How cool is that :)

Wasn’t there a Chief that disappeared up in Scotland who simply asked a transiting US Aircraft heading back to the States for a lift and they said sure bud, hop on board, which he did.

I too had dayglo RAF on the bottom of my kitbag. It came in handy hitching.

Post a Friday Night Officers call at the Mess....mandatory attendance until the OC departed....and following consumption of far more to drink than I remember....was told I and a very lovely young Lady had won the Weekly Dance Contest....and me not being a Dancer when conscious warned me of the evil of harsh drink.

Someone said that dancing is "the vertical expression of a horizontal desire". Maybe that's why you were so good at it... :)

My upbringing by a strict Southern Baptist Mom may have prepared me for a profession not taken and as I am just not a dancer but was a helicopter pilot....and assuming your theory is correct then maybe I should have been a Southern Baptist Preacher as I love Fried Chicken too.:ok:

2-6 on the hangar doors.

The OCTU at South Cerney had an unitive test whereas the cadets had to hitch over the weekend and phone in on Monday to see who who had gone the furthest. One hitched to Fairford or Brize and blagged a trip over the pond. Monday's call was from some officer's club in the middle of the States.

They didn't run that exercise again.

Brilliant!

Me too SASless - something to do with the total lack of normal coordination required to fly rotary!

AS Thoreau (sort of) put it, we of the helicopter persuasion "hear a different drummer...."

Philrigger: From your posts on this thread, we may have crossed paths. I was possibly on that Beverley from Djibouti you mention, and Lyneham as also a giveaway.

Khormaksar Days
 

...and Habylayn, Ataq. Went to them on days off. Being on MRT made it that much easier.

Roebuck

Should instead have married her immediately, she obviously complemented you even in dimensions you did not know you had!

I am not sure I would want the Woman that would have me as a Husband....her thinking would sure beg questioning.

However, as the State Lottery schemes did not exist in those days....marrying an Army Helicopter Pilot in those days and having Life Insurance on him had a much better chance of a payout than any lottery ever had.

For real....the family Insurance guy heard I was in town and dropped by the house in an effort to sell me some Life Insurance....and was happily taking down my application as I was between combat tours and was on Leave prior to going back to my second tour.

When we got to "Occupation" and he heard Army Helicopter Pilot....he slowly shut his note book and said that even if his company would issue a policy.....I would not be able to afford the Annual Premiums.

I suppose they knew something I did not.

it did come to me in a flash so to speak a bit over two months later. The good news is the incident shaved ten months off a twelve month deployment....with two of those ten months laying around in bed listening to my skin grow..

You omitted the best one; during Confrontation those enjoying a 12 month unaccompanied tour could take 2 weeks leave locally, or save it up for ones return to UK. The married contingent mostly saved theirs; I hitched a ride to Changi on a RNZAF Bristol Freighter, and set out with the intention of travelling slowly North to Penang, and the slowly back. The first half was as planned. visiting Malacca, KL and Ipoh at which point I arrived at the NAAFI/WVS run Sandycroft holiday centre on Penang. Having fallen in love with the island, the rest of the trip was spent based there. Sadly, I'm loth to return, as the deserted beaches one could cycle to are now lined with hotels, although I'm sure the sunsets are still as spectacular, and I know the young ladies at the establishments visited on evenings in Georgetown will have grown up somewhat. Reluctantly, a 20 hour train journey got me back to Singapore for another can of Tiger, and a Hastings back to Kuching.

Arthur gently vomiting onto a meat platter that he continued eating.
On HF deployment a Regt flt cdr dug his own trench which he lined with straw then slept in it. The Rocks used it as a latrine.
Orderly dog. A knock on the window, one of the troops asking for a cup of tea at 3am. Great night he said, got pissed, had a fu*k, had a fight. Didn't know you had car says I, no, I found it said he. Get out of here, take it back to where you 'found' it and don't come back here.
Tired and emotional cpl staggering through the gate at Wildenrath. The police wanted to lock him up. You can't do that, I'm the Duty Armourer.
Armament Assistant asked to use the iron, yes, but you can only use that much electricity - pointing to a level on the conduit, he reckoned that would be enough. He had to get ready as he was fighting Billy Two Rivers in Lincoln Corn Exchange.
Flt Cdr to Armament Assistant (another one) XXX give me a lift over to the bomb dump, at which the AA swept him off his feet in a fireman's lift.

It just ain't like that anymore.

you’d need a decent sized bag to carry your carving materials - to make all those carbolic soap on a rope cocks you were so proud of. You know, the ones all the WRAFs loved back in the day. Must have been such a hit.

Nimmy, reminder: medication is every day.

CG

nurse had to double my med’s after reading the carbolic incident

The Union Jack Club in Singapore
I remember it well, having stayed there whilst on leave from Gan in 1958.
My pic below.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....ead0500fa8.jpg

Waking up to the smell of burning, looking down the corridor horrified to see smoke pouring from under next room door, bangs on door no answer, looks through keyhole see drunken bod sitting on bed feeding the fire in his waste bin with magazines, bangs on door pleading, no answer, wake everyone then legs it down guardroom as one of Sqn on duty Sgt hoping he might make him see sense. Everyman and his dog called out and fire extinguished, guy looses his single room and moved back to dorm block. Thanks me for it.

Ah, the Brit Club. Amusing to watch well-oiled Pongoes volunteering to be lifted up to try and stop the big ceiling fans with their heads. Not so funny when they threw (full) cans of Tiger up into the fans for a random distribution pattern around the room.

​​​​​​Even worse with eating irons!

