Per Ardua ad Astra,
roadsman,
First, my delayed "Welcome aboard !" - to this, the finest Thread in "Military Aviation" - to you and your Dad. Tell him, he's among friends here.
It is particularly interesting to get 'gen' from that strange time immediately after '46 (nb "duration of hostilities " has become "duration of the present emergency" (what emergency , for Pete's sake ?) before the (much smaller, leaner, fitter ?) RAF got properly back on its feet again.
".....RAF Martlesham Heath and scrounged flights in the Ansons based at the airfield. It was during these flights he noticed that the Navigators appeared to be busy all the time and he decided that is what he wanted to become when he joined the RAF....". (Now if he'd said "Pilot" or "Bomb Aimer", that would be more like it ! - ah, the zeal of youth). I went to Martlesham with my R.(Aux).A.F. unit on Summer Camp in'52. Nice place.
"He selected Navigator as his first choice. He accepted the King’s shilling and joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve" Why didn't they put him straight into the RAF ? Was he treated as if he was just on National Service ? I thought the VR ended with the War, and wasn't reconstituted until'48 - it's all very puzzling.
".....at the time Navigators were still being trained using the one year wartime syllabus.The new course were to be nearly two years long....." I thought they only did 6 months in war - but there are many people here who can (and will, no doubt, !) prove me wrong.
"..... After successfully completing the course he was awarded his navigator brevet and given the rank of Nav IV....." The old "Hennessy Four Star" system ! - a bad idea from the start, to distinguish "proper" Sergeants from these "Johnnie-come-lately" aircrew types. As I recall, 'IV' was 'u/t"; 'III' equated to Sgt; 'II' F/Sgt; and 'I' W.O. - then they changed their minds and called all the 'I's "Master" (Pilot, Nav, Bomb Aimer........etc). Then they scrapped the lot and went back to good old Sgt and F/Sgt - but hung on to the 'Masters',* and we had these for a long time afterwards. Does it all make sense to you ? No, not to me either !
".....His pilot at Swinderby was a Polish Flight Sergeant called Jurczyczysn ....." All right, I know when I'm beaten ! I'll go quietly ! You pronounce it !
"Dad continued flying until 1970 and retired from the RAF in 1983.... " You can't, you just can't , leave us like that ! Much more please, roadsman ! - and soon.
Many thanks and regards to you both, Danny.
Edit:
Note * :
Strange: it almost looks as if they were unwilling to admit their mistake and therefore retained one trace of it to justify the change. A very similar thing was done in the case of the gold-winged monstrosity which was introduced around '50 to replace the wartine pattern No.1 S.D. jacket.
When commonsense at last returned, and they threw the thing out of the window, the wartime jacket came back - but still minus the fourth button ! (to safe face ?)
D.
Last edited by Danny42C; 12th Aug 2014 at 22:01.
Reason: Format & Punctuation, also Add Text.