• IT’S extraordinary that the Chief of the Air Staff has ordered that the term “aviator” is now to be used for all RAF people.

The vast majority of the Royal Air Force’s 30,000 personnel have no flying role in any of the RAF’s 586 aircraft – they are ground crew and support staff, aircrew being very much “The Few”.

For those of us who were, or are, sailors, marines and soldiers, it’s easy. The RAF are not all aviators but they are all known as “the Crabs”!

LESTER MAY
Lieutenant Commander,
Royal Navy – retired
Reachview Close
Camden Town, NW1