Maybe he is too old to rejoin paras? Maybe he just does not want to be goaded by you into talking about his previous service?
If cirrusfrance had retrained as a doctor, and he applied to join the RAMC rather than rejoin the infantry, would you be sneering at him for that too?
Having just looked into this thread again, it is really disappointing to see some of the elitist attitudes here. I can well understand that the military is just not that stretched to consider the option at the moment. However, some of the claims that no civilian pilot could put a Defender into a steep turn, or that an ATPL would not last a week on EFT, seem designed to insult rather than add anything constructive. It is not the sort of attitude that I remember from the RN.
Anyway, that's all I have to say. My last post and goodbye!