty is a given.

AFAIK the United Kingdom is a kingdom and reverence to royalty is far from a given.

We used to have empires ruled by emperors and kingdoms ruled by kings. Now we just have countries.

JAFO, I was very clunky in what I was trying to say, some kingdoms in the world are very reverent (at least in public) as it tends to keep people out of prison, so maybe articles promoting royalty (no matter how tenuous the links might be) are probably encouraged. I don't know how authoritarian Bahrain is but if its anything like Saudi......