One of my Corporals came to me in some distress. It appeared that he had sold his car to a Marine Lieutenant on the AFS Course. Unwisely, he'd handed over the car and paperwork before the cheque cleared - it didn't. The amount at stake was £100 or so - good money then.
I could hardly reprove him. The same had happened to me at Thorney Island three years before, but in my case I could easily get hold of the defaulter (a nav student at ANS) and turn the thumbscews on him if needed. So where was our errant Marine ? Somewhere in Borneo, that's where !
I told the Corporal that he'd been an idiot (not news to him, as his wife had acidly been telling him the same thing for some time), that I would do what I could for him and take it up with the Navy (he had the bounced cheque as evidence), but that he should not hold his breath.
I sought audience with the Commander (Air). He gravely heard me out, then told me more or less what I'd told the Corporal. "Leave it with me", said the Commander. I reported back to my chap. "This'll take a while", I thought.
Of course it was a serious matter. "Robbing your Comrades" (which is what this amounted to) has always been considered among the blackest of military crimes (short of murdering him - like Kipling's "
Danny Deever"). Between two officers, or two Other Ranks, it's bad enough. But for any officer to "bilk" a member of the Lower Deck in this way is unpardonable.
No E-mails or Skype in those days. But the Commander had not been idle. Signals were soon flashing round the world. Our Marine had been traced to his jungle hilltop: the error of his ways gently whispered into his shell-like ear.
About ten days later my Corporal came to see me again, beaming from ear to ear. Another cheque had come - a good one this time.
And he was "off the hook" at home, too. Full marks to the Navy !
Not long after the Commander was posted away. I was at his Dining Out. He'd always been well liked, but there were disappointed murmers of dissent all round when, in his speech, he suggested that, as the age of the great battleships had passed, so now was the turn of our great warships of the air (the V-bombers).
Yet the Commander spoke the truth. In May'60 Gary Powers, in an U-2, had been brought down by an early Russian SAM. By extension, the same could now happen to anything else flying. The cloak of invulnerability hitherto provided to the V-bombers by their combination of very high speed and high altitude had been torn away.
The age of the bomber was over. The intercontinental missile would take over.
Goodnight, everybody.
Danny42C.
Be Sure your Sins will Find You Out !