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117haven%u2019t really covered is the mistakes that the Service made inconverting itself, in terms of command and control, from a staticorganisation into a mobile one. Perhaps the Chairman could comment onthe relationship between 18 Gp and Strike Command? We heard howOdiham suffered in 1982 from staff officers who didn%u2019t really understandwhat they were doing. Have we moved forward? Are we properlystructured to discharge, in a joint force scenario, our present and futurefunctions, whatever they may be %u2013 and they will certainly be different inthe future?Sir John Curtiss. Well, as I said this morning, we simply didn%u2019t have aJoint Headquarters and the need for one was clearly one of the majorlessons taught by the campaign. The lesson was well learned and theresult has been exercised extensively in the years since then. The lack ofa joint organisation did sometimes put people in an extraordinarilydifficult position and I am personally full of praise and admiration formy CinC at Strike Command and his Deputy, neither of whom interferedbecause I had been put in charge of the aircraft that were operating toAscension and further south. All I ever got was co-operation, but I thinkthat that was almost entirely to do with the way that the air force %u2018family%u2019works; it was certainly not an ideal arrangement. Strike Command wasactually in a very difficult position; they were obliged to supply theaeroplanes, and much else, but having done so, they didn%u2019t have muchsay in how they were to be employed. I was, therefore, very fortunate inthat I was well supported, but not interfered with, by CommandHeadquarters and by all the AOCs concerned.Sir Peter Squire. I was not here this morning, so I don%u2019t know what hasalready been said about the setting up of the Permanent JointHeadquarters (PJHQ), but the current relationship between that HQ,which has operational command of the forces allocated to it, and thesupporting commands (Fleet at Northwood, Land at Wilton and Strike atHigh Wycombe) is extremely good. It has to be, because the PJHQ staffis a relatively small one and they simply could not do their job withoutthe assistance and support that they get from the individual Services.But, apart from changes to C2 arrangements, I think that we can seethat there have been many changes within the air force over the last tenyears or so. There has always been an element of %u2018jointery, within certainelements of the RAF. Clearly there was a Land/Air connection for the