THE MOBILE MET UNIT.
Disclaimer. I was never an insider but had many friends among the unit, and a good number of members reporting to me. It is certain that my recollections contain errors. If so, corrections please!
The Mobile Met Unit was founded when I was in Cyprus c. 1963, figuratively clutching a Dormant Commission as a F O in the RAFVR. Thus or otherwise there was no attempt to recruit me to that unusual body.
I did see recruitment efforts in Met. O. Orders and was briefly tempted. I already had a slack handful of secondary duties such as S Met.O to the UK Warning and Monitoring Organisation ‘down the hole’ at Fiskerton and Horsham. As an aside, there was good specialist training by experts in fall-out and the behaviour of radioactive plumes. There was a major exercise most years lasting a long weekend during which we used canned weather and did not have access to real weather reports. Sometimes emerging into a gale with lashing rain having lived with an antiCyclops for 72 hours felt weird.
The MMU members were commissioned, and I think the most senior in the early days was a Sqn Ldr. There was a need for observers as well as forecasters so the juniors were commissioned as F Os in the first place. The role was to support exercises [‘war’ or ‘operations’ were tacitly included but not dwelt on]. The pay was totally civilian according to Met. grade, and overtime was also paid under civilian rules. The major exercises were ‘Purple’ and sometimes the MMU forecast disagreed with the RN version. On one famous occasion the Exercise Director singled ‘us’ out for differential praise.
There was always [and probably still is] a tension between MMU needs and the day to day running of an RAF Station Met. Office. This tension was caused by short-notice transition of a resident forecaster into an RAF MMU bloke whisked away indefinitely, with no process other than expedients to fill the gap. Contrary to widespread belief, staffing was always lean, if not mean. This situation came to a head in 1982 when exercise commitments became Operations, and the need to man Ascension [and later Stanley] took away a considerable number of staff. P Met Os [I was such at RAF Bawtry] were straight into the task of juggling holes.
Thereafter the uneasy years of peace were punctuated by deployments here there and everywhere, to sandy places and the Balkans.
By this time the MMU had grown to include its own Met. technicians and the boss was a Wg Cdr sporting a number plate MMU 1 on a less than pristine car.
While I was C Met O in Germany the increasing demands on the Unit were such that recruiting was needed and I suggested that a Germany wing be formed ………. There was an element of military training for all my staff [NBC, exercises, Harrier deployments etc] and they tended to be younger, fitter and more adaptable. Thus my deputy became a Wg Cdr and a couple of S Met Os became Sqn Ldrs, and half a dozen other staff were commissioned. I now had a hand in who was to be deployed and when, so moving the holes around became in-house.
Where does Port come into the MMU? Seen from the outside, the MMU were a hard-drinking, hard-living bundle of fun, and Port was their tipple of choice after a few wets of ale or red biddy. They worked outrageously long hours for very long detachments in a variety of very unpleasant places, and richly deserved their fine arrays of campaign medals, the odd MBE and many Air Efficiency awards.
In 2000 the MMU became a Sponsored Reserve Unit and I think were incorporated in Tac Comms Wing. Thereafter I know very little, but wish the lads and lasses of the MMU all the best.
I raise a glass of Port to the lovable rogues of the MMU, wherever they may be.
Last edited by langleybaston; 18th Apr 2024 at 17:18.
Reason: for sh1t read shot