My opinion,
Bader was one of those flawed people, in fact much like 99% of us. His way of dealing with disability by refusing to be intimidated by it, was and is, an inspiration. The possible flip-side of that is that he may well have been unpleasant to quite a few people.
In “Fly For Your Life” there is a reported exchange between “Sailor” Malan and Stanford Tuck after Tuck had a confrontation with Bader.
“Tuck sighed and shook his head, ‘Christ he makes me so mad. Why does he have to be so obstinate all the time?”
“Because”, Sailor said as he moved off, “if he wasn’t so bl**dy obstinate, he bl**dy well wouldn’t be here!”
I don’t know how reliable the above is, presumably it is from Tuck’s memory, but I think it makes the point.
Personally, I prefer my heroes to be flawed, they seem more likeable…
I too am looking forward to the programme, the article in ATB seemed very conclusive to me, and a chap who’s opinion I respect has told me that Andy knows his stuff.
Jim Robinson
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