MPN11 (#8676),
...Coffee Swindles ... eek!
As SATCO, I had posted in straight from Shawbury/CATCS a lady who had been Admin (Sec) but transferred to GD(G)ATC...
For twenty years after the war, Air traffic Control in the RAF had been (as I put it earlier here) "A Sunset Home for all the good old has-beens and never-wozzers from the survivors of the wartime aircrew. There was not a control Tower in the land that could not field at least one complete bomber crew from the Controllers..." They did a fair job, and had the advantage that they were immune to the tall tales of the new Young Tigers with their dazzling new Wings.
But it then occurred to the Powers that Be that this lot would all be retiring in a bloc over the next few years, and they (ie the newly hatched MOD) had better Do Something About It. or they would have no ATC service at all. Accordingly they put the word about, and advertised in the weekend broadsheet "glossies", enticing gullible school leavers to apply for short-service Commissions in this glamourous new Branch of the RAF. Good "A" levels would suffice.
And not only school leavers - at Shawbury I instructed a Direct Entrant lady who was hard up against the ridiculous top age limit of 39. There were cross-overs from other Branches (like your ex-Admin, and a number of General List pilots and navs who had been offered earlier chance of promotion if they did so), ATC Assistants put up for commissions, and maybe some Cranwell cadets (?). This in addition to the fag-end of old aircrew put out to grass for their last years of service.
They creamed off the better applicants and gave all the Direct Entrants four (?) month's OCTU at Henlow, and everybody a three month's ATC Course at Shawbury. Then they were let loose (under supervision, of course) on the Air Force. The younsters were the future of the Branch, and I must say the Selection Boards had done their work well. They started coming in to Shawbury about he middle of my instructional tour ('64-'67) there and then I had them in my last (double) tour at Leeming ('67-'72). With rare exceptions, I found the young gentlemen keen and very pleasant, the young ladies equally keen and charming (it was true, they
did pick the stunners for ATC - officers and airwomen).
But, charming as they might be, they were generally bad bargains for the RAF. As soon as they received their Certificates of Competency (and started being of use to us), and in one case even
before, they tended to vanish in a cloud of orange blossom. I do not recall one who finished her active service. The taxpayer was left to pick up the bill, with little or nothing to show for it.
Whereas the young men set to work, many took General List Commissions and made successful Careers (as indeed did you). The RAF was
your Oyster now. The Old Guard stood down, it was time to go.
Danny.