I am sure those chappies from RAF Newton would have cooked up something to justify their existence.

Not so much a strike, more a boycott. However, it did have the desired effect.

hi all.the best was the airmans mess raaf point cook.and the australian defence force academy both small messes and better than eating out:ok:.the worst has to be anything the army has cooked really awful not helped by seeing a a corporal drop a large tray of food scrape it all of the floor and putting it in the bay marie.

Bush tucker?

In 1974, after the jungle survival course, I ate devilled crab at 'Fatties', Albert St. - the best Chinese in the world. It was delicious with crabmeat hanging from bits of shell.

A few years ago, I ate devilled crab from 'Fatties', the best Chinese in the world, and it was a plate of shrapnel, pottery shards, and razor blades and not much crab.

...that's me, not 'fatties'

..and Sergeant Mingang's monkey was also ****e.

wets

The worst RAF food I ever ate was in the Airmens' Mess at RAF Waddington in 1968, just before we had the food mutiny. [the best Airmen's Mess I ever ate in was RAF Changi]. The best food of all was RAF Northolt Sergeants' Mess.

Most RAF PPruners will have heard of the Waddington food strike. Can anyone tell me what actually happened?

Rgds SOS

Worst food - on a course at Odiham and accommodated in the Para Training barracks (2 x SACs....hundreds of baby Paras!) Aldershot. The food was so bad we ate all meals at Odiham.

As an aside, remember the messing comment book at Odiham contained a comment along the lines of

"Could OC Catering settle an argument between SAC Blogs and me. I said the mess food was not fit for pigs....Blogs said it was." OC Catering had replied with a polite request for the author to pay him a visit.

Best food - Lyneham for any midnight supper.

November, Odihams accommodation in the Seventies wasn't a lot better, large room divided up with wardrobes and partitions, a wardrobe door opened acting as a door to the two man bed space , with a central walkway down the backs of the wardrobes about 26 to a room, someone wrote into farmers weekly stating I have a well ventilated, illuminated and heated room XYZ dimensions, how many pigs can I house, answer was something like 14, copies of the article soon appeared in all the blocks on the notice boards.... SWO blew a fuse.

Back to thread..

Hi SOSL, Blacksheep may have a better memory than mine. I thought the food strike was about 1970. The date is irrelevant, food being served up in the airmans mess was worse than atrocious at that particular time. Remember that the place was open around the clock seven days a week and firing on all four cylinders, even after the handover to Polaris. Food being one of the elements of maintaining morale, morale was very low. The strike cum boycott seemed to be the only way to rectify the situation, as it appeared OC Catering had lost the ability to read the comments book in the mess, or at least react to the comments.

I do remember that it took place on a Monday and it only took one meal, lunchtime, to retrieve the situation. To the best of my recollection there were only a few civvies, MPBW etc, and a few visitors who ate in the mess that lunchtime. When we arrived to get fed at 17.00 a total transformation had occurred, all the cooks, they hadn't become chefs at that time, were in crisp clean whites and the servery was a joy to behold. All of this was attributable to the man mentioned in my previous post, who, a couple of hours earlier had been at RAF Newton.

It came to light that the staff in the ration store had been exceedingly generous with food that should have found its way into the mess. One particular Sergeant was allegedly burying frozen chickens in his garden when the SIB arrived. Wensleydale could be spot on with the year, because this individual had been court martialled in Aden and reduced in rank from Flt Sgt. One of the butchers, remember them, was also caught up in all of this.

The saddest part was an LAC MT driver who unwittingly admitted to the SIB that he had received some food from the ration store, "Because everyone on the ration run did". He was up in front of Groupie and received 28 days detention. He had been married less than a year and had a newborn, plus, his wife, who was German, spoke not a word of English. On release he was posted to North Luffenham and died in a vehicle smash shortly afterwards.

