Union-Jack - You are quite right of course, and in my defence I should say that the tone of my letter made it clear that it was just tongue in cheek and no reflection on Sir Jock personally. On a wider point, a lot of us who served in the 50's to 70's are used to the disparaging comments from some younger posters who have served through a period of continuous conflict and picked up a chestful of campaign medals on the way. One on here went so far as to describe the RAF that I served in as the "post war flying club". So here is a man who by accident (not design) has served through periods of conflict, but has been engaged elsewhere, obviously very effectively, given his new appointment.
Good luck to him!