No, not an aviation archaeologist Cees.
A Hero!
I believe that he was honoured for his work by HM Government, as was Dr Benamou in Normandy. That is, for work recovering and identifying missing RAF aircrew. What is difficult to understand, Cees, is how the MOD view that work so differently and so positively when they have viewed such work in the UK with such negativity and, at times, hostility.
When attending a military funeral of a lost Battle of Britain pilot in the early 1980’s at Brookwood I was astonished to be told, during a discussion with a senior MOD official who was talking about the question of missing aircrew:
“Do you have any idea how much a military funeral like this costs?”
I will not name him, but there were many witnesses. True, the sentence here is taken out of context although, to be clear, the context of that statement was that recovery was too expensive for the MOD to contemplate on a wider scale. I would like to think that the official concerned did not really properly consider his remark, nor that it reflects MOD policy or thinking – although…..! In any event, talking about the paltry cost of a military funeral on the overall Defence budget as set against a life given in defence of Britain was, to say the least, crass and offensive.
I thought so,
And quite rightly too, but he started out as a private enthusiast who started as a hobby, but got in contact with the RNethAF and has gone from there as a pioneer. But he never was a military man but got a rank while being a civilian in the AF. When he left he took all his files with him. Also having started out of interest he always slagged off civilian groups doing this kind of work. Luckily things have changed for the better over here as I already mentioned.
But just to let you know,
This thread is very interesting but has nothing to do with the current activtities in this field. As soon a “amateurs” have to follow rules and regulations, the majority would be against it. Although over here some
actions have been tried by the authorities to regulate this over the years, time and time again, these rules were proven to be not very watertight. And when that was mentioned, the general answer was: they were meant as a guideline.
Bottom line is, people start this kind work out of passion, not to start a paid profession. Speaking for myself, If I would have the opportunity to do this kind of work full time and paid for, I would not accept that. I think a lot of others active in this field would feel the same way.
Just my opinion
Cees
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