Fortunately I did not work for the newly arrived Warrant Officer, being a different trade. He would appear in the mess at any hour of the day or night to carry out quality checks on the servery. It was not unknown to have entire trays of food thrown the length of the servery because they did not meet his exacting standards, leaving the duty cook to both clean up and provide replacement meals. The reason i thought it was 1970 was because I arrived in Masirah in 1971 as we were doing the Pakistan evacuation, and the self same Warrant Officer was photographed feeding a baby cradled in his arms.

The SIB never did find the organisers. I just hope there is a statute of limitations on this sort of thing.

Thanks for that dkhnumbers. A sad recollection of the LAC MT driver. I know it's a bit of a thread drift but as the OP I can authorise that. Can't I? Anyone else got any insight into the Waddington food strike what lead up to it and what was the aftermath? I'm interested to find out more about it.

Rgds SOS

We all lived happily ever after.

It came to light that the staff in the ration store had been exceedingly generous with food that should have found its way into the mess. One particular Sergeant was allegedly burying frozen chickens in his garden when the SIB arrived. Wensleydale could be spot on with the year, because this individual had been court martialled in Aden and reduced in rank from Flt Sgt. One of the butchers, remember them, was also caught up in all of this.

Reminds me of the time when the Chief Petty Officer Cook (CPO CK) in a Major RN training establishment came under suspicion on similar grounds. Arrangements were duly made for his car to be searched by the Regulating Staff (Snowdrop/MP equivalents) as he left the establishment late one evening and, having duly been stopped at the main gate, the CPO CK threw his car into reverse and departed at high speed back towards the Main Galley.

When the Reggies arrived in hot pursuit a few minutes later, the CPO CK blithely informed them that he had suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to switch off the vitally important main power switch in the galley, as well as the "last out chit", and of course there was absolutely no sign of any contradictory evidence so "No case to answer"!:hmm::suspect:

Jack

When at RAF Northolt in the early 60s one of the cooks was charged with theft of a complete leg of ham found in the pannier of his bicycle. His excuse was "it had just been cooked and he was cycling around to cool it down".

Best

RAF Upavon (AM) in the early 70's. Great thought for the many shift workers from the genuine artisan cooks.

RAF Bishops Court (AM) also excellent. Fresh mushrooms picked from Killard Point after night watch then hat full to the mess and its waiting frying pans. Have not tasted better since.

Worst

RAF North Luffenham (AM) thankfully just a short area radar course.

GGR

Mushrooms and Airfields.

Finningley 1975. 'Flaps' Picken (SATCO) loved his mushrooms. Every morning (in season) he would collect, cook and eat them for breakfast.

One day he was late and 'his' mushrooms had been picked and purloined by 'persons unknown'.

He promulgated, through Station Routine Orders, a ban on personnel picking mushrooms on 'his' airfield.

Three weeks later, a large, bulky transit envelope arrived in the internal mail. In it was a collection of three week old, very slimy, very smelly mushrooms together with a note that read "Here's your bloody mushrooms, hope you enjoy them".

Thanks taxydual.

I was there at the time but being on Eng Wg, didn't get near the mushrooms until, in the few days before Battle of Britain Day, I was sent out to check on the old Beverly (it used to jump about a bit when the wind got up).

Found the mushrooms, fried them in butter - yummy.

Rgds SOS

Mushrooms were in abundance on the airfield at Bicester, and when I was gliding there we'd have a fry-up, with bacon, in the old crew coach. As you say SOSL...yummy!

Best and Worst Food
 

Has to be the best:-
Egg Banjos cooked during the climb out of St Mawgan or Kinloss by the duty cook on a SAR scramble. Followed by 'Honkers Stew' some hours later. Mmmm
(Look out for the sliced Mars Bar in the stew!!)

We used to pick them when guarding the aircraft parked out on Upavon and cooked them in butter on one of the old paraffin tent heaters whilst watching the sun rise over the plain...... Superb

Someone else mentioned the Mess at Upavon, fond memories of their and a young lass called Ruth that used to work their as a cook.