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Reflections after an aircraft crash
A bit macabre, but mention on another thread promoted a thought.
Two car ownership back in the 60s was not common with the husband using the family car to get to work. Sadly crashes were common. Honest must-read all a casualties on-base possessions were impounded for security, this was said to include the family car this leaving the widow stranded. It was rumoured that one's mates would take urgent steps to get the car off-base before it could be impounded. Was this true? If it was, is it true today? I also remember one EGM to write off a liver-in's fairly large mess bill. This was large as it included the previous month's bill too that should have been paid. The current bill was written off on the nod but there was a vigorous debate on previous month though decency prevailed and it was written off too. |
If we didn't pay our mess bills on time then it was a "parade" in front of the PMC with your hat and a memo to your CO. Officers and gentlemen [not always the same person] must pay their bills it was said.
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Quite. Given the large Mess at Akrotiri the staff had gained a relaxation to the 15th. David Craig, when he took over told the staff to knuckle down and we reverted to the 10th☺
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I thought it was a given that the mess bill cost was divided amongst the other mess members for the month - including the bar bill for the wake which was added to the total. |
All the ones I've encountered were just written off ... which included a Binbrook one [I happened to be there on a Staff Visit when he went in] whereby the numerous occupants of the Bar [Flying scrubbed] were loading his soon to be wiped Bar book. Perhaps that was just the Binbrook system?
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As I said, it was the prior month that should have been paid and there was significant minority for not paying it.
Really the PMC should have paid for not ensuring due payment😈 |
Original question. Yes, we drove/towed/dragged cars off base with locker contents thrown inside |
Originally Posted by jayteeto
(Post 10264873)
Original question. Yes, we drove/towed/dragged cars off base with locker contents thrown inside |
One of the pilots on a TWU course whilst I was at Brawdy had a fatal accident. One of the instructors who'd been in the RAF for quite a while gave his course members the heads-up concerning his car and it was quickly moved off-base to a safe location - the chap's car keys had been left in his flying clothing locker whilst he was airborne.
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Originally Posted by BEagle
(Post 10264886)
One of the pilots on a TWU course whilst I was at Brawdy had a fatal accident. One of the instructors who'd been in the RAF for quite a while gave his course members the heads-up concerning his car and it was quickly moved off-base to a safe location - the chap's car keys had been left in his flying clothing locker whilst he was airborne.
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Yes. 1980s Buccaneer Sqn, always left car keys on my desk or in unlocked clothing locker. Was never sure if it was a folk myth though. |
80s Chinook cleared and ‘sanitized’ barrack block room as well |
My experience, and thankfully very limited, has been that the bar bill from the night goes on the deceased's account but is paid for by the mess community - a tradition (IIRC) dating back to the WW2. As for cars/keys/phones etc I believe that all casualties are initially dealt with by the civ police until it is clear that there is no crime to answer (complicated the GR4 mid-air and the Puma at Catterick as I understand it) and what might be viewed as tampering with evidence (moving cars etc) would be frowned upon. Perhaps someone with more experience than me may be able to clarify.
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Yes, still leave my keys in my helmet bag when I slip the surly bonds, despite having left the military 26 years ago. |
I don’t think civil police involvement is the reason for this tradition as that is a relatively recent factor, and yes it did complicate the GR4 midair aftermath. |
As a Flying Officer in NZ (1986) I was tasked to secure the effects of an armourer who was killed in a motorcycle accident. With the help of his Flt Sgt, we dutifully listed all his effects in his barrack room (including identifing his clothing in the drying room) until we found a collection of ‘weightbuilding’ magazines and some gay porn in the bottom of his wardrobe. OC Admin had impressed upon me the need to log everything we found; the FSgt took over and suggested that his family didn’t need to see this material and it was better if it were destroyed. At at the funeral, there was a young man there absolutely distraught with grief; apparently he was the armourer’s partner. His family knew but his work colleagues didn’t. The police investigation suggested suicide and the coroner recorded an open verdict; it appears he was being blackmailed over his orientation. Thank God we’ve moved on. |
WUH, yes, I forgot to mention sorting out the kit for the NOK.
There was also the kit auction for NIK too. |
Not military or even aviation but some 30 years ago I was part of an admin team which carried out some HR functions. One of the older members of staff (yikes he was younger than I am now) died of a heart attack in the car park. Several weeks later his boss handed us a cardboard box of personal effects cleared from our late colleague's desk and asked that it be dispatched to his wife with a suitable note. My boss and I decided to check the contents and looked at each other in horror when we found a pile of letters from what was obviously his very loving mistress. My boss, lovely lady, wrote two letters, one a personal condolence to his wife with the box of effects, the other to the mistress with a sensitive and gentle explanation as to the circumstances and offering to return or destroy the letters. I can't recall if there was a reply...
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In the late 70s a friend of mine was killed in an aircraft accident. We both lived off camp in the local town. I was at home - due to be night flying that night. The first phone call was to inform me and tell me I was to be the Effects Officer, the second phone call was from a mate telling me that the deceased's care had been liberated from camp! His wife worked in the town so they managed very well with the one car - if the boys had not acted quickly she would have had even bigger problems.
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In the 70s we were told to look after the effects and car of anybody killed in a crash. Get it off the base.
We also told the wives that if the husband died at home, that she had to dress him in uniform and push him outside the door. Then she had to ring the Duty Officer and say that her husband hadn't come home from the base yet, and where was he? That way he would be covered by the equivalent of worker's compensation, as he was still officially on the job and hadn't returned home. But might have been an urban myth. |
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