IIRC AVM John Howe was Staish in '73 when I first arrived there.

Atom
Bob Bickers is still going strong & can be seen at Lasham I believe.

Does the VIP “loo “in the TWR merit a mentioning?!

RAF Gutersloh
 

Great little video about the airfield today - rather sad to see it in its present decay as I spent many happy hours there (in the Malcolm club :ok:)

it is on Youtube so if you search for Inside The British Forces Germany Base Closed To The Public For Decades
you should find it..

have one on me ....

Let's not forget Bruggen 14 Sqn Jag.....Bomb Dump,,,,,, and 17 Jag sites

QRA and 20 Jag

What an utter waste!

Nutloose:-
Why? These bases kept the peace in the Cold War and by their very presence prevented it becoming a Hot War. They proved also that the UK is a good friend of Europe and will remain so whatever the future of the EU might be. Their fate is far less of an utter waste to this country than the RAF Stations that closed in the UK, in my case; RAFs Oakington, Thorney Island, Colerne, Lyneham, and Fairford.

Chug I mean as in not repurposed.

Güt in the early eighties, CMC of the Sgts mess (my boss) declares that he intends to sell 50,000 tickets , at DM1 each, for the christmas draw, which he does, selling the last ticket on the night. Prizes included the usual car, cruise, holiday and numerous white goods. Following year, no longer CMC he chairs the draw committee, and declares the target to be 60,000 tickets. Target met. 2 cars, cruise, inflatable boat/outboard, and the NAFFI manager moved most of his white goods stock into the mess for the night so as tickets were sold on the night another washer/dryer/dishwasher could be bought out as the tickets were sold.

Best mess ever, a wide spread of ages and experiences. Helped me to build a brilliant contacts book.

PM

Not so sure that they should be left to totally rot. Most FW combat aircraft still need substantial runways and decent hardened protection. Just having these bases available gives lots of options for short notice deployment. They don't need full upkeep, just enough to be usable. Keeping them usable gives any potential aggressor a whole headache of targets that need covering and, if most are empty, the headache gets worse. The same tactic would be wise to use here in UK but, seems that the logic is lost on the beancounters. Go on, who thinks that BZN would survive 5 mins into any serious confrontation and, if you don't think that is possible, why do we have any capability at all? :oh:

OAP

At 7388ft (2252m) Gütersloh was never a 'substantial' runway.

(Funny how you can remember pointless trivia after 30+ years) :)

Onceapilot ... I agree 100% with the concept, but sadly the Treasury wouldn't see it that way.

Was big enough for me! :ok:

OAP

Well, with our very expensive eggs in few baskets, they are wide open to easy targeting. Let's see, carrier/F-35-vulnerable to nuke due low collateral at sea, same low nuke collateral, possibly, for Coningsby, Marham, Lossie, and Kinloss.:oh: Brize, not hardened, soft targets all squeezed-in for blast/frag missiles. Also vulnerable to SF. :\

OAP

OAP, again I agree. My time as Wg Cdr STO in MB was spent in trying to address such issues. Getting anyone upstairs interested in spending money on potential solutions was a major obstacle!

Oops, we may have spoken in haste. With the INF Treaty now being fed into the shredder it looks as if a return to the good ole days is on the cards. Time perhaps to consider dispersing our assets once again. Now let's see, oh....wait....

I'm sure I have an NBC suit somewhere in the Attic. :)