Quite true DOF, I knew an ex-ranker Vulcan AEO named Colin ******, the name tag on his flying suit had the shortened version and read Col ******, he always got more respect than others when transiting the USA.
A dapper little Scots chap with a moustache - and an excellent AEO! More respect than the rest of our crew in the USA? Not really - but the Spams were often taken in when we called him Colonel.
Diverted to Kinloss once after unexpected heavy snow in Lincilnshire - he was wearing a spare immersion suit which had no name tag, just 'Spare size nn, sock size 8' on a dinghy orange patch on the left tit. We had no other kit with us, so he was rather unimpressed when we grabbed him and changed the 's' in 'sock' to a 'C' - and added an inches sign. The occupants of the pub we found thought it was rather amusing though - especially the women!