Just hijacking this slightly (POBJOY's post above brought back a memory)…
I was attending my Initial Officers Holiday at Newton back in the early 90's, I had arrived early so thought I would go to the bar.
On arriving there was one other person there...early evening on a Sunday night the whole place was quiet. I thought I would be polite and start a conversation with something like " Hello, are you here on a course to?"..to which I got a very short "Yes"..and not much else....
A very quiet, and what seemed like an age passed before another person arrived and I got talking to them...the other quiet chap I recall sat in the corner on his own until he left.
Next morning we were all leaving the mess to go to the Air Cadet School of Officer excellence when said very quiet man is also leaving in uniform this time with many gold rings up his arm and a whole entourage of bag carriers and brolly holders outside.
We instantly all saluted, but he recognised me and came over and shook my hand before he left....cue many strange looks!
It turned out later he was a very senior Officer from I think somewhere like Romania or Bulgaria...but hardly spoke any English...hence the lack of chat!