Catering Tales

[taxydual]

Leeming, early '80's. Green Dragon, Exelby. The local Fruit and Veg trader was bragging, to a 'new face' in the pub, of how he ripped of the RAF by supplying the cheapest and tattiest fruit and veg to the Station and charging full whack.

The 'new face' was the new Catering Officer.

Whoops.

[ShyTorque]

On arrival at our "SH force field location" (an old farm in Northern Germany) we were told that we would be living off "COMPO" all week (I think BAOR/RAFG stocks were coming up for their best before date). The army delivered said rations by the pallet full and quickly departed. To our "delight" it was all "Menu D".

Thankfully we had a very resourceful camp cook. On night two we had a lamb roast dinner - we didn't ask where it came from.

[Manandboy]

Marham 1984 - station still coming to terms with the new, fast and sparsely-crewed Tornado after many years of Victor catering. 27 Sqn deployment to Goose Bay (supported by Victors, of course). Ration boxes delivered to the sqn just before walk, not many crews opened them to check what was provided before setting off. At an appropriate time (after the second bracket), opened my box to discover a chicken leg wrapped in clingfilm(!) and half pint cardboard carton of orange squash - the kind you had to pull apart to open! All I wanted was a few mouthfuls, so had to land at Goose Bay with an open carton of OJ ballanced on the generator swithches - only way of keeping it level. Unsurprisingly, nobody managed the chicken legs! Explaining to the caterers about eating/drinking in fast-jet cockpits was fun! Loved the egg banjos and babies heads on exercise though!

[Pontius Navigator]

ManandBoy - oranges?

in earlier days of high light and high cabin altitude sandwiches were prepared bite size and fried foods and beans were not in the feeder menus, probably why there were separate aircrew feeders.

Feeding only QRA crews at weekends we could order what we liked - like chicken platter on a tray with two chickens and all the trimmings, or salmon in aspic, or birthday cakes etc.

[Onceapilot]

MandB, I never did get to understand the FJ lunchbox, e.g crumbly egg sarnies cut in triangles, lump of frozen chicken etc. I usually had a Mars bar or two in the ankle pockets!

OAP

[Tengah Type]

#78 BEagle. Thank you for your endorsement of my ( and the mayors ) culinarary skills. But you should have been on the States Trainer on the leg where Vascodegama was resposible for the catering. The Lobster Thermidor starter was excellent.

[Mickj3]

Ah!!, the 10 man pack

[Wander00]

Thanks for sight of compo contents/menus - happy memories

Tengah, you mentioned presumably a nav who used the nom de plume Vasco de Gama. Many years ago, 1965 to be precise, when the RAF College tour to the US in 2 Britannias took place, our nav sent round route and progress up dates, signing each in the name of a different historic navigator, eg Vasco da Gama, John Cabot, etc. Wouldn't be the same guy would it

[Pontius Navigator]

Ah, the route progress map. Seemed to die out after the Brits. Or perhaps on our VC10 over Greenland the nav was too busy. We used the weather map from the Telegraph and made our own. We knew we were off track even if the nav didn't.

[orca]

I remember the fabulous WO from the equally fabulous VC10 crew that dragged us to Malaysia dolling out the packed meals at Al Dhafra before what was due to be a fairly emotional trip to Columbo - through the mighty ITCZ.
Luckily no room to stow a packed meal in the cockpit so we dutifully unpacked them - to find that the mainstay has an extra large ice cream. Obviously couldn’t come with us - cue surreal scene of six fellows in their aeroplanes, strapped in under the sun shelters having a much appreciated ice cream prior to APU start in a still dim Arabian dawn.

[MPN11]

Slightly off-piste, but I remember the OH being able to blag a 32 Sqn Andover to take the RAF Pistol Team to Jersey for a weekend match (well, she was OC Admin). Accordingly our motley crew of cpls and upward gather for the flight. It being a ‘training flight’, the cabin crew/Air Stewards accordingly do the full VIP bit for the X-Channel hops. The faces of some of the more junior members of the Team found themselves being served proper coffee in china cups and saucers, with accompanying Danish Pastries.

Oh, and we beat Jersey!! A lovely trip all round, and some very happy airmen!

[glad rag]

Originally Posted by rolling20

Tanker, IIRC the B52 was and maybe still is able to use an electric frying pan. There is reference to the actor Brigadier James Stewart accompanying a crew on a 13 hour sortie over Nam and the crew using one to supplement their rations. Apparently it was the tail gunners job to get the rations, bacon,eggs, cheese and bread.

If I may have your indulgence..

