FGLFB,. .. .I must not have made myself clear - so apologies. There is nothing wrong with a bit of banter between ranks and within a crew, in fact I would say it is essential. The value of a well timed bit of banter in deflating an ego is priceless and I'm sure that a happy crew is a much more productive crew. What I see is the problem , as I said, is the "I'll put him in his place and show him who's boss" attitude. You may say that this doesn't occur but in my experience and in conversations with quite a few ex-AA now out of the service, it does happen. I would also refer you to my comments about the threads that have appeared here over the last year or so regarding jolly japes. Most of them harmless, many highly amusing, but more than a few tinged with the rear end mafia flexing their muscles to show who they though was boss.. .. .Regarding your comments re pianos and high spirits. I've re-read my post and can't see where this has come from! I think it is one of the great tradgedies that over the last 10 years the spirit has been knocked out of a great many aspects of service life. I think that there should always be a place for high spirits (whatever the rank) as long as no harm is done and all is made good in the morning. If my last post suggested otherwise, it was not my intention.