I wasn’t going to contribute to this thread but have now changed my mind as a direct result of some of the posts on here.
I was on 1 Squadron at West Raynham on my first tour when Al was there and, in fact, he was my flight commander for some of that time. I was actually in Gibraltar on detachment at the time he flew though Tower Bridge.
To address the somewhat derogatory use of the term “career flight lieutenant” first. In those days flight lieutenants commanded flights, squadron leaders commanded squadrons and wing commanders commanded wings. Some of the people I have known in my 45 plus years of service (37 years full time service and 8 and a half years as a full time reserve) provided invaluable lifetime service to Queen and country and retired as flight lieutenants. I have nothing but respect for the vast majority of those people and have no problem with the fact that they were “career flight lieutenants”. Not everybody can be air rank or the RAF wouldn't work! Furthermore, Al was 32 years old so was hardly "passed over" in those days!
Al Pollock was a very good flight commander and was highly respected on the Squadron. The fact that he had a rush of blood to the head with an aberration most certainly does not detract from all his previous excellent service to the extent that it seems to have been assumed - by some - that he must have been generally unprofessional. Nothing could be further from the truth in my opinion.
Furthermore, from the time that he was made to leave the RAF until right up to today, he has continued to provide an invaluable service to those who have served. He has spent an inordinate amount of his own time, unasked, unpaid and generally unthanked, in keeping everyone who flew the Hunter informed of events, happenings, births, deaths and marriages et al. This despite the fact that he has been unwell himself in the last few years and has struggled to maintain such an excellent service.
I wish I could say that I have never had any “aberrations”, as I must conclude that some posters on here have been so “professional” that they have never made a mistake or an error of judgement throughout their careers, and therefore think that anyone who has must be unprofessional.
All I know is Al Pollock was, in my view, highly professional for 99.95 percent of his career and even with his very publicly noted one “bad decision” he still maintains the respect and friendship of the very vast majority of everyone who knew him, even if some of those who have never known him wish to judge him as otherwise.