Beautifully put, MPN11. You have summed up our feelings to perfection. :(

MPN11 - yours or "borrowed", matters not, Brilliant. Thanks for expressing so well for all of us


W

Mine own thoughts, Sir. "Creaked" x 2 annoys me now!

Edit = hinges oiled :)

MPN11, Box Brownie, Wander00, Chugalug, Ddraig Gogh, Fantom Zorbin. papa juliet, An Email from a Pruner, Geriaviator, Ormeside28. ricardian, lasernigel and MPN11 (again, with a particularly evocative Flight of Fancy).

Chaps ! What can I say ? It has been much the same as listening to the Eulogy at your own funeral ! I am most humbled and grateful for all the kind things which have been said about me. As I've so often said, I enjoy blowing my own trumpet, have been blessed with the "Gift of the Gab", which enables me to do so, and if you find it entertaining and interesting to read, then that is a Bonus to me.

Know now that Danny is home again, and firing on at least 3 out of 4 cyllinders. As I explained matters earlier to a kind friend among us, who had emailed his concern:
NHS here very good, treated me well, no complaints on that score.

So, "On with the Motley". Put some more coke on the stove, let the conversation flow !
With renewed thanks to you all, Danny.


PS. I am gratified to see that MPN11s "Flight of fancy" has been so strongly welcomed and supported (to date) by Geriaviator and Wander00. A true poet !

PPs. MPN11, right first time. Who ever heard of a crewroom door hinge being oiled ? Let it creak (like most of the inhabitants !) say I.

D.

Good to have you back.

Welcome back Sir you had us all going back there.

Danny


Delighted to see you back - keep taking the tablets!


WT

Over the past three days, my small group of friends and acquaintances has delivered news of two terminal liver cancers (3 months max), one terminal leukaemia, one very aggressive bowel cancer (32 year old mother of three),
one bladder cancer (treatable but there's a world-wide shortage of the required chemo), one mother (not mine) passing with dementia, another mother (also not mine) about to pass with dementia and a 3 month old baby girl who, through losing on the genetic lottery, won't see her first birthday.

Danny
Your rapid return is a very welcome ray of sunshine in a rather bleak landscape.

Danny, Welcome home.

I take it that the Jimmy Cook Gin Palace worked its magic.

Danny, you're back, and sitting in your old chair again! No one else would have thought of using it anyway. Fancy a cuppa? NATO Standard as usual? Sorry, couldn't find an unchipped mug, we must try getting some new ones.

We all missed you and are delighted to have you back, so don't go scaring us again like that anytime soon! Please thank your daughter for letting us know, it seems only yesterday that you first proudly introduced her to us.

Now, where were we?

The Stn Cdr popped his head round the crewroom door.
"Ha, I see this door is creaking again."
"Sorry, Sir, I'll get some oil on it right away."
"Anyway, chaps, you'll be glad to hear The Skipper is back on terra firma. Bit of a problem with his oxygen supply, apparently. He had to divert."
<Universal cries of 'Huzzah', 'Whoopee' and 'Put the kettle on.'>
"Is it time for tea and medals, then?" piped up a junior sprog.
The Stn Cdr grinned, and left the Crewroom to its usual random mutterings.

Good to have you back, Danny. :)

Welcome back Danny it's good to see you're better. Can I point you and others to a superb thread on The Military Section of Pprune titled The Right PLace at the Right Time; there are some superb photos linked on the thread.

Been away from PPrune for a few days ( funeral, family problems etc ) so not aware "The skipper" had been laid up.

Good to have you back Danny.

MPN11 - brilliant!

I too have been AWOL, and have just caught up with the great news ref the CO.

Welcome back Danny !

To All,

My thanks to all who have welcomed (and others who may possibly welcome) my return to the fiiring line. Specially CoodaShooda, who seems to have had a bad run. I did not do too well myself, losing one brother-in-law (aged 101) last February, my beloved wife in August, and another brother-in-law (ex-wartime RAF) from Alzheimers last Christmas.

