Darkside - no mud slinging from me, merely stating a fact!
Having been 'around' when he was the Flt Cdr, and before and after his tenure, I can tell you that the Flt never lost its boys club attitude and I witnessed a wholesale lack of professionalism many many times.
If you want, I am quite happy to publish them on here - no I thought not!
The fact is, if JG thought something as trivial as banning Samonsites would get him further up the tree, he would do it!
HPT