All good things come to an end.
Retirement date with full pension would be 8th May 1997. In 1994 we were still enjoying the perks of service life in BFG but it seemed wise to jump before I was pushed. I organised an inspection tour for our Director-General with full participation of the AOC and staff which was well received. As a bonus, the official big black car was driven by an armed army corporal [not sure why army, but that is what it was] and sat beside him with the gaffer in the back. The driver was trained in defensive driving and whenever the head man was absent I learned a great deal. My pitch to the boss was that I could look after Germany and a swathe of southern England from the UK, saving an expensive post and demonstrating our willingness to run down in formation with the customers. There were no possible staffing economies at the airfields until they closed, staffing was already very lean. My deputy was now treble-hatted: Deputy, Wg Cdr MMU Germany, and S Met O ARRC, doing several detachments.
Joyce was not enamoured with an early exit but when we did a recce for house buying in Lincolnshire we fell on our feet and bought a dream home in a village with two pubs [the second pub was an insurance in case one burned down, and sure enough it did.
Brize next.