My dad was one of The Few. As a young adult I remember collecting him from RAF Bentley Priory after he had attended the annual pilots' reunion in September each year. On my first visit the driveway was choked with cars and taxis, but as the decades rolled by, the cars were fewer and fewer, until the last time I performed my annual duty, I drove unimpeded to the front doors to collect slightly sozzled parent. He died the following summer. My dad had survived so much, it was hard to accept that he was gone. It still is. As a country we owe them all a huge debt of gratitude, and I have a personal debt to my father who was both an inspiration and an example, even though I rarely followed his exemplary footseps!