On one of the final night's celebrations prior to its closure there was quite a lot of damage caused by OR's who disliked the thought of the UJ Club becoming designated as the Singapore Armed Forces Officers' Club. Some of the known participants, along with other 'volunteers' from locally-based units, were subsequently invited to take part in the clear up.
At a disciplinary hearing at RAF Changi in late 1971, a statement from a redcap (Military Police) went along the lines of "....when I asked the accused, who was standing on top of the piano holding a fire extinguisher, what he was doing he replied "Putting out the fire Corporal!"
I'm not sure if this was the same piano that eventually ended in the deep end of the pool.

Nay Jimmie....if he was doing replicas of RAF Cocks....he would need very small tools and a very high powered magnifying glass to see his work.

You've clearly been around RAF officers too long!:ok:

CG

I'm almost embarrassed to contribute having read some of the posts.........but here goes! Standing in a field in Germany on ex Lion Heart getting pay (and LOA) in a brown envelope. Staring in disbelief at the prices in the NAAFI at St Georges Barracks in Minden. Growing up fast! My mate running into me and writing a Bedford TM off.......errrr, there may have been some paperwork involved but not much. Same mate blowing the turbo on the replacement TM and our SSM asking "would you like me to have an effing tow truck accompany you everywhere Docherty?!" Another mate who was "Don R" having his helmeted head stuffed through the grill of another TM when someone selected reverse instead of second and reversed into three of us chatting! Errrrr, definitely no paperwork on that one!! Falling asleep in a rest area and finding the convoy had moved off........waking the snoring lance jack in the drivers seat and asking for the map......"what map?" and thinking "we're f*cked now!"
This is without doubt, the best thread ever!!! My god, what an anodyne world we live in..........I'm waiting for a call from 1984 telling me I can go back! :{

Lionheart,
walking into a pitch black HAS to find some guy with a dim torch trying to do a bf on a Jag, asking why he hasn’t turned the lights on to be told it’s all in German and no one has showed him how to… educating the guy on let there be light and getting a cheery thanks.

Major Readiness Test of the Army National Units assigned to the 30th Infantry Division (Mechanized) to determine if the NG with additional equipment, funding, and training periods above the standard then in place could be ready to deploy to combat in six weeks time.

Venue...Fort Stewart south of Savannah in Georgia....August....HOT, lots of Bugs, Snakes, swamp, just the kind of place the Army loved.

Regular Army Inspection Team going through the Unit's as we arrived (mine the Division Aviation Company (UH-1 Hueys and OH-58 Kiowas).....Inspector with Unit TO and E in hand (Table of Organization and Equipment List)....going down the line of vehicles....encounters the spare Pilots lounging as only Army Warrant Officer Helicopter Pilots know how to do....not impressed the Colonel doing the inspection. Cued up snarky attitude of said Colonel when he discovered a non-TOE vehicle (per the Regular Army TOE) and insisted to know just what the truck was carrying.....response....that is our Shower Truck (locally modified with Immersion Heaters/Water Tanks, Shower Heads on each side complete with fold down wooden Pallets for the prevention of mud there of. Colonel not amused.

Then the Colonel encountered another non Reg Army Truck....this one with a generator with bulk fuel tank....and eight once coin operated Coca-Cola Canned Softdrink Machines....four for Soda Pop and four for Beer.

At which point said Colonel had the kind of Snit fit rarely seen in our Division Area.....and when reminded of the US Army Regulation that stated a Unit Commander was authorized to alter his Unit TOE to fit local requirements....the Colonel got very snarky indeed and asked just what the hell we thought we were doing bringing that....that....finger extended and quivering at the offending vehicles...to the Readiness Test!

When from in the ranks of the ranks of the attending Warrant Officer Pilots was heard....."Silly SOB (abbreviated for politeness)....does he think we are coming to the Field without our Showers and Cold Beer?".

The impact of that statement was one of the highlights of that six weeks in the wilds of Fort Stewart!

We deployed some Hueys via C-130 to NZ for an exercise, and with us was an Army Ground Liaison Officer (GLOWORM) who brought his khaki-coloured Postie bike. The bike was almost empty of fuel, it just had enough for Major Malfunction to ride it down to the fuel dump, where he ordered the Corporal to fill it up.
"But..Sir..."
"NO BUTS CORPORAL! Fill it up!"
So, he filled it up, with diesel.
Mal got about 50 yards before the poor little thing wheezed and stopped. Mal was raging as he pushed it back to our lines and got his Captain to sort it out. Much muffled guffaws from the aircrews.

Wife of the RSM at an Officer Training Unit not far from Sydney had a baby daughter. Overnight, thanks to the efforts of the Chaplain and a couple of officer cadets, the parade ground canons were painted pink.

Next morning parade, the mock-angry RSM bellowed "Who painted the canons pink?"
From somewhere in the back of the parade..."It was the work of God."

The parade then collapsed in guffaws as the duty cadet ran a string of nappies (diapers) up the flag pole.

Especially when you had been dumped by a lift on unlit roads 12 miles from Saint Athan at 3am on a Monday morning! I am not sure what got me back on time, the risk of being run down or missing first parade.

BEagle, Does the aircraft name 'Bonaventure' resonate?

Roebuck

Bumming a lift in a Puma to Catterick allowing a short hitch hike home across country, getting out of the Puma when it lands beside another and thanking the grinning crew as I grab my bag and wander off, watching the pair of Puma departing with the still grinning crewman waving at me out of the door, arriving at the camp gate and having a All Creatures Great and Small moment when I realise I am in the middle nowhere, the camp is deserted and it certainly isn’t Catterick.