Sid:
You're trying very hard to dissemble this but perhaps you 'protest too much'. I never said that I condoned flying after drinking, merely that there was a different take on these things 50 years ago and like so much of today's revisionist nonsense, one cannot necessarily judge those events by today's standards, when lawyers and other clever people govern what we must think and say. How you infer that I condone drinking and flying is beyond me! Also, because I mentioned Mr A on this thread does not mean that I necessarily agree with what he did but we can all be smart with hindsight.
You may come up with all sorts of hypothetical 'what ifs' but nothing is ever an 'absolute' and human nature often gets in the way of those who try and make it so. None of us is 'holier than thou' if we look back with anything other than rose tinted glasses. If I was a soldier pinned down under fire and a helicopter turned up to rescue me I wouldn't turn it away and I'm sure you wouldn't either. On the other hand, if it was carefully explained to me that I wasn't going to be picked up until the next day because of various rules and regulations I'm sure I would understand - my family would too.
Perhaps to follow your moral absolutism stance Mr A should also have been subject to some public humiliation like the stocks - but then I mustn't infer more than you are implying must I?
By the way I never served in Centaur - I was in a frigate at the time - and strangely enough I can remember lots about it - as I said, it was before I started flying training.