A…….r is it?
For you & Jayce (NO e-mail) – this is not some modesty thing. If you take snippets of a career, yes, you can make it sound great. Like dancing with the Raratonga Dance Champion of the year, while on the H Bomb trials.
Like having the canopy shatter over Everest when in shorts, shirt & peaked cap.
Like failing to win the freckle faced Ambulance girl while she was cutting my trousers off.
Like landing wheels up in a Shackleton at night.
But this is not what I was paid for – ie to dispose of the enemy. Or, later, to inspire others. With my abysmal gunnery record, & the fact that opportunities were lacking, despite like for like hours flown, I was not likely to be an ace. Add to this that I was not a born leader/commander & you have nothing to be proud of.
And then the point of memory comes in. I was naive – didn’t really appreciate the seriousness of the situation, or what my responsibilities were – so better not said. And, the one thing that I hold against the Service, no one ever took the time to point the way.
And even IF – I do not have the power of recall that is vital to the reader.
I only have to read such as Geoff Wellum to have confirmed the need to be grateful for survival & leave it at that.
Does that make sense??
= Tim
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