Chugalug,
Never fear ! I shall raise my eyes (but not much else) to the heavens in the next Post. As it seems that the RAF at this point had set up only one Jet Conversion School for its entire pilot strength, there was this enormous queue for places. I had six months in the doldrums, two spent on indefinite leave and the rest as an itinerant dogsbody, and by pure chance had stumbled into the ATC empire. It could have been worse. I might have been Officer i/c Pig Farm somewhere.
I heartily second everything you say to ab and Geriaviator (I wonder if he has come across my telling * of the Vultee Vengeance saga - the type to which he was introduced at such an early age !
* Starts Post #2250, p. 113 (IIRC). And Ga: See Chugalug's #2549 p. 128.
Danny.