"Stewart's family on both sides had deep military roots, as both grandfathers had fought in the Civil War,[9] and his father had served during both the Spanish–American War and World War I. Stewart considered his father to be the biggest influence on his life, so it was not surprising that, when another war came, he too was willing to serve. Members of his family had previously been in the infantry, but Stewart chose to become a flier.[30]

An early interest in flying led Stewart to gain his private pilot certificate in 1935 and commercial pilot license in 1938. He often flew cross-country to visit his parents in Pennsylvania, navigating by the railroad tracks.[12] Nearly two years before the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Stewart had accumulated over 400 hours of flying time.[31]

Considered a highly proficient pilot, he entered a cross-country race as a co-pilot in 1939.[32] Stewart, along with musician/composer Hoagy Carmichael, saw the need for trained war pilots, and joined with other Hollywood celebrities to invest in Thunderbird Field, a pilot-training school built and operated by Southwest Airways in Glendale, Arizona. This airfield became part of the United States Army Air Forces training establishment and trained more than 10,000 pilots during World War II.[33]

In October 1940, Stewart was drafted into the United States Army but was rejected for failing to meet the weight requirements for his height for new recruits—Stewart was 5 pounds (2.3 kg) under the standard. To get up to 143 pounds (65 kg), he sought out the help of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's muscle man and trainer Don Loomis, who was noted for his ability to help people gain or lose weight in his studio gymnasium. Stewart subsequently attempted to enlist in the Air Corps, but still came in underweight, although he persuaded the enlistment officer to run new tests, this time passing the weigh-in,[34]
[N 2]with the result that Stewart enlisted and was inducted in the Army on March 22, 1941. He became the first major American movie star to wear a military uniform in World War II.[1]

Stewart enlisted as a private[12]
[35] but applied for an Air Corps commission and Service Pilot rating as both a college graduate and a licensed commercial pilot. Soon to be 33, he was almost six years beyond the maximum age restriction for Aviation Cadet training, the normal path of commissioning for pilots, navigators and bombardiers. The now-obsolete auxiliary pilot ratings (Glider Pilot, Liaison Pilot and Service Pilot) differed from the Aviation Cadet Program in that a higher maximum age limit and corrected vision were allowed upon initial entry. Stewart received his commission as a second lieutenant on January 1, 1942,[36] shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, while a corporal at Moffett Field, California. He received his Service Pilot rating at that time, under the Service Pilot program established in March 1942 for experienced former civilian pilots. Although Service Pilots were normally restricted to noncombat flying, they were permitted to fly overseas on cargo and utility transports, typically with Air Transport, Ferry or Troop Carrier Commands. Under the regulations of the period, a Service Pilot could obtain an unrestricted Pilot rating after one year of USAAF service on flying status, provided he met certain flight experience requirements and passed an evaluation board, and some did in fact go on to combat flying assignments.[37] Stewart's first assignment was an appearance at a March of Dimes rally in Washington, D.C., but Stewart wanted assignment to an operational unit rather than serving as a recruiting symbol. He applied for and was granted advanced training on multi-engine aircraft. Stewart was posted to nearby Mather Field to instruct in both single- and twin-engine aircraft.[35]
[38]


James Stewart in Winning Your Wings (1942)Public appearances by Stewart were limited engagements scheduled by the Army Air Forces. "Stewart appeared several times on network radio with Edgar Bergenand Charlie McCarthy. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, he performed with Orson Welles, Edward G. Robinson, Walter Huston and Lionel Barrymore in an all-network radio program called We Hold These Truths, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the Bill of Rights."[39] In early 1942, Stewart was asked to appear in a film to help recruit the 100,000 airmen the USAAF anticipated it would need to win the war. The USAAF's First Motion Picture Unit shot scenes of Lieutenant Stewart in his pilot's flight jacket and recorded his voice for narration. The short recruitment film Winning Your Wings appeared in movie theaters nationwide beginning in late May and was very successful, resulting in 150,000 new recruits.[40]
[41]

Stewart was concerned that his expertise and celebrity status would relegate him to instructor duties "behind the lines".[42] His fears were confirmed when, after his promotion to first lieutenant on July 7, 1942,[43] he was stationed from August to December 1942 at Kirtland Army Airfield in Albuquerque, New Mexico, piloting AT-11 Kansans used in training bombardiers. He was transferred to Hobbs Army Airfield, New Mexico, for three months of transition training in the four-engine B-17 Flying Fortress, then sent to the Combat Crew Processing Center in Salt Lake City, where he expected to be assigned to a combat unit. Instead, he was assigned in early 1943 to an operational training unit, the 29th Bombardment Group at Gowen Field, Boise, Idaho, as an instructor.[35] He was promoted to captain on July 9, 1943,[43]and appointed a squadron commander.[38] To Stewart, now 35, combat duty seemed far away and unreachable, and he had no clear plans for the future. However, a rumor that Stewart would be taken off flying status and assigned to making training films or selling bonds called for immediate action, because what he dreaded most was "the hope-shattering spectre of a dead end".[44] Stewart appealed to his commander, 30-year-old Lt. Col. Walter E. Arnold Jr., who understood his situation and recommended Stewart to the commander of the 445th Bombardment Group, a B-24 Liberator unit that had just completed initial training at Gowen Field and gone on to final training at Sioux City Army Air Base, Iowa.[45]
[N 3]


