Of Beechcraft and Barracudas
Danny, Thank you for your steer back to Regle (RIP) on page 16, he certainly nailed the subject of "hazing" and indeed, all the other wonderful stuff on this, the best of threads.
I too, was rooting about on the thread last night, refreshing my memory and trying to get all my ducks in a row before posting any of the war stories of my forbears. I know how ruthless PPRuNers can be about "duff gen", and, what with me never having been in the military, I'm walking on eggshells here.
Anyhoo, (as they say around here) I came upon your post 3107, page 156 "Danny at Sulur"
"Neville Stack senior ran a communications squadron with Beechcraft "Expeditors", nice little light twins, to ferry Admirals and their Staffs round Ceylon and South India".
"Carrier aircraft came in from the sea from time to time; one day a "Barracuda" flew in in a rainstorm, skidded off the wet runway and skated across a patch of flooded grass into one of my correctly parked VVs. Both aircraft were write-offs, but there were no casualties".
Two simple sentences Danny, but, with them, you reconnected me to my father, mother and stepfather all at once.
At the time you were in Sulur my father was in India with 229 Group Comm. Flight Palam, flying the Great and the Good (and some not so) about the place. And his favourite steed of all was the Beech 18 Expeditor.
As for the unloved Fairey Barracuda, well, back in Blighty at that same time my mother could be found at RNAS Ronaldsway IOM. She was that rarest of the species "Wrennus" - an Air Mechanic (E) and would be fettling the Merlin 32s of 747 Naval Air Squadron's (yes you've guessed it) Barracudas.
Lastly, just a few months earlier, my stepfather was sailing in the Indian Ocean, embarked upon H.M.S. Indomitable with 817 Naval Air Squadron, dive bombing Japanese assets in Sumatra and the Nicobar Islands in yet another Barracuda, LS 503, to be precise.
Such is the power and the beauty of this thread, and I thank you (and all the others) for keeping the memories alive for those of us who were not there.
Time to feed the "pusheens" now, (small cats, to those of you not resident on the Emerald Isle).
All the best
IanBB