Those who say pilots are a "dead breed" (I remember being told that nearly 10 years ago by a Nav who has since run out of aeroplanes to take star-shots from) do it out of wishful thinking.
If you do a raw analysis of the arguments some non-pilot types have made for getting 2 wings, it so often comes down to a bit of a psychological complex. The best navs, flight engineers, etc, I know (and many are bloody good at their jobs) are so fiercely proud of their original brevets and the distinguishing symbol indicating what they do, that they'd spit on a pilots brevet or anything resembling one, among other unpleasant things!
But hats off.......great windup!
