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110AFTERNOON DISCUSSION PERIODSqn Ldr Peter Symes. I was living near Wyton in 1982 and it soonbecame apparent that No 39 Sqn was chiefly noticeable for its absence.Shortly after the war, one was aware of some Latin American typesbeing entertained in the local pub and then some Canberra PR 9sappeared in the Chilean ORBAT. Is this aspect of the campaign stillclassified?Sir Peter Squire. So far as I am aware, the PR 9s of No 39 Sqn were notinvolved in the Falklands.1Sir Freddie Sowrey. It was said that modifying the Nimrod so that theycould be refuelled in the air meant that a hose blocked the escape hatchand that it fell to a wing commander Nimrod captain to sell thisdrawback to his colleagues, who clearly accepted it. This was perhaps aninstance of the practice, of which we have heard, of devolving decisionmaking to the lowest possible level, of giving people who were veryfamiliar with the parameters of their field of operations, the ability to geton with the job. With the increasing tendency towards centralisation, willwe be able to retain this degree of flexibility in the future?Sir Peter Squire. Perhaps I should try to answer that one, and then seewhether any of my colleagues wish to take issue with me. This is aquestion that concerns us, and it does so on a number of levels but, Ithink that, if you were to ask it of the Commander of one of ourdeployed operating bases in the Gulf today, many of them would say thatwe haven%u2019t got it wrong by any means. In practical terms, they are beinggranted the level of authority that they need to do the job. That said,difficulties do tend to arise when they come home and find that they areobliged to re-adjust to the more rigid structures and procedures thatprevail in the UK; that is when they can get a little frustrated at therelative lack of devolved authority. It is a problem that we are well awareof and one which we have been addressing, certainly since John Allisonwas running Strike Command. He set up a programme, which Isustained, as have those who have followed me, which aimed to1 No 39 Sqn was not awarded the South Atlantic 1982 Battle Honour which it surely would havebeen if it had participated actively in Operation CORPORATE. That said, the waters are a triflemuddied by the fact, at the time of writing, the RAF website does list No 39 Sqn in the RAF%u2019sFalklands ORBAT. Ed