Have they stopped this wonderful tradition? :sad:

I was going to mention it but thought that they couldn't possibly have got rid of it...

;)
mstjbrown

...... I thumbed a lift in a Beverley back to Khormaksar ......


Back in '67 when I was at Khormaksar 5 of us young lads went to Addis Ababa for 2 weeks leave. Coming back we were stranded across the water at Djibouti with no money left when a 84 Sqn Bev came in to collect the mail. A quick word with the 'Q' and we were sitting up in the boom on our way back. No paperwork and no fuss. Thanks again 84.
'We knew how to whinge but we kept it in the NAAFI bar.'

While I sonon't know that every single station keeps it up, it certainly happened up here in the frozen north last year...

..aah Jack Holt - what a SWO!

When JH was SWO at Odiham, young Fg Off Teeters found himself hanging around the Staish's outer office for some reason. Staish was the namesake and the "lesser" son of a very well-known WWII Air Marshal and post-war CAS and MRAF.

Said Staish had very receding hair, but made up for it by growing it very long (well over the collar) at the back.

JH marches in, stick under arm, slashed peak etc, delivers scary salute and:

JH: Sir, I have checked your diary with the PA; it is free at 1530 today, so I have arranged for the Station Barber to come to your office. Thank you Sir!

Another scary salute, about turn and march out.

Ohmigod I thinks, I've just seen the SWO tell the Staish to get his :mad: hair cut!

I remember when...
You kept your old serge hairy working blue trousers long after they should have been consigned to the dustbin, as new ones would take the skin off your legs! :eek:
... bright blue new working blue blouses matched with old slate grey trousers.
V-force duty suppers - throw a steak or two onto the hotplate
.. we had a V-force
The skys of East Anglia were chocka with mil jets
Crew-neck wooly-pullies with tie-strings at the neck; trogg boots with white sea-boot socks - lineys for the use of.
No guards on the main gate and a myriad of entrances and exits

Those Were The Days
 

;)
Things of days long gone; PORs, FFIs, Pot Belly Stoves, PBX, .303s, Transit Camps, Early calls from the Guardroom runner (Towel on the end of the bed)

Overseaes postings; Singapore, Borneo, Malaya, Hong Kong, Gan, East Africa, Persian Gulf (Still), Cyprus (Only just still), Aden, Libya, Malta, Deep Sea Boxes

Chasing rabbits at night while strapped on the front wing of a David Brown tractor racing over the airfield at Lyneham with a pick axe handle in hand.

All bedding stores were run by a Cpl GD 'Paddy the Blanket'. Who walked around the bedding store with bumber pads under his shoes to protect the highly polished lino.

Getting 3 days jankers for being late at a previous (7 days) jankers parade.





'We knew how to whinge but we kept it in the NAAFI bar.'

Teeteringhead,

Brilliant, where have all the good SWOs gone? I remember a SWO turning up one day with a black eye.. he'd been fighting! :D

We've been talking about Mike Jackson recently, and I was reminded of a similar incident with him. I was doing TACP in N Bosnia a while back, and he visited the troops. Although a Battlegroup asset, we had a remit to wander as tasked and were always trying to clock up more miles than the Bootie TACP. Anyway, one day, we bowled up in the clank and debussed, being in real (and I mean REAL) rag order. He wanders over, takes one look at me and says 'Aha, someone in theatre with longer hair than me!!'. The RSM's eyes bulged and he hissed 'Wait here you f#cking Crab' as he followed in the man's wake. Like hell. I refuelled, turned around and got the clank out of there as quickly as possible.

Incidentally, having had cause one day to discharge my main armament and personal wpns (IW and SLP), I was asked by the QM of the same unit to write a statement about it as I was in the process of getting replen'd. Biting my lip, I did so (I have the photocopy still, it was done on the back of a Bluey). Then, he asked me where the empty cases were. 'In a f#cking minefield near Sanski Most, you want them you go and get them' I suggested none too subtly. He got his own back. When later asking for sh#thouse paper for the back of the wagon, he smiled and asked me 'How many men do you have? I need to work out how many sheets I can spare you.'.

Go Army. :ok:

My first 1250 was cardboard, in an open ended acetate packet. All details handwritten, with space for three promotions as and when they occurred.

For SWO stories. I was in charge of a barrack block floor. At the end of one Station Master's inspection a Warrant Officer comes to me and asks when the block had last been decorated. I said I had no idea, but supposed it was in the normal 'Wonders and Blunders' programme. He replied 'I wouldn't keep horses in this place. How can I discipline airmen when they aren't smart and tidy if they have to live in these conditions.' with that he bade me a good day and taking his stick from behind his back and hurried after the rest of the party. We thought it was an OK place, not the Ritz.

As for all the other reminiscences, I can recall a lot of them but, some are too recent for me to know let alone remember. Must be getting old.

