The RAF have just ‘badged’ four ‘Pilot’ officers with their pilot wings at a ceremony at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada. Nothing strange about this I hear you say?
Well perhaps I should explain a little bit more on the RAF’s new ‘brylcreem’ boys, dressed here in their best serge blue…
These four aeronautical ‘chaps’ are unusual to the normal, as they have not drawn oxygen from a mask at great giddy heights whilst engaged in dog-fight tactics, never barfed in a sick bag caused through contour flying, felt the effects of negative G (or the rumble of turbulence around their undercarriage); not even qualified in survival skills or endured an escape and evasion exercise, etc, etc. What we see before us are the new type of RAF ‘Fly Boy’ who do indeed fly from the seat of their pants, whilst they sit comfortably within the military compound at Creech Air Force Base, Nevada.
Lucky little darlings! Not for them the grime, blood, sweat & tears endured by their fellow Pilot officers in Afghanistan… Instead there are cries of “Oi, this pizza is cold”, and “where’s the Extra portion of fries, and the large coke I ordered”!
Albeit, their wings are slightly different from those worn with distinction by real ‘rocket jockeys’ (distinguishable by blue laurel leaves as opposed to brown) they are still recognised ‘fly wings’ as worn by virtually every military air force.
I await the day their medals arrive for disclosure to the world 
(Four real RAF aeronautical chaps)
Joking aside;
Our newly badged ‘Fly Boys’ actually do a great job, and I do sincerely take my hat off to them. Their effort is as important as that of every boot on the ground. Whether people like it or not, I think they (and those that follow) are to become the future of every military combat air force world wide.
Quote. “Because operators are based thousands of miles away from the battlefield, and undertake operations entirely through computer screens and remote audio-feed, there is a risk of developing a ‘PlayStation’ mentality to killing”.
— Philip Alston, United Nations special reporter on extrajudicial killings, report to the UN Human Rights Council, 2 June 2010.
Quote. “So it was that the war in the air began. Men rode upon the whirlwind that night, and slew and fell like archangels. The sky rained heroes upon the astonished earth. Surely the last fights of mankind were the best. What was the heavy pounding of your Homeric swordsmen, what was the creaking charge of chariots, besides this swift rush, this crash, this giddy triumph, this headlong sweep to death”?
— H. G. Wells, ‘The World Set Free,’ 1914.
As it spins the world changes…
