Jay, this may bring a smile to your father-in-law:
A few years ago yarning here in the woods about the navy in the Second World War, to spice things up I asked two friends, a RN Second Sea Lord and a RCN CAG fighter pilot, at what point did they realize that the Royal Navy had slipped to second place in power and prowess on the seas.
"Oh, I don't know if we ever did," said the knighted sailor whose responsibilities after the war included commandant of Dartmouth naval school. He was all you'd expect of a man of his responsibilities, with a well-tuned sense of humor, engagingly loaded with all the tricks of wardroom debate.
C'mon, I said, there's no one under the deck, no one to hear you. There must have been one battle, maybe in the South Pacific with the Americans, that said a page had turned in naval warfare: Crossing Nelson's T, Midway, Leyte Gulf. "Leyte Gulf," he said, with a wonderful smile, happy to give credit where it was due.
