Danny goes against the flow.
The Station had got a new SWO. New brooms sweep clean: this chap was no exception. He thought that we needed sharpening-up (so we did, but that was the way we liked it). He descended on the airmen's barrack block one morning; everyone who hadn't at least one leg on the ground at 0710 was "on a fizzer". All the Units and Sections were caught in this sweep, my share was two NS airmen.
Now Reveille (Tannoy) was at 0700. But (as in most places, I should imagine), if you were on parade (boots and buttons shining), or at your place of work at 0800, and your bedspace was tidy and bed properly made up, it was no business but your own if you'd skipped breakfast for the sake of an extra half-hour's "kip".
As they'd all been booked together, all the Orderly Rooms were held at the same time. Together with the other three Adjutants, I'd cleared my desk, put on my flat 'at and assumed an appropriately stern expression. Then I thought about the charges a little. Could Reveille really be construed as an order to leap out of bed before the last notes had died away ? How about 0705 (or 0702) ? Now if the Room Corporal (or the SWO for that matter) had ordered the chaps out of bed, and they had not complied, it would be open and shut. But as it was ?
I got the Room Corporal in. Had he given any such order ? No, sir, he had not. Sir came to the conclusion (rightly or wrongly) that no offence had been committed. I dismissed both charges, much to the amazement of everybody on the station. But of course, it didn't stop there.
The other three Adjs had followed habit and automatically dished out 3-7 days CB according to taste (and the crime sheets). It made them look fools, their airmen were justifiably aggrieved. The SWO was livid, went to the Station Commander and demanded my head on a platter. It was not long before the expected summons came.
By that time I'd prepared my defence. Pari passu, if this had been a Court Martial offence, and the Prosecution had gone to court on such slender evidence, the Prosecuting Officer would have been thrown out on his ear, with stinging comment from the Deputy Judge Advocate. Why should a lesser standard of justice prevail because it was a trivial offence and I was merely a Subordinate Commander ? This was unanswerable and Daw fell back on "what would happen if everybody did it ?" Respectfully, I pointed out that everybody had been doing it, and the Station had been jogging along all right, as far as anyone could see.
We agreed to differ on that one; not for the first time I thanked the Lord that, in taking away my Career, the RAF had thrown away the only stick it had to beat me with. Daw reflected with bitter satisfaction that my Tour would end in a month or two. The SWO would have said "Amen" to that - it's amazing how much venom and dumb-insolence an experienced W.O. can put into a "Sir" (on the rare occasions when we subsequently met).
I became an overnight hero to my chaps. David had slain Goliath, St.George had speared the Dragon, I was Robin Hood to the SWO's Sheriff of Nottingham. David Brown (who'd backed me throughout) was quietly amused. My cheque fiasco (earlier in the year) was quite forgiven.
It only remains to wrap-up RAF Thornaby and the Auxiliaries.
Goodnight again, chaps
Danny42C
All good things come to an end.