Military AircrewA forum for the professionals who fly the non-civilian hardware, and the backroom boys and girls without whom nothing would leave the ground. Army, Navy and Airforces of the World, all equally welcome here.
I've already mentioned this on another thread but I hope you all won't mind me using the forum to advertise the forthcoming V - Force reunion proposed to be held at Newark Air Museum in early summer 2010. The last one in 2004 was generally agreed to have been a great success, this time we want to attract as many as we can, particularly those who were unable to attend last time, or heard about it too late.
The reunion is intended for all who served on any V-Force squadron or OCU, aircrew and groundcrew, LACs to ACM's (actually there is one MRAF!), in whatever role To show an interest and get on the email list, just email me on and thereafter you will be updated as the plans progress.
Last time we had the Saturday and Sunday at the museum, where there is plenty to look at once you have got fed up chewing the fat with former colleagues, and given up trying to work out who that fat old git with a beard is (it may be me). We had a function on the Saturday evening and something similar is planned for this time. We also had flypasts by the BBMF Lancaster and The Red Arrows, all entirely unofficial and "fitted in" with other events. We did ask MOD for one Tornado from 617 to fly past to honour the V Force, but that was regarded as an unreasonable request, so the beancounters prevailed and vetoed it on the grounds of cost! This time wouldnt it be great if the tin triangle was still flying and paid us a visit?
If you have any constructive comments about what you'd like to see, particularly if you came to the last one, post them on here - it will all serve to keep the thread visible and spread the word as widely as possible. Looking forward to hearing from you all. Meanwhile here's a link to a report on the last one for those who would like to take a look: V-Force Reunion 2004
So far so disappointing - 345 viewings have resulted in just 5 emails! Just to be clear, sending me a request to go on the mailing list doesnt mean you are signing up for the reunion, just that you'd like to be kept informed. You can make your mind up whether or not you want to attend much nearer the time. One thing though, I had a helpful communication from BBMF who said they would see what they could do about making an appearance on the day. Obviously they can't make promises, but it's a nice gesture anyway. So if you flew on or serviced Valiants, Victors or Vulcans, in any role at any time, I'd like to hear from you.
It may be pedantic, but in the nuclear glory days, most of we V Force ground crew never served on squadrons or OCUs; we worked on centralised servicing. On one occasion 44 Sqn, having won the annual bombing competition, actually sent an invitation for half a dozen chaps from Line Servicing to venture down to the crew room to join in their festivities, but that was the limit of my own squadron involvement. Perhaps you'd like to invite some of us centralised ground crew once again? Or not as the case may be.
It may be pedantic, but in the nuclear glory days, most of we V Force ground crew never served on squadrons or OCUs; we worked on centralised servicing. On one occasion 44 Sqn, having won the annual bombing competition, actually sent an invitation for half a dozen chaps from Line Servicing to venture down to the crew room to join in their festivities, but that was the limit of my own squadron involvement. Perhaps you'd like to invite some of us centralised ground crew once again? Or not as the case may be.
Actually, in terms of dates if not numbers, I would suggest that there was a longer period with sqn eng than centralised.
I am assuming that sqn servicing was the order of the day from the Valiant force until 1964, anout 7-9 years, whereas centralised servicing, when the V-force held the deterent was only 1964-68.
On 12 Sqn we had 2 flt cdrs in Jun 1964 but one was redundant as we had just lost our engineering flt. Of course 2 months later they were back as we deployed on ops
No Blacksheep you are not being pedantic, you are right to point this out. Perhaps I should say the reunion is for anyone who flew or worked on these aircraft in any capacity. At the last reunion we had a guy turn up who had worked at Handley Page making Victor 1s, and he was clutching a piece of metal (cant remember what, exactly) bearing his signature, which he had installed in the aircraft when it was being built. He managed to find out when and where the a/c was being scrapped (St Athan presumably) and managed to retrieve the component as a souvenir. He was a civilian who had never actually served on the V Force as such, but he certainly had as much right to be there as I had. So centralised servicing guys are obviously as welcome as those who were actually on squadrons.
Bob, of course I know you and you are on my list. Thanks for bumping this thread back up, and I will now shamelessly do it again. When you come to tot it up the number of guys who passed through the V Force in its almost 40 year existence (using the term to mean the whole time when any of the 3 V aircraft were operational) must run into 10's of thousands. Sadly many are no longer with us, but loads still are, and I think we have only managed to contact a small proportion of those guys. Keep the names coming please chaps, just send me an email or PM with your email address and I will get you on the address list for further info. Provisional dates are end of April 2010 but this is not yet hard and fast.
I have been talking to Newark museum today and they confirm that there is now a definite date for this reunion, which will be the weekend Saturday/Sunday 24th/25th April 2010. I will be circulating this info to everyone who is on my address list,meanwhile if you missed this thread first time around have a read and if at all interested, send me a private message with your email address, or email me direct at my address shown above, and I will get you on the mailing list for updates.
Newark Museum will shortly be putting a dedicated page on their website for this reunion, once it is up and running I will send a link to all on my contact list.
From what I gather from recent threads (victor airborne, ejector seats on V aircraft etc) there are a lot of ex V Force guys on here,so please get in touch. You wont be committing yourself, just showing an interest.
Further to the last posting, here is a link to the Newark Air Museum's website page about the reunion http://www.newarkairmuseum.org/newsItem.php?id=47 If you bookmark this it will be regularly updated as further info comes in. I have already had good cooperation from some guys on here in the area of spreading the word among their own contacts and I'd like to repeat my request that anyone who has a personal contact who may be interested in the reunion to pass the word on. Thanks
I am in the middle of compiling an email contact list with the intention of publicising this reunion as widely as possible. I am having trouble tracking down quite a few squadron associations, a lot of the info on the net is pretty out of date, and I am getting emails returned undelivered etc.
Here is the list of Valiant, Victor and Vulcan squadrons that I have compiled
Two things. Firstly, I have put an asterisk after the number of those squadron associations for which I have an email address. If anyone has a contact for those squadron associations which I havent already marked, could you let me know, either here in the forum or by PM. Secondly, if I have omitted any V Force squadrons from my list could you please let me know - open forum for that, dont spare my blushes!
As BEagle suggests, 134 was long gone by the V-Force era; it was renumbered as 131, which was the 'shadow' identity of the Fighter Weapons School (Meteors) at Leconfield and the Driffield between 1956 and 1958, and then the 'shadow' for 229OCU (Hunter) for a few months in 1958, before it too was renumbered (as 145).
Thanks for the help chaps. I already had 27* but somehow missed it off my list, but I have added 10 and 18. Not sure where I got 134 from - maybe it came to me in a dream - anyway, deleted that one. Dont forget everyone, if you are aware of squadron associations other than the ones I have marked * thus, please let me know.
Not yet Ian, but they are on our mailing list when we start pushing out the advertising seriously in a few weeks. They were certainly helpful last time in 2004. Certainly dont mind anyone stating the bleeding obvious as Basil Fawlty called it - it might well have been something we had overlooked.
V Force Reunion
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