My (step) dad, a career naval officer with considerable carrier experience, characterized a carrier deck landing as a controlled crash.

"Could it be that the Top Guns of today are the last of a dying breed?"

Or is IT that the Top Guns of yesterday, the Master Pilots who Trained the Fleet Force, have Spawned a New Breed of Flight Navigator...... the Space PathFinder........ Per Ardua ad MetaAstra?

A Pertinent Question for the MOD? RSVP.....alsjeblieft.

I always understood that what this proposes was totally refuted by civilisation, the act of suicide in order to achieve an end desired by those in authority. This was how Japan operated when ruled their military oligarchy and it was rejected by the overwhelming majority of the world population as being Murder by their commanders. I can understand that some aircrew might take the view personally that they would rather die by their own hand than submit to tyranny but to make it part of the military ethos would be totally unacceptable. Having served my country for 22 years of my life prepared, if necessary, to die but hoping for survival. Having known the camarderie of service life,

the selfless goodness of "mates" (other than the rubber kind) and the daily reminders that I have now that I have retired from those ex servicemen with whom I regularly socialise I feel obligated to speak. It has always been a mystery to some people that there were, and are, those amongst us who are prepared to serve their country to the end but the proposal, which I understand you you to be making, is not acceptable