Comment – Paper Tigers

One gets accustomed to reading some “incredible” stories in our nation’s daily and Sunday newspapers.

While the bulk of our press seem to gloat on their ability to seek and reveal the lowest portions of a story there oc­casionally emerges a correspondent who either rightly or wrongly contributes some astounding headlines on defence. Apart from a very small band of real defence experts, the papers seem content to employ sensationalism and greatly exaggerated leads when referring to defence – and in the majority of cases, the reference is ill-informed and derogatory.

Now I am not saying for one moment that our defence forces are beyond criticism. Indeed there are a lot of areas that need to be put right before our total force structure is as shining and polished as I tend to promote. My descriptions of the overall level of Force efficiency in Australia largely reflect the professionalism and dedication of the men at the operational level. The pilots, the aircrew, their maintenance squadrons, etc, produce levels of efficiency and aircraft maintenance standards that are envied the world over.

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