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Pull up a sandbag ~ "I remember when..

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Pull up a sandbag ~ "I remember when..

Old 1st Sep 2007, 11:27
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...you could use your aircraft to get you home on a friday afternoon and return it discreetly on a sunday. Providing it was quite small, of course!
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 11:42
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All RAF pilot trainees were given Basic Flying Training.....


















....on jet-propelled aeroplanes!
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 12:08
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We were lions led by donkeys
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 12:30
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When you were only issued with one pair of No2 trousers.

Less shirts than there were working days in the week.

Carrying your hold all with RAF in dayglo tape on the bottom guaranteed you a lift virtually anywhere without the fear of being bummed or shot.

A call to 7 SQN meant a flight in a Canberra that afternoon.

The Canberra never getting out of its parking space.

The highly trained, paid and Commisioned crew saying, "well lets pretend we're going somewhere" and making engine noises and jiggling around on the seats for a couple of minutes.

When Tennants cans had girls on them http://www.cannyscot.com/ - collect them all before you die of liver failure. And they were only 30p each.

When Curly Wurlys were so big you could use them as a ladder.

I can confim that the Bone/dogdoo explanation is true. I gave my dog a bone last year and his poo was white. I spent hours looking at it in fascination and getting that warm somewhere else feeling that you get, when listening to an old song for example.
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 12:53
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Million Lira meal bill - Deci
Enrico's - Deci
BFG
10 DM hangover
Station Bikes
Regiment SWO's
All the Bases I had served at were still open!!!!!!
Macrahanish!
Turnhouse!
Chivenor!
Bruggen!
Laarbruch!
Wildenrath!
Gutersloh!
Americans flying from Goose Bay!

Ivor
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 13:03
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Yes, I do remember when...

We still had Marine Craft Units.
We still had 'chippies'.
We had Duty Suppliers who actually answered the phone on the second ring at oh-my-god-O'clock.
We still had NCO pilots, even into the late '70's.
We had AOC's parades, complete with station bands.
We had lots of overseas bases.
We had lots of squadrons.
We had lots of aircraft.
We had lots of manpower to get the job done right.
We had lots of spares to get the job done right.
We scrambed for real.
We had no problem getting home and back at weekends because we thumbed it in uniform.
When on trains, we never knew when asked 'you must know my son/uncle/husband, he's in the RAF as well' because the RAF was BIG.
When all our aircraft were British.
When all the equipment on our aircraft was British.
When the Senior and VSO's earned their promotion.
When the VSO's listened and you saw results.
When you got well and truly gassed on GDT.
When each station had a gun club.
When we had FLM's.
When we had WRAF's.
When we got our full entitlement of cold weather kit.
When we were so proud of what we were part of that everyone tried to sign on.
When no-one tried to PVR.
When the rockapes used to brain themselves in the Pen Club fans.
When honkers was a delicacy.
When the RAF woud bend over backwards, officially or otherwise, to help you, one of their own.
When the only time you had to run was to catch the bus to the NAAFI.
When you could bum a lift in Anybody's-Air-Force aircraft.
When low flying was exciting because it was exciting, not because someone might screw you afterwards.
When there was always room on an indulgence flight.

Yes, I remember when...it was when I was young.

camlobe
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 13:23
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Camlobe,

Ref the Pen Club, have we met??

I remember nights in the Pen Club (84-88) when;

We used to wheel the jukebox back to the block for the all nighters,

When the fans competitions started to get serious at fan speed 4 (I whimped out then).

When Butts stopped it at 5.

When Butts got back onto solids.

When the APC pengys were given their proper island arrival briefing.

When we used to ride our 'peds to the bar.

When officers had their own bar to go to.

When Fingers made the best flip flop sarnie on the island, for a quid.

When Costas used to shout 'Tosstey rrready!' and it sometimes almost was.

When we used to hold our July 5th VC night to annoy Olive Harvest, dressed in inside out NBC suits, tin AK47s and cone hats made out of reed beech mats.

When JJ decided he could jump off the roof and land in the bush outside the Pete's Gopping and very nearly made it.

When we had proper Summer Balls.

When Ratboy finished the US recce capability in the region when he beat up the TR1 pilot.

When it used to open up for us on the QT at 06:30 when we came off ops and we were asleep by 08:00.

When we'd each almost polish off half a demijohn of 6 month old Keo cocktail brandy.

And then take on the world.

When Brian Deeley made 3 of us move out of the block and live in trenches on the sqn for 1 week for getting caught fighting there.

Good nights.

Its 'Charlies' now, or something equally toss isn't it?
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 13:52
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When officers contented themselves with saying 'Yes' instead of 'Absolutely'.

When the attendees on a stn execs GDT course would actually believe you when you told them that CS had been banned for H&S reasons and had now been replaced with a locally purchased lemon and jasmine room spray.

When secondary duties were exactly that.

