Grey, you and your team deserve all of the accolade you get here and everywhere else. On some of these threads you tend to think "yeah yeah, point taken, lets move on!" Not so with this one!!! Probably room for several thousand more thankyou notes from service guys everywhere.
I've been unfortunate to have 2 cases. First one was whilst I was on HMS Invisible many years ago. Father took ill, boss contacted me via ASMA (remember that?!?!?) and I was on Seaking into Dubai airport within hours. Flew home club class and was met at airport by a friend in light blue who took me to the hospital via my home for a clean up!! Amazing.
Never thinking that would be topped, several years later I was on det at sunny stornoway with the mighty F3s when father fell ill again (i'm sure he waited until I was as far away from Newcastle as possible!). I got the bad news, sat in a room on the phone to family for about 20 mins. No sooner had I put the phone down when the F3 guys were sizing me up for a growbag with accessories. Flown to Leeming and then driven to Newcastle. Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou.
P.S. Sorry I barfed in the Tonka...