let's have some more examples of 'rank creep'
On a lighter note, some years ago (early 90s perhaps) a tri-service Rotary Wing policy group beanfest was convened in MB. As usual, leadership / hosting was in rotation and this time it was the RAF, who invited the Army head of aviation (probably a Staff Sergeant) and the RN's Director General Aircraft (Navy), who would also represent the RM (whose RW support policy tends to revolve around nicking kit from whoever isn't looking).
However, the Rear Admiral's Technical Advisor (Captain) knew his new boss was V busy, had a look at the agenda and asked who knew most about the items. The answer was a civilian PTO (Grade D) - as you'd expect actually - and he was sent off to London.
The PTO quickly realised everyone was in civvies and the other Services hadn't a clue who to expect from the RN, so just assumed he was a senior RN officer, if not the new Admiral. He kept quiet. The RAF 2 Star started with a good old moan about SAR avionics support. The DGA(N) reply went along the lines of "What do you expect when your maintenace policy relies on an RN establishment that closed 10 years ago". This went on for a while and eventually the RN was invited to give a presentation on the detailed support issues, where of course the Devil lies. At the end, while quaffing vino collapso, he was praised on remembering so much from what must have been many promotions ago. He replied no, in a few weeks my tour ends and I return to being a diag on the sonics bench at Fleetlands. Priceless. They took it in good part and the Admiral received a nice letter of commendation from the Junior services. But wasn't overly pleased that some junior..........