John Bell
There was a reference a few days ago to the passing of John, can anyone fill me in with the details - when? why etc?
I was on 4 course with John, he was about a year ahead of me and had spent I think a year on the Hastings including the OCU. After the course I went off to 48 and John to 24 at Lyneham. Amazingly in my subsequent 6 years on the Herc' I never ever bumped into him.
I gather after a tour with 24 he went to the Staff Nav' Course and stayed on as an instructor and then did the old Spec' N Course.
I have a feeling, possibly wrong, that he did not appear on the Herc' again until he became boss of 30 in Sept' '83.
I bumped into him on a couple of occasions at parties at Lyneham, ( wee George Brown often invited Anne and I to the Xmas Draw etc ) once when he was Staish.
Then years later, in 2009, I bumped into him at the market in Fleurance, Gers in France. He told me he was a keen cyclist and had just done the Cairo to Cape Town epic and was thinking of cycling from Perth WA to Darwin.
He came across as not having changed since he was a Fg Off in '67 - top man. Has he really gone?