Jacko,
Thanks for posting those excerpts .. they are an excellent reminder of the sort of person King Hussein really was. And you've reminded me of an incident many, many years ago ..
Slight thread drift ... but one year my ATC Squadron was given the job of providing 'door-minders' for the VIP tent at the Biggin Hill airshow. Not a terribly complex task - ask for ID, come to attention and salute where neccessary and generally deter the rifraff from trying to get in.
Enter stage left the King and his entourage, and approach the door manned by our resident 'everything by the book' chap. Who snaps to attention and demands to see some ID. Which is duly produced.
But our chap then walks up to the King, pulls out his 3822 and asks for an autograph!! At this point, many VIPs would have had an immense hissy fit but the King, faced with an enthusiastic 14 yr old lad, did the entirely decent thing and signed the chaps book, chatted with him for a couple of minutes and then moved on.
The only sad thing about this story is that the lad who initially showed such initiative later went on to become a Snowdrop
CS