When you could sleep off an hangover by inspecting the camnet score.

When sqn cmdrs inspected accomadation and when we had bullnights and when mingers were given a regimental bath.

When the duty officer actually checked the JRM.

When Chris at RAF Benson served me Beef Wellington, my finest ever service meal.

When we had a stn library to go to.

When Sponge put Fullers Earth on the upper blades of my roof mounted room fan, and the stn cmdr decided to check it by switching it on. Standing underneath it.

When the ME had 'no NBC' threat.
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 14:23
  #89 (permalink)  
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When as a tyro RN P we lived in the SeeCo (sp?) Huts, the annexe to the OM at Leeming, and paid lower accom charges, as they were left over from WWII.
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 14:37
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Pre-AFIs - where did they go?
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 14:58
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Its 'Charlies' now, or something equally toss isn't it?
It's called 'Tommy Tuckers' I believe, I agree................toss!
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 14:59
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We had: Bomber, Fighter, Transport, Technical Training, Flying Training, Coastal, Signals & Maintenance Commands. Far East Air Force, Near East Air Force, No 2 Allied Tactical Air Force.

AMWD, MPBW, PSA - when works jobs used to get done promptly by real tradesmen!

NAAFI dances at Spittlegate - WRAF training depot
same at Freckleton - nurses training

Doing Fire Bucket with a pick axe handle

No elf 'n safety

MAP
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 15:45
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When Lenny Henry was bricking himself about appearing at the Xmas NAAFI Bop at Colt as the previous year the committee's choice didn't meet with the audiences favor and had been bottled!
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 15:59
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When Air tragic would ask you to pull a brake chute off a Victor as it would'nt release so it could taxi back

Wrapping a brake chute round the tailplane of a Lightning.

When the current SWO at ISL was an SAC [Hi Gary]

Marshalling aircraft in a Batman Mask.

When a Danish groundcrew member brought his 10 year old son to Leuchars on the detachment Herk, and no one batted an eyelid.

Ugly Competitions


God I'm getting old.
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 16:16
  #95 (permalink)  
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Originally Posted by BEagle
'Eggy-bakes' in the OM kitchen after the bar closed.
You only saw cabbage-kit on exercises.
Eggy-bakes at the skippers house at o'cht hundred with Mrs Skipper staying out of the kitchen.

Eggy-bakes at the Bawtry Cafe, in mess kit, after a dining-in night

No cabbage-kit

The Sunday night film show overseas was in the open air with 16mm projectors. (Overseas means a hot climate, not RAFG)
In cinemascope with and ordinary lens. James Bond 10 feet tall.
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 16:21
  #96 (permalink)  
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Mike Alpha Papa, you forgot MEAF

And RAF Eastleigh etc
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 16:58
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Pen Club aka whatever it is called now...

AI R

Hello and maybe. Visited a number of times in the 'ole Grey Lady between '84 and '88.

The welcome brief (every time) from the plod i.e. it's not here...
Desert boots (personaly purchased but accepted as official footware)
Waking up in a DEEP storm drain complete with a Charlie hangover.
Brandy Sour's to die for.
Best haircut I've ever had from the guy by the SWO's office.
Button bay booze up's.
Ski Cub booze up's.
F4J-UK's having a bad time trying to get their radar gunsights right.
Bouncing monsoons.
Victors using ALL the runway even with brake chutes.
'Charlie' Chan not quite making it back.
The 'Blue Lagoon' LWB series Land Rover.
Quiet and later, not so quiet nights in Limassol.
Weekends at Aia Nappa (Oh, yes).
Convincing the Army MP that it was quite all right for me to ride a motorbike in the SBA without a helmet as I was an employee of BT.
Tatty Ton dropping the targets with no holes on the runway (re the F4 comment above).
Chit Chats that only complained when you stood on them.
Goats milk.
Cypriot taxi drivers from Hell.
Best steaks I have ever eaten.
Best fish meze's I have ever eaten.
The coke machines that never quite ran out no matter how much you drank.
The 'it's not here' doing circuits and bumps, and its chase vehicle.
The various parties.

And, of course, the quiet nights in the Pen Club.
The guys coming into work the following morning with 'fan rash' on their foreheads.
The one night when a guy from VASS came in with three girls. Thought he was on a winner. Laughed too loud too often, and got too pi$$ed. As the night went on the girls found other company. He was not a happy bunny. Think he had a fight instead.

Yeh, I remember the Pen Club.

camlobe
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 17:52
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Cam,

Charlie Chan, the Lightning that crashed, right? I was working out of the Op on the hill behind the village (Bacon Grill Hill ) and was down in the quarry, when Dave W came over the net telling us that a Lightning with big problems was coming in. We tanked it back out of the quarry as it whistled over. I think the motor had been turned off by that stage. He ejected with a flash and it bounced into a grapevine with a thunderclap and then ammo started cracking off. The ejection rail (I assume) was clattering against the fuselage. Very exciting stuff for a young shaver like me. He was ok I think, a wagon collected him.

