minigundiplomat
I trust that was meant to be a humorous remark.
I wanted to be a navigator and put that as my first choice on my OASC application in 65. Having seen the film 'Dr Strangelove' where the nav' was the coolest guy in the B52 crew and the pilot captain was completely nuts had swayed me somewhat. When I was at Gaydon/Strad in 66/7 I was aware of only 2 or 3 chopped pilots among the 100 or so students. On the Herc' fleet we had one or two wannabe pilots - a couple of names come to mind of guys who went to the' dark side' - Graham Finch, Alex Nash and Art Lofthouse.
The downside of being a nav was flying opportunities after RAF service - I believe BOAC got rid of navs ( as opposed to pilots as navs ) in 63 and although there was a brief resurgence when independent airlines ( Dan Air, Lloyd etc ) bought 707s when the big boys replaced them with heavies, I think it was all over by the end of the 70s.