pulse1 (#9074),
Just realised that you have said a very profound thing:
...as he wouldn't be where he was today without him...
That must be true of thousands of us of the wartime generation. Our lives were changed beyond recognition by our war service.
I was destined for a humdrum life, slowly climbing the promotion ladder of the Civil Service, till retirement at age 60, with a half pay pension. Brought up in the "hungry thirties", anyone with a regular "job for life" - and a Pension - was widely envied. There were over two million unemployed (out of a much smaller workforce than today) until the war.
My five years on "another planet" (as I like to think of it) turned my thoughts in quite another direction. The third in a line of (up to me) regular NCOs, who would not have dreamed of (or even wanted) a Commission (not for working-class lads in those days), I fear a frosty reception from my forbears when I put my nose in (only by invitation, you understand) to the Heavenly Sergeant's Mess (if there be such a thing). For I would have Let the Side Down !
And my story can be multiplied many times.
Danny.