You ex chaps forget things have changed since then. St Mawgan in 1980 was a very different place to where most of us are today.
The 'odd afternoon' would be even more distraction from the primary tasks we have, for which we don't have enough people, time, money or other resources to do properly.
I'm guessing the ratio of blue suits to OOA warfighting deployments was a little more favourable in 1980 too.