Billie Flynn on the Canadian Air Force Crisis

As one commentator on this interview with Billie Flynn commented:

“I’m a Canadian born, dual Australian/Canadian Citizen. My Mum’s father was in the RCAF and flew Lancasters in WW2, and was in a Sabre Squadron in Germany. My brother and his wife both joined the RCAF and retired after long careers. I was in the RCAF briefly, but ended up in Australia and joined the Australian Army and was a rotary wing pilot. My Dad’s family were Aussies and have a long legacy in the Australian military.

“The difference between the RCAF & the RAAF is stark. The RAAF is a modern, well equipped Air Arm with AWACS, F-35, FA-18F, EF-18G, JORN etc, while the RCAF is a hollowed out shell of what it used to be. The Aussies are a fighting force, the Canadians are a “Peace Keeping” Force, and the Canadian Gov’t barely cares about the military, the opposite of how the Australian Gov’t thinks.

“Australia knows it’s at the sharp end, on its own, and learned the lessons of WW2 when they were abandoned by the UK, while Canada seems to think it’s more of an irritant to have a military and only does the bare minimum to meet its NATO & NORAD obligations. The Canadian Gov’t uses military procurement as an election football. It breaks my heart to see how far the RCAF has fallen. Gov’t bungling has left the military in dreadful shape, and they have not served the wonderful people, who serve them in the Defence Force, well at all. It’s disgraceful”