Sepia tint and Sorrow
As previously mentioned, F4 life in the early 70's was a ball. A beautiful aircraft, fast cars, faster women and country pubs. Those were indeed the days.
Sometimes however, tragedy intervened, and on occasion it even brought humour in its wake- pun intended.
In '71 I shared a bachelor pad with a fellow 6Sqn colleague just outside Woodhall Spa. One winter day, he was leading a pair at low level in 2nm radar trail practising for the forthcoming night ground attack drama. Encountering white-out conditions near Carlisle, he executed the SOP escape manouevre of 30 degrees pich and full burner as winessed by the No 2 in trail. Shortly thereafter, he hit the top of Thack Moor at 550Kts wings level in a slight descent with full burner. This much I recall from the BOI which I attended since I had failed his IRT about a month previously. He passed the re-ride.
Being his "roomy", the flt cdr and I travelled up to see his parents. Their surprise at seeing us soon turned to horror as the BBC news they had just watched stated that next of kin had been informed.
It was as "effects officer" that I subsequently discovered from his personal papers that he was engaged to two girls. I knew the German one from a memorable detachment to Hopsten, but the Norwegian one came as a bit of a surprise. She turned out to be the sister-in-law of another 6Sqn pilot.
So which one did I decide in concert with the boss to invite to the full military funeral? Who would you have chosen?
As a postscript and graphic illustration that lightning can strike more than once, this tragic grieving family in short order lost another son in a road traffic accident, and then had their house severely damaged by the explosion at Flixborough chemical plant.
This has been another retro-thrill ride from Blaireau Enterprises.