A great post Sherm, could not have said it better myself. For all what happened some things I would never change. I had the privilege to be a young first officer and fly with the greats. Blokes who were from Bomber Command, who often shy about talking about their experiences, but after a skinful would sometimes share their lives and experiences. Blokes who had survived crashes only to be taken as POWs and placed in Stalag camps, escaped, got caught again, and escaped again. Blokes who spent the night floating around in the English Channel, Blokes who survived the 30 sorties, and went back again. They were tough hard young men, but had already seen to much, and by the time they got back and joined the Airlines, they were seasoned flyers and a inspiration to a young hairy arsed F/O like me. What a privilege to even share the same flight deck. I often thought in my later years, and having returned from OS after the dreaded 89 and finally ending up in QF, that some of the so called Sky Gods ( and I met a few) but only a few, where not even in the same league as these blokes, these condesending, overblown
Pr%$Ks talking themselves up and thinking, mate you have no idea. You never had the chance I had, to fly with the best of the best.