Major Jimmy Stewart in 1943In August 1943, Stewart was assigned to the 445th Bomb Group as operations officer of the 703d Bombardment Squadron, but after three weeks became its commander. On October 12, 1943, judged ready to go overseas, the 445th Bomb Group staged to Lincoln Army Airfield, Nebraska. Flying individually, the aircraft first flew to Morrison Army Airfield, Florida, and then on the circuitous Southern Route along the coasts of South America and Africa to RAF Tibenham, Norfolk, England. After several weeks of training missions, in which Stewart flew with most of his combat crews, the group flew its first combat mission on December 13, 1943, to bomb the U-boat facilities at Kiel, Germany, followed three days later by a mission to Bremen. Stewart led the high squadron of the group formation on the first mission, and the entire group on the second.[47] Following a mission to Ludwigshafen, Germany, on January 7, 1944, Stewart was promoted to major.[47]
[N 4] Stewart was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for actions as deputy commander of the 2nd Combat Bombardment Wing on the first day of "Big Week" operations in February and flew two other missions that week.[49]

On March 22, 1944, Stewart flew his 12th combat mission, leading the 2nd Bomb Wing in an attack on Berlin. On March 30, 1944, he was sent to RAF Old Buckenham to become group operations officer of the 453rd Bombardment Group, a new B-24 unit that had just lost both its commander and operations officer on missions.[50] To inspire the unit, Stewart flew as command pilot in the lead B-24 on several missions deep into Nazi-occupied Europe. As a staff officer, Stewart was assigned to the 453rd "for the duration" and thus not subject to a quota of missions of a combat tour. He nevertheless assigned himself as a combat crewman on the group's missions until his promotion to lieutenant colonel on June 3[43] and reassignment on July 1, 1944, to the 2nd Bomb Wing, assigned as executive officer to Brigadier General Edward J. Timberlake. His official tally of mission credits while assigned to the 445th and 453rd Bomb Groups was 20 sorties.

Stewart continued to go on missions uncredited, flying with the pathfinder squadron of the 389th Bombardment Group, with his two former groups and with groups of the 20th Combat Bomb Wing.[51] He received a second award of the Distinguished Flying Cross for actions in combat and was awarded the French Croix de Guerre. He also was awarded the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters.

Stewart served in a number of staff positions in the 2nd and 20th Bomb Wings between July 1944 and the end of the war in Europe, and was promoted to full colonel on March 29, 1945.[43]
[52] Less than two months later, on May 10, he succeeded to command briefly the 2nd Bomb Wing, a position he held until June 15, 1945.[53] Stewart was one of the few Americans to ever rise from private to colonel in only four years during the Second World War.[12]
[35]

At the beginning of June 1945, Stewart was the presiding officer of the court-martial of a pilot and navigator who were charged with dereliction of duty for having accidentally bombed the Swiss city of Zurichthe previous March—the first instance of U.S. personnel being tried for an attack on a neutral country. The court acquitted the defendants.[54]

Stewart returned to the United States aboard RMS Queen Elizabeth, arriving in New York City on 31 August 1945.[55]

Stewart continued to play a role in the Army Air Forces Reserve following World War II and the new United States Air Force Reserve after the official establishment of the Air Force as an independent service in 1947.

Stewart received permanent promotion to colonel in 1953 and served as Air Force Reserve commander of Dobbins Air Force Base, Georgia, the present day Dobbins Air Reserve Base.[43]
[56] He was also one of the 12 founders and a charter member of the Air Force Association in October 1945. Stewart rarely spoke about his wartime service, but did appear in January 1974 in an episode of the TV series The World At War, "Whirlwind: Bombing Germany (September 1939 – April 1944)", commenting on the disastrous mission of October 14, 1943, against Schweinfurt, Germany. At his request, he was identified only as "James Stewart, Squadron Commander" in the documentary.[57]
[58]

On July 23, 1959, Stewart was promoted to brigadier general. During his active duty periods, he remained current as a pilot of Convair B-36 Peacemaker, Boeing B-47 Stratojet and Boeing B-52 Stratofortress intercontinental bombers of the Strategic Air Command.[59] On February 20, 1966, Brigadier General Stewart flew as a non-duty observer in a B-52 on an Arc Light bombing mission during the Vietnam War. He refused the release of any publicity regarding his participation, as he did not want it treated as a stunt, but as part of his job as an officer in the Air Force Reserve.

