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Old 25th Aug 2020, 12:20
  #38 (permalink)  
meleagertoo
 
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: Central UK
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The RN stopped drinking before flying in the mid '70s I believe. Until then it was perfectly normal, according to ex colleagues, to have a pint or two of lager in the wardroom after lunch and then go off on the afternoon flypro. And not just the helo pukes either, Phantoms and Buccs were still in service then. Apparently the signal 'Effective Immediate' was read out in the wardroom before lunch one day by Cdr(F) completely out of the blue and was not at all kindly recieved.

There are myriad tales since then, some of which must be true, of the OOD entering the bar at close to midnight on a friday or saturday, silencing the revellers and telling all SAR rated crews to report to their squadron for immediate launch.
The technique apparently was to go down the line and ask how many pints each had had and pick a crew from the lowest.
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