Уважение и фразы типа вышеуказанной - разные вещи. У Олдса, в отличие от Ричи и Кэннингхэма, были реальные, подтвержденные противником, успехи.
Вот его слова (сказанные, правда, про 17-ый, но по контексту его речи подойдут и к 21-му):
the MiG-17 was vicious... vicious little beast!
А с другой стороны:
We knocked the beejeezus out of them in the month of May of 1967. We had many, many battles, and we downed a lot of them. I think they kind of fell back into a corner of their hangar and sulked a little bit, and had a few head-to-head sessions on tactics before coming out again. At any rate, we mauled them quite severely, and they disappeared for about four weeks. When they came up again, they seemed to came up with renewed vigor, and different tactics. They learned their lessons, just as we learned ours...