Some people have all the luck ! Send not to know for whom the bell tolls .........

Ian16th, Yes, the same (Captain James Cook is Middlesbrough's sole claim to fame. So has our estimeed Technical College ["the lumpenpolytariat"] blossomed as the James Cook University, and the old "South Tees" ennobled as the "The James Cook University Hospital" If we made seaside "rock", it would have "James Cook" in the middle).

Have a history there as long as your arm. Much improved this last time, damn'd pay-TVs taken out, peace at last !

Cheers to all, Danny.

Well, as everyone still seems slightly traumatised by The Skipper's absence, I guess I might try to get the ball rolling again. Some of you may recall us discussing good VSOs a while back, and I mentioned [#10071] Air Cdre 'Cyclops' Brown, who was then Commandant of the College of Air Warfare. And so it came to pass ...

... that Plt Off MPN11 and his Strubby Tower colleague Plt Off Dave G***e (are you here, Dave?) were the most junior of junior members of the Mess. And one Saturday evening, in comes the Cmdt, accompanied by his wife, son and daughter. The Cmdt calls Dave and I over, introduces us to his offspring and said something along the lines of, "Look after these two, use my Bar Book" and proceeded to converse with adults and important people. I have no doubt, given his powers of recall, that he knew I was an avid SB Rifle shooter at the time, and his son (16?) had an interest in that direction. His daughter was 17 (IIRC) and embarking on a modelling career. [no snickering in the back row, please, this was 1965/66].

Anyway, we 4 youngsters spent a pleasant evening chatting, and drinking the Air Cdre's pay. Eventually, 2300 loomed and the Commandant came over to our table. "If you're going to keep drinking, you'll have to do that at my place. Follow me." And thus Dave and I followed in the family's wake to The Residence, where we carried on drinking and chatting - and eventually Cmdt and Mrs disappeared. At some small hour, we young ones were surprised by the Cmdt entering the room. "Are you still here? If you need more drinks, you'd better pop back at lunchtime." Dave and I took the hint, and departed ... to return at lunchtime for a sherry or three.

Oh, he was a very nice man, and VERY kind to plt offs! :D

And to entertain here's a nice 1943 USA film on assembling a crated P47 Thunderbolt in the field. Only using the packing case and hand tools.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2D3k0sJ8HM#t=3.498667


mike hallam

MPN11,

What a hotbed of hanky-panky with nubile maidens does Strubby seem to have been in 1965 ! My time was ten years before; it was then the Empire Flying College and our Commandant the one-armed "Gus" Walker (of cherished memory). Sounds as if the place had a tradition of disabled Commandants, as I presume your "Cyclops" Brown had lost an eye ?

No maidens (nubile or otherwise) at Strubby in my day, but still remember that little Mess Bar. After a n/f session, we usually had a quiet noggin or two before going off/home to bed. The "old boy" stoods (ran up to 2-Star on the Courses, IIRC,) enjoyed these throw-backs to the days of their youth as much as we did, and "let their hair down". I always remember one (2-Star ?) confidentially remarking about a 1-Star, who had just gone off to Manby to bed: "Old so-and-so is an ex-brat like me - but he doesn't like people knowing about it". Raised a smile !

Manby was a WRAF Station, but the only time we got a sniff there was when SATCO (both places) noticed that you were about to collapse from "battle-fatigue", and rostered you for a week's "rest-cure" to recuperate before putting you back in the front line. I'd kept my end up pretty well at Strubby, but made myself the Buffoon of the Year there over the case of "The Horse That Never Was" (still traceable on Thread, I suppose).

Anyway, I was a happily (newly-married) man then, so such goings-on as you describe had no appeal for me...........

Danny.

Hanky-panky? Totally decorous on that occasion, I assure you!

Yes, indeed, Air Cdre Brown had lost an eye, and wore an eye-patch over the glass substitute. As the evening wore on, the patch woukd tend to drift up his forehead, obviously unseen by him. I was told he also had a glass eye with an RAF roundel instead of the usual pupil/iris arrangememnt, but never saw that myself.