In a LOT of years in RAF SAR, I saw crewmen save thousands of lives
That's quite a claim for starters. How many thousands of lives did you see saved? I don't have a LOT of hours of SAR but to see thousands of lives saved you must have done a LOT of jobs because in my experience a LOT of calls are not life saving.
I only hope when I have flown a LOT of SAR hours I will have helped saved thousands of lives too but to date I reckon about <5% of jobs are actually life saving.