Fair enough. I’m not comparing my time in the Cadets to yours in the forces, and I’ll say very briefly as I do with everyone that serves, Thank you for your service.

The reason I didn’t go into the RAF (which was a serious plan of mine) was because my father was still fairly haunted after losing his father during WWII. He let me do Cadets, but further than that, no way. I would have entered the RAF at the peak of the Cold War had I gone in as planned at 18, but I suppose my father was too jumpy with the Soviet Jets that would get dangerously close to British Airspace at the time that he didn’t want to see my mashed corpse in a Harrier or something similar after a nasty run in with the Soviets (even at the behest of my mother he wouldn’t let me join. She did all she could to persuade him that that was incredibly unlikely, not least because such a confrontation could have started Nuclear War, but I guess my father had valid reason not to want me to join).