The Waddington QRA was, as said earlier, on Alpha dispersal where the E3s now live. Before it was completely concreted over for the E3s, Alpha was not, like all the other dispersals an 'H' layout, more of a double '8'. Ground crew were based in a couple of huts near Alpha 1, under the care of Flt. Sgt. "Midge" Midgeley in my time. We had a workshop/office and next door a TV lounge and Games room with snooker and ping-pong tables. There was no kitchen - we split teams and ate at the airmen's mess - a mad scramble, with much scattering of food and utensils if the tannoy erupted with the "Exercise Edom...." call - and we would roar through the station back to QRA as fast as an RAF Land Rover could manage. [Negotiating a tight corner at 70 mph in a Land Rover makes an interesting experience]. One's crew partner would meanwhile have got the bungs & blanks off by himself, cursing his luck - by the time the exercise was over and the aircraft back on the pan and serviced, the mess would be closed. The on-duty team were crewed two to an aircraft plus one driver and a Corporal I/C and we slept in caravans parked behind our huts. A tour on QRA lasted one month, 48 hours on and 48 hours off with Line Servicing Squadron 'A' and 'B' Flights alternating the two day intervals. Daily routine was performing the daily checks after breakfast, with the occasional 'Combats' and bombing up when an aircraft was rotated. The rest of the day we were 'hanging slack', playing snooker, cleaning the premises, reading or watching TV. Consequently, QRA was popular with Singlies, but not so for Scalies who were stuck on station with no contact with their families for two days at a time. There were four aircraft, each of three manned by a crew from each squadron and a spare in case of a hard failure of any of the three. All four were held 'Live'.
On a Micky Finn our domestic arrangements could be pretty terrible. RAF Valley was one of the worst - there was a dispersal area near the beach with a dormitory and a couple of WW2 barrack huts. These had been vandalised with windows broken, no working heating and smelled of urine. The only place to bed down was in the hut at the Two-ship ORP. After a 12 hour stint at Waddington, followed by a flight to Valley in a Beverley then 36 hours of continuous duty with no bed rest I was so knackered I fell asleep at the Ground Power Unit during the scramble - standing up, fifty feet from a pair of Vulcans running up to full chat!
Such was life on the Cold War front line in the late sixties. I wouldn't have missed it for anything.