Flt Lt David Morgan, Lt Cdr RN?

[Postman Plod]

Am in the process of reading Flt Lt David Morgans book "Hostine Skies: My Falklands Air War" I'm sure its probably not likely to be as controversial as Sharky Wards book but might give the Hermes side of the conflict rather than the Invincible one.

I am a little puzzled by his rank(s) however..... He seems to be referring to himself as both Flt Lt, and Lt Cdr quite interchangeably?

So how does this work (maybe the book will tell me as I get through it, but I'm impatient...)? He started at Dartmouth rather than Cranwell, but was a Flt Lt through the war IIRC, and served in RAFG as an RAF harrier pilot. Hes in his RAF uniform at Buck House picking up his DSC, but then on the title page, refers to himself as Lt Cdr David Morgan DSC RN?

Anyone shed any light??

[teeteringhead]

I'm sure the book will explain all. IIRC DM was initially in the RN, but "did not complete" flying training. Subsequently joined the RAF initially as a helicopter pilot (which is where I knew him) and then as an RAF Harrier pilot, which is what he was in '82, when he got the DSC.

Subsequently joined the RN again and became a two-and-a-half ...

His initial move from the RN may have been connected with some open heart surgery he underwent ("hole-in-the-heart" I think) - some people do fit a lot into their lives!!. He certainly had an impressive "immersion suit zip" scar and used to do lots (maybe still does) for heart charities.

But I'm sure it's all in the book ........ :rolleyes:

[Jackonicko]

What an absolutely top bloke! Had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing him soon after the Malvinas unpleasantness, and a more modest, humorous, intelligent and energetically helpful Harrier mate you couldn't hope to meet. :ok:

[BEagle]

I held at RAFG Wildenrath in 1975 between my Gnat AFTS and Hunter refresher courses. My job was assisting Dave in the Harrier sites office - although I'd been sent there to assist with Open Day triv.

Top chap - very friendly and helpful and had a delightful family as well. He would indeed show off the scar when he'd had a Wobbly or few - but had the most fun whenever a new quack gave him the annual bollock-fondling as he would never mention the scar until the doc saw it!

Flew in the harsh NI SH environment, then got a recommendation for Harriers. I wasn't surprised at all to see him in clips of the Malvinas war.

How is he these days?

[6Z3]

MODEST?.......MODEST?......... MOGGY?

[BossEyed]

What an absolutely top bloke!

Too right! :ok: See, these journos can get it spot on sometimes. :E

[fradu]

This sounds like the pilot interviewed on an old BBC Biggin Hill airshow programme, broadcasted in the late 1980s!
Is he a former SHAR Display Pilot?
If he was, then it would solve a riddle that has been bothering me for ages :ugh:

[Jackonicko]

6Z3,

I should, perhaps, have said that I interviewed Dave Morgan after interviewing Sharkey Ward..... Now after Sharkey, perhaps Cassius Clay would have seemed retiring. :E

[Dan Winterland]

Dave is now a 747 pilot for Virgin. I did several trips with him when I worked for them. A very nice chap with lots of good bar stories. I had to put down Sharkey's book about a third of the way through - I just couldn't complete it. But I'm looking forward to reading Dave's.

[Widger]

Saw his last flypast of the Ark on 801 in 1987. I remember looking down on his aircraft from the Port Sponson and watching the rooster tail of water he left behind him! A very punchy group of men!

[Mogwi]

Guys, I am completely overwhelmed! To answer the Q's, I was chopped on Wessex 1's cos I was c**p at IF and scuttled accross to the RAF where I did a tour on Wx 2's before a grind tour in RAFG which led (after much bitching and moaning [and a mistress - read the book!]) to a GR3 conversion, tour at Gut and exchange to the RN. Flew SHAR Dine Sithe from Hermes and transferred to RN in 94. Displayed the SHAR for long enough to get at least 2 x AFC's but was satisfied with the free beer. Hit by pretty bad PTSD post Falklands but - hey! only way to keep a good man down is to offer him breakfast in the morning!

