"Secondly, do you think the kids of today could lead a wing?"
Of course they could! There is no change in the basic makeup of humans.
As I am wont to point out, (at some price to my career I must admit) the problem is that older people cannot!
The first thing that happens in every major war in history is that the older buggers in charge of the military are put out to grass, and the youth which have still got the balls to make a decision and not afraid to be wrong step up to run things properly!