LC and Buoy 15 I can 'confirm' both your 'stories'. Given the other posts about the after effects does cause one to challenge those theories however.
At the time there was no scorn but pure admiration. That he had only Chpmonk experience (fact?) was muted in our thoughts because at the time the RAF had put quite a few engineers and medics through flying training and one operational tour before returning them to branch.
We had an AEO next door, one GA Johns, who we did not believe was a ground eng. Last I heard he had made wing cdr. We naturally assummed that OC Eng had also had some pilot training albeit years before.