The barber was Gary, and he's still there so I hear. The SWO I remember there was WO Sutherland, ex Scots Guards. I imported a XR2 (Rosso Red, alloys and sunroof, ohhh D519 GYK where are you?) and myself and Sensible Burgess took it for a spin down to Buttons. We burned off the SWO and he chased us. We pulled in and quickly removed our earrings. He chewed us a nice sphincter, but when I had my wedding reception down at Buttons (class act me), he was awesome. A top bloke, and just what a SWO should be like. He used to lurk in the bondu behind the garage and catch the APC guys moping over with hands in pocket and no hats on. Napa was awesome. I tell my kids that I went there when there were only 3 bars; VIPs, the Black and White and a.n other, I forget. Sleeping on the beach.. great times.

Is the grey lady, the Shack? I had a jolly on that, we had a peek at the Soviet fleet off Libya. I had come off a bike outside the block and had a broken wrist. The captain asked me if in my honest opinion I could parachute in a drama (chaaa.. ) and I said I could so he said 'hop aboard then'. Jammy Turner was so called because he lost his jolly in a Canberra that develped asymmetrical problems on take off and ended up upside down on North Ridge. He ended up doing a fod plod on the wreckage of the very a/c that he was going to be on. A Wessex crashed off Buttons too, with a medic and nurse on who didn't get off, very sad.

I was invariably on jankers and the preferred punishment was to sweep the main drag between the MGR and the Main Gate.. that must have been 2 miles at least. In summer, wearing ye olde body armour and tin lid. You can't crack me, I'm a rubber duck . The sqn boss was a guy called DT Bills, who is now bursar of Stamford School for girls I think. During one exchange with him, he was about to pass sentance on me and all of a sudden a local barged in, emptied the bin and walked out again with a cheery 'Hellllo!'. It was surreal. The stn cdr had a small vineyard by his office, and one night, I got in there with a WRAF APC. We idles the night away in various positions, munching grapes, but it was only 18 hours later that I was to find out he had sprayed them with a hideous chemical. My throat swelled up, the swine.

I went there a bright eyed boy and returned a gibbering wreck. Fighting with 2SG was the norm, but on one occasion, they had a guy raped by some Lebonese fishermen in the harbour, so G Coy got themselves a fleet of 4 tonners and one night, trashed every single Lebonese bar they could. Good drills . Those boys stuck together. Remember the Argylls killing the RAF SAC by dropping a paving slab on his head at the Pen Club? Bastards. There was also the Ay Nik spy drama, and the subsequent RAFP cock up. I was having a drink in a bar one night in limassol with Stupid Burgess and a middle aged guy with a Middle East complexion and an English public schoolboy accent started chatting with us.. 'So, tell me.. he said 'What are your thoughts on the inflammatory statement by that puppet Thatcher to about the latest attempts by the Soviet President to promote peace in the region?'. Subtle. We smirked and left.

Great great times.. and as for those nurses.. jeez. I had been working on one for months, and one Friday night, after Shaun had finished the Gadaffi Hop, I asked her if she'd like to come back for a coffee, a chat and perhaps to listen to my new Simple Minds album . Anyway, she said yes and I almost yelped with excitement. She needed to collect her kitten though, from the WRAF Block and I said 'Of course!!'. Anyway, with the cat duly collected, back we went. Got her back and the cat decided to have the biggest loose sh#t all ever over my bed. I had bollocks like a mountain goat by that stage, and alas, was destined never to achieve the objective.
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 18:21
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I was going to take a cheap shot and comment upon how appropriate it was that a Rock Ape should have a 'Simple Minds' album.....

But I won't, becaues your contributions reveal to today's kids how good things once were!

On the mighty Tin Triangle, we often took groundcrew lads with us on the 7th seat, as well as a Crew Chief on the 6th. One day we went to Goose with a happy youngster on the 7th; he was last seen disappearing off with the local det guys who promised to 'look after him'. This involved him being taken to some very dubious Newfie spots....

Some days later, the Boss ('Sweaters', later to Cat 5 himself in a Chipmunk...) and his crew came through on the way back from Offut to Scampton. During the evening in the pub, he asked how things were going.... "Well, fine Boss. Brought one of the groundcrew out on the 7th, he's been having a great time $hagging his way round North West River ever since!"

"Good lad! What's his name?"
"Cpl ******"
"**** - that's the bugger that's going out wiht my daughter. And you've let him screw his way through all those clap-ridden Newfies?"
"Another beer, Boss?"

Also went to Luqa. For youngsters, 'The Gut' had nothing to do with Gutersloh!

Such days!

That's if you've ever heard of Gutersloh, of course.......
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Old 1st Sep 2007, 18:33
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