Now a born-again Virgin (much better the second time around) and Yak 50 displayer ( can't keep a good man etc) Absolutely amazed that chaps are being complimentary about me. Good job the ex hasn't discovered PPRUNE!

Tootle-pip,
Mog

[Mogwi]

Too much rum on the keyboard: I transferred to the RN in 84 and became a Virgin in 94.
Check 6
Mog

[BEagle]

Hi Mog!

58 - you old buggah!

Thanks for the great holding posting at Harrier sites at Wildenrath - although you did go rather quiet when I suggested that German supermarkets and their car parks would make good emergency sites were Boris ever to come westwards....;)

Don't wish to comment on the mistress thing - but I did enjoy a very pleasant evening with you and your other half at the time!

Glad to hear that you're flying for the UK's flag carrier rather than with nigel.

PTSD wasn't that well understood at the time - as Jeff G would perhaps agree?

[lsh]

Am I right in thinking that your Dad was Lt Cdr RN with a DSC and that history (eventually!) repeated itself? Cheers! lsh, Belize, early eighties.

[Mr-AEO]

Whilst I may dislike current foreign plicy, how happy would you have been fighting Zulu's for diamonds in the 1900's?

Armed forces get raped by every parliament that sits, get used to it.

[Mogwi]

Pater was a Seafire driver with 2 kills (God was he pissed off!) but no gongs. Still alive and kicking in Dartmouth.

[Samuel]

Brilliant! Prune at its very best.:ok:

[Samuel]

Anyone care to post the name of the publisher?

[k3k3]

It's on Amazon.co.uk, just search for David Morgan.

But to answer your question, having just noticed where you are, it's published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

[nutcracker 34]

Mr AFO

Whilst I may dislike current foreign plicy, how happy would you have been fighting Zulu's for diamonds in the 1900's.

Not sure that ever happened...so...very happy..

tpm

[AllTrimDoubt]

Well done for the headsup Prune! Just bought the book @ W*terstones. Looks like a top read too...

[Samuel]

Buggeur! I was in the UK in May, and could have bought one, but now I'm having great difficulty with Amazon as any attempt to proceed seems to fail.I will persist! I wonder of Wa-erstones have a mail order section?

Buggeur again; they're linked to Amazon; same problem!

[Navaleye]

I enjoyed the serialisation on the Mail and will be contributing to Mr Morgan's next royalty check just as soon as I can lay my hands on a copy.

[Double Zero]

Me too; already sounds a very honest read.

My Dad - also still with us - was a Seafire eng. fitter then ended up as chargehand on SHAR development jets & others from Dunsfold - would be a laugh if he worked on both Mr.Morgan's a/c !

[Postman Plod]

It is a VERY honest read! Enjoying it immensely! Completely different perspective from Sharkeys book, and significantly less political.

[mlc]

Just bought Sharkeys book for a quid on e-bay. Worth a punt I thought

[Dan Winterland]

No, having read Sharkey's , I could quite honestly say it's not woth a Punt or 1.4 euros (or whaever a Punt is worth now). I would say it's value is approx what it's worth as recycling material.

However, I'm more than happy to pay the asking price for Moggy's memoirs. I saw what my Virgin pension is worth after some fairly considerable contributions on my part. You deserve it mate! :ok:

[mlc]

I'll rip it up as soon as it arrives then. :):p

[Motleycallsign]

I had the pleasure of flying with Dave Morgan (F/L) on Wessex in '71. We had to 'leave' an underslung trailer on the edge of Porton Down - I wonder if it is still there?. An excellent chap to fly with.

[TD&H]

Re: Sharkey's book

The long river company seem to think it's an ideal book to purchase at the same time as David Morgan's!

Shall put DM's on my birthday shopping list. :ok:

[Preppy]

A super read .... couldn't put it down!

