H-B:
Please accept my apology if I offended you, that was certainly not the intention. I can confirm that if nothing else that my entry was meant to be self-deprecating as I completed my service without ever holding the Queens Commission (
I left as a Cpl because of dead mans shoes promotion in my trade), although this was indeed the career path I originally intended to follow. As I have said before on deep reflection, there is very little if anything at all that I would change about my time in the RAF, apart from making better use of the educational facilities earlier, but in all honesty, I got out what I put in. And for that, I have absolutely no complaint whatsoever because it has stood me in good stead compared to my non ex-military peers.
Such is the dark humour of the Other Ranks sometimes (particularly of my Cold War generation), but again, I assure you, no slur or offence was intended.
I can assure you my tongue was so far into my cynical cheek that it has indeed finally given me a mouth ulcer. Maybe there is such a thing as Karma after all.
And as I've said on another post, what with 7000 civilianised posts going, maybe a lot of these things are starting to come back full circle. The next few years to 2020 are going to be.... interesting.