Stewart, however, often did his part in publicizing and promoting military service in general and the United States Air Force in particular. In 1963, for example, as part of the plot in an episode of the popular television sitcom My Three Sons, Stewart appeared as himself in his brigadier-general's uniform to address high-school students about the importance of science in society and about the many accomplishments of the select group of so-called "eggheads" being educated at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.[60] Five years later, after 27 years of service, Stewart officially retired from the Air Force on May 31, 1968.[61] Stewart received a number of awards during his military service and upon his retirement was also awarded the United States Air Force Distinguished Service Medal. On May 23, 1985, President Ronald Reagan awarded Stewart the Presidential Medal of Freedom and promoted him to Major General on the Retired List.[62]

REF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_...litary_service

[MPN11]

Actually, a thoroughly good chap.

[Tengah Type]

WanderOO #88 Different chap. Ours would have been at Primary School then.
Route Maps were still being used on 10 Sqn in 1983. I do not know when the practice stopped. Probably when the stock of maps ran out and nobody would authorise a new buy.

[Big Pistons Forever]

Small ship pitches up in a coastal Canadian town ( location unspecified to protect the guilty, me). Mail is waiting and included a sternly worded missive from the Senior Staff Officer Naval Supply. It notes that ships have been purchasing high end sea food products resulting in the exceedence of mandated daily maximum food costs per head. Just as I am reading this there is s knock on my cabin door, it’s the Chief Cook.

He says there is a local boat alongside with a fresh haul of scallops, and would we like to buy any. Absolutely I say, buy enough for a good dinner for everyone, just make sure you get a receipt that says, “fish, 2 nd grade quality”

A magnificent scallop dinner was enjoyed by all !

[BEagle]

Tengah Type, possibly the worst 101 trolley tart was 'Bunter'. He starred on one trip by plonking down a cup of tea on Tony Binn's chart and log, slopping much of it over said documents. Then handed the Captain a brimming cup, which he spilled over his hand... "Get this idiot off the flight deck!", came the plaintive cry from the Captain.

On another trip we'd been diverted to Lincoln, Nebraska. Where, as you will no doubt recall, huge corn-fed beef steak is readily available. So impressed was Bunter with the steaks he acquired, that he forgot to buy anything else for the trip up to Goose!

'Route Progess' charts seemed to have died out in my final years on the VC10. However, I'd kept half-a-dozen or so, thus when I flew a Gp Capt back from Cranwell to pre-pongo Abingdon, I handed him one at around Cottesmore, showing our route progress on the standard chart! He did at least see the funny side!

[Cornish Jack]

Back in the 50s, the days of Transport Command, 'lunch boxes' were the order of the day. 'Authority' decided that these were to be discontinued in favour of 'dry rations' i.e. tins of comestibles and loaves of bread etc. Unfortunately, as is the way with 'Authority', this change was introduced without briefing the crews. Thus it was that pre-flighting our Valetta for the Riyan, Salalah, Sharjah, with a load of hungry 'pongos', I found a HUGE tin of ham, half a dozen loaves of weevil ridden bread, several tins of Heinz mixed salad 'goop' and NO tin opener, NO knives of any sort and, of course no plates or cutlery. As Siggy/Pilot Assistant/ dogsbody etc. it fell to me to sort this lot out. Pongos have bayonets, so bread knife sorted. bayonets can stab tins, so tin opener sorted. Result was 'doorsteps' of enormous and irregular construction which were gratefully received by our pax but equally gratefully declined by Skipper and Nav and self! An aircraft which has catering facilties limited to a Type 52 resistance which could heat a can of soup in 45 minutes is not best suited to 'dry rations'!
Later, on the sumptuously appointed Beverley, (ONE water boiler!) our 'AQMs' (some, at least) could manufacture remarkable meals. One such was served , in the freight bay, seated at table, courtesy of a load of furniture being returned to UK. "Just popping downstairs for lunch" the call of gentlemen aviators!

[Pontius Navigator]

Shades of Sunderlands which had a wardroom, so did the Shackleton but the Nimrod had to make do with a galley.

[radar101]

Originally Posted by Pontius Navigator

Shades of Sunderlands which had a wardroom, so did the Shackleton but the Nimrod had to make do with a galley.

Does that imply that the other ranks were not allowed in? Did they have their own messdeck?

[MPN11]

My late Father-in-Law was a Sunderland Navigator/Chef of some repute, apparently.