Quote:
Originally Posted by sexobon
Hey bud... I was your counterpart in the US military. There are extensively trained specialists who do that (and more) full time; however, they're assigned to Division level and higher to keep them gainfully employed. In smaller units (brigade, battalion, company), it becomes an additional duty to one's primary military occupation. That duty falls first to volunteers and then to appointees as necessary. I volunteered as a "unit" specialist.
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Ah! A kindred spirit! You seem to have operated at a capability level far above that which I and my colleagues inhabited. I'm sure the pay was several grades better as well.
No doubt the expertise, equipment and procedures you outline are similar in the Army, RAF and RN, but our efforts were modest in comparison.
I'm sure the warning function would have worked well but I suspect that the subsequent reporting task would have been a different matter.
Our equipment was rugged and simple to operate but that didn't stop the manual being a mighty tome. In extremis we could always have eaten it.
That reminds me, I've got a couple of books on
Able Archer 83 waiting to be read. They'll take my mind off the current biological brouhaha.
UKWMO