[sharmine]

Great to see a thread dedicated to a great guy. I was fortunate enough to serve on Hermes with Dave and on subsequent squadrons. Even crew chiefed for him during his airshow days. I especially remember him coming in for a Short Rolling Landing at Biggleswade and disapearing into a cloud of grass cuttings (got the photo). I was one of the guys who fixed the hole in his tail fin, put there by triple AAA, on the very first attack on Stanley Airport.

Keep up the good work with the Yaks and hope to see you at Compton Abbass when I return from the States soon.:ok: BJ

PS will buy the book soonest. It can't do anything but knock spot's of Sharky's BS

Sharmine

[FCWhippingBoy]

Hehehe .. Just bought DM's book from my local Waterstones - surprised to find it (mistakenly) in the fiction section and not military history! I'm sure it's anything but fiction going by this thread! Hohum :ugh:

[BEagle]

Mine arrived yesterday from BigRiver via the Vulcan to the sky on-line webshop - so the retailer's commission went towards getting 558 airborne again.

Top read, Mog!

Regarding PTSD, it seemed to me after GW1 that the best thing to do was to get back into the 'peacetime' job asap, and then go on leave once back in the 'normal' environment - I'd been a 'reinforcement' VC10 captain, wrested from my cosy UAS existence teaching some excellent people how to have fun when flying. So after flying the jet home from KKIA via a very heavy session in Palermo and a 4-ship beat up at Brize (the buggers at Abingdon wouldn't even allow a flypast....) then begging a lift to pick up my car from the other side of the aerodrome, I unpacked, then went back to the UAS the following day. Did a GH trip and a FAT, then back into the swing of things. So it was that on 22 Feb 91 I'd flown 2 x Op trips, both were 4+ hours supporting Buccs and Tornados - but on 22 Mar 91 it was 4 x 'dog trips - Air Experience, SCT Descending 2 and GH with Boss Hog, then GH/Sector Recce with one stude (now a top Chinnie mate) and Circuit consol with another (became a RM officer). A good transition to normailty - but the odd noise now and again still sounds like the Scud alarm even after 15 years.

[PTSD21]

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[boswell bear]

I got a copy today from amazon will be waiting til my hoilday in Sept to read it.

Sharkys book I read years ago and enjoyed, OK so the guy likes rattling political cages, he got the job done and earned a few bob with his book I can't fault him.

[BEagle]

Ward's book has soft, absorbent pages. So it does at least have one use....

Enduring research in Phoenix, Too Sanh or Noo Yark? YGBSM - couldn't imagine anything less appealing.

[Postman Plod]

Is there a proper critique of Sharkeys book anywhere dealing with the main complaints he brought up??

[Navaleye]

Sharkey's ego does tend to get in the way of what is an otherwise good book and I still enjoy reading it. I have just ordered David Morgan's and I'm looking forward to hearing a balanced perspective from the 800 side.

Also Amazon are offering that plus XM607 for £20. Not bad.

Am thinking about writing a book about my own FI experiences likely to be called "Carrying the boss's briefcase" :*

[Airbedane]

Hi Mogwi,

Tis many years since we last met, but if you'd like to rectify the situation, how about displaying your Yak at Shuttleworth. If you're interested, send me a PM,

VBW,
A

[Navaleye]

The book arrived yesterday and I finished it this evening. A good well written book. A minoir point for correction in the next edition is that Hermes never flew Phantoms.

[mlc]

Just finished Sharkeys book. Aside from his obvious (and somewhat over the top) dislike of the RAF, plus his somewhat moralistic references to other pilots (the attack on the Narwal comes to mind), it wasn't that bad.

[Double Zero]

I knew naval test pilots pre, during then post Falklands, when it became politically correct in the FAA to dismiss Sharkey's comments - All I can say is, in the unlikely event I ever went into combat, he'd be one of the first choices I'd like to be with!

Think of him that way, not how your promotion might go if allied with someone who tells it like it is.

I look forward to reading D.M.'s book, and am sure it will be good.

[Navaleye]

I enjoyed both books very much. David Morgan's just reflects how he dealt with the situation as presented to them at the time. Sharkey's is written with a lot of hindsight, but he makes a lot of very valid points.