Buying the Stewards a drink every night in Brampton's Sgts Mess got your bed made and room cleaned every morning

'Falling over in the drying room' when not meeting Flt Enforcers standards during AAITC

Making sure your flights were scheduled for the mornings on Fridays so you could miss the traffic

Your instructors being more hung over than you the day after a cold-weather barrel

Trying to pee quietly out of the first floor window of the WRAF block whilst snowdrops patrolled outside

Christmas dinner for Canadian Forces at an FOB in Kandahar was served by the Chief of Defence Staff last year.

;)
NAAFI Leave Centres in Mombassa.

The NAAFI club in Chippenham.

The Chevrons Club just off Baker Street in London.

The Britannia Club in Singapore.

KD with buckles at both sides of the shorts and the rubber buttons.

Woolen KD socks.

All Bomber Command personnel had to have up-to-date Smallox, Yellow Fever and Cholera certificates.

Jnr Techs, Cpl Techs and Chf Techs in the General Office and Accounts - and in the Cookhouse and in Stores.

Cookhouse, Accounts, General Office.

When we had Clks Personnel, Accounts, Postal, Organisation and Administrative Assistant.

TAGs that worked in the Tin Room - What a job !








'We knew how to whinge but we kept it in the NAAFI bar.'

A certain base with 9 red aircraft still has this tradition, well the first part anyway :}

Whe your clearance chit included the Bike store

When I was making a nice addition to my wages buying King Edwards in the PX at Bruggen.....and selling them to the Canberra crews at Gut...who ordered in advance,,,,,,thanks guys :ok:

A visit to Roermond was essential....to buy ex Dutch AF blue in lieu of the hairy we were still issued with !

A very old Flt Lt Devon pilot arriving at Valley one day....spoke with a broad Yorkshire accent on arrival.....and Home Counties English on departure the next day.

Eating fish n chips ( and guarding ... in theory ) under the wing of the first F-111 ro divert into Valley...the mag in the SLR was empty...the full mag was sealed in about 5 sheets of polythene wrapping....watching the Yank engineer who came to fix it sign another guys name in the log with the explanation "the :mad:has done it to me".

Watching the expression on a two pip grunts face on Ex Snow Queen at the bottom of a hill....he had alleged that the RAF contingent had learnt nothing on the course....almost true....we learnt about every watering hole in the local town....and challenged me ( selected at random it seems ) to prove otherwise.....he was wearing down hill ski's....I had cross-country ski's...he went round the outcrop.....I went over it....arrived at the bottom and said "Beat you, you bastard !".....I was then reminded of my lowly airman status in life.

Happy days !

Ident Documents
 

JamesA

And the lad on the line at Honington who had a picture of a gorilla in place of his mugshot on his security tag - one of the leather ones which were hooked to the breast pocket button. It lasted for a few months before anyone spotted the difference.

When Harry the B@stard was the pilot and Juan A Phuc was his crewman...

When Harry the B@stard was thrown out of Leeming(?) OM bar after being invited to remove his HtB name badge and replace it with his real one. He did, but his real name, (of Polish descent), looked sufficiently suss that the Wg. Cdr.(?) threw him out for p1ss-taking...

When carrying a broom or a clipboard was a guaranteed days skate.

When "Big Boots", (OC II), led the friday after lunch run round the peri-track at Catterick - When you finish the run you were finished work for the week.

I remember when
 

You could travel from London to Norwich (81) and see at least 10 different types of RAF A/C in the sky.

Can't remember if I mentioned it AA, Gp Capt (retired) Billy 'Big Boots' Bremner died last year of cancer.

I remember when air cadets were routinely flown in any and all operational RAF aircraft.
Whilst on annual camps from the early 70's to mid 80's I have flown in:
F4 Phantom
Chippy
Canberra
Lancaster (BBMF)
Herc
VC10
Puma
Chin
Chinnook
Sea King
Wessex
Gazelle
Whirlwind
Bulldog
Dominee (sp?)
to name a few....

You didn't... Shame... Of the three OC's I worked for on II he was arguably the best. Funny, all three had surnames beginning with "B" and, again arguably, they got better the taller they were... ;)

Swapping a threepenny stamp for a cigarette at the shop on E Camp St Athan
How to beat the bobbies in NI when picking up a penny when driving absolutely pissed (always pick up the middle one)
Being pissed on by fruit bats outside the Camp Stack in Gan
Gan Staish on a bike with his flag on the handlebars
Curried shark caught that day in the Lagoon
Knowing all the duty free beer times for Malysia and Singapore
Dead rats thrown into the fans in the Malcolm Club at Tengah
Rock Apes using heads trying to stop fans at full speed
Minesweeping 37 portions of peanut sauce outside JC's in Tengah village
Circumnavigating the Tengah Bar without touching ground whilst ripping out all the wall lights
Surving a nights sleep in a monsoon drain between the Tengah Bar and base
Biting into a marmalade orange fresh from the tree outside the Sgt's Mess at Akrotiri
Never being threatened to apologise because of sincerity, loyalty and honesty

Wearing your uniform in public with pride