Originally Posted by
Ascend Charlie
We also told the wives that if the husband died at home, that she had to dress him in uniform and push him outside the door. Then she had to ring the Duty Officer and say that her husband hadn't come home from the base yet, and where was he?
That way he would be covered by the equivalent of worker's compensation, as he was still officially on the job and hadn't returned home. But might have been an urban myth.
Would this be perhaps so the widow would get a War Widows Pension?
Are aircrew still encouraged to write a letter to their loved ones in case of an accident. My dad died in an RAF plane crash in 1960 and when my mother died years later I found such a letter. I started reading it but didn't think I should read it all so disposed of it.