So it's good leadership to join a contest, agree to abide by the rules
of the contest and then flout them? Is honoring agreements not part
of the military code?

What ****ed off the contest officials was not having to abide by their
special rules and accommodate some of their conservative flying
requirements , which we were happy to do, but their skipping the
contest and disappearing without apparently even telling anyone. In
my book, that's just plain rude. I certainly wouldn't bend over
backwards to accommodate rude guests and I don't expect SSA to either.

Mike