Originally Posted by
Flickhammer
Having read much of this thread I reflected on my time on 72 Back in 90/91 working in those freezing, drafty and crammed (listed) hangars. Trying to keep a fleet of equally ancient Wessex in a flying condition. Followed by a happy summer running a shift on the flight line where it struck me the division between US (ground crew) v Them (air crew) was greater than any other squadron I had been on (and that includes 617).
Other observations:
Ancient Wessex, and its crew, often consisted of:
Captain, Elderly (Bitter) Sqn ldr.
Co pilot, long in the tooth Flt Lt.
Loadmaster ( Yes!Loadmaster, there is no crewman brevet) an even more elderly (Invariably bitter) Warrant officer.
The task! Deliver a 20 year old lance corporal and his squad of teenagers to where the real job was to be done, or deliver a load of toilet paper to a fob and take out the crap.
It did not matter what your previous experience was, if it was not rotary wing your opinion did not matter.
If you were rotary wing but not ex SAR your opinion did not matter.
Only aircrew need have any knowledge of what the Squadron was doing, ie motivation.
Any bites?
I guess I'm imagining all those nights in the Swift then, and the queue of pilot and flying officers signing the 700 under the close supervision of Chiefs still fondly remembered so many years later. Happily, my memories are the polar opposite of yours.