Having a friend of my father's daughter from Germany, (she was about 12 years old), stay at our house while the World Cup Final was being played and him telling her an hour or so before the game, (jokingly), that if Germany won she would be "out on the street"...

About 20 minutes into the game my father asked me where she was and neither I nor my sister knew so I went to look for her. She was in her room upstairs all quiet and nice. I informed my father who promptly went upstairs, apologized and brought her down... So she could watch the Germans lose... :D:D:D:D:D

And every four years I wish that I could watch England do that again!!!

Bringing my new American girlfriend to Odiham and staying in the White Hart(?) in Hook where they name their rooms and being led to the Spread Eagle room, entering, p1ssing ourselves laughing and telling her to "adopt the position"... and having her obey... :ok:

I married her and the "obedience thing" seemed to cease... :O

Shack 37
 

Listening to the world Cup Final 1966 in the Spread Eagle hotel.:eek: Must try and find out who won sometime.:confused:

Well I know who won, but I only found out in 1969! Sitting in a bar in Bahrain with a group of the guys, I was somewhat surprised when conversation drifted to football, and someone said "Wasn't it marvellous when England won the World Cup". I said "Well, if they did it's the first I've heard about it - what year was that?" Everyone else looked at me in astonishment and burst into a chorus of "In 1966 of course!"

I do, however, have two excuses. Firstly, it happened in the middle of an exchange posting in Australia, when football took last place in the sporting pecking order after cricket, rugby union, rugby league, Aussie Rules (aka aerial ping pong!), netball, and just about any other sport. Secondly, I am Scottish!

Jack

PS Anyone know the result of the England v Springboks match .......?:E

Yes, England B certainly took a pasting. Why we insist on running out the reserves when other nations only commit their best men to the fray against them is beyond me. Still, I needn't be telling you any of this.:E

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugb...al/5067808.stm

58 pattern webbing
 

I was in 38 Gp (TCW) and attached - loosely I'm glad to say - to the army (24 Air Portable Brigade) in 1968. We were still using 1945 pattern webbing. The army took pity on us and gave us a full set of 1958 pattern webbing, some nicely tailored (not!) DRP jackets & trousers and DMS boots to replace our RAF studded ammunition boots.
When I left the RAF in 1973 there was a strong rumour that stores would soon be issuing collar-attached shirts; we all thought that highly unlikely given the NAAFIs vast wartime reserve stock of collar studs (front & back).

So many:

Cisk and Hopleaf
Minging in Sembawang then going to Johnny Ghurkas in Nee Soon
Getting your ticket from the Cpls mess at Akrotiri
Being smuggled into the WAAFs Qs at Stanmore (thanks Claire)
Being turfed out at 0800 (jealous I think)
Having a Flt Cdr that was an observer
Flt Cdr getting his own ship as skipper
Breaking down in Lincoln at 0100
Swinderby recovering car and me and putting me up (matelot)
Indulgence flight to Sydney from Brize in 79
CASEVAC to Ely from North Sea (thanks)
Et al....


Not bad for the junior service.

:}:}

When there was a black dog with a traditional name at Scampton.

..... and it was a crossply that squashed him.

:}

Watching a Victor from 55 taking 11999 ft. to take off from Dubai's 12000 ft runway at midday when bringing Phantoms back from the Far East.

Ahhh... This thread...

I do recall a certain ALM who, with the full encouragement of three other ALM's, underslung a Landrover in two cargo nets tied together with para-cord... The solution to the problem of underslinging said load looked nothing like the authorized scheme in the book... I remember the alleged incident so well I have photos... :E

I remember drinking competitons involving bottles of Red Stripe and a swimming pool at midnight... IIRC, and with sufficient practice, we were all quite competent at emptying the bottle underwater in remarkably short times too... :ok:

I remember the Courtleigh Manor Hotel in downtown Kingston, Jamaica having a shiny new brochure featuring three ALM's and a pilot at the pool bar in various stages of undress with models draped all over the place... I still have those brochures too... :D

I remember an exercise in north west Germany near a town called Itzehoe... (really... You can't make it up... :} ). We were told that there was no flying the next day - relax. At 1700 while leaving the block for town we met the boss who confirmed no flying... Perfect. The four loadies found a bar called "The New Pub" and proceeded to drink beers chased with Appelcorn... :ok: Some hours later we are informed that they are out of Appelcorn... So, after a conflab, we decide that Sambuca will be the next chaser of choice... I recall ricocheting down the corridor to the room at 0500 to find a note on my bed... "You are flying at 0700"... Looking around the room there was no-one else any better suited to the trip than me... I, Allegedly, flew that morning... Luckily for me the trip was delayed... about an hour... :(

I remember during the drinking session above there were three Germans across the bar from us. Two of them were obviously arguing with the smaller chap. After about an hour of drama from the other side the small chap gets up to leave which means he has to walk all the way round the bar and past us ALMs. He's followed by the biggest chap. I knew there was going to be trouble so I turned as they approached to protect myself. As the small guy came next to me he turned, pulled a gun and pointed it right in the face of the big chap. I raised my hand to try to chop down on his arm when he fired and the big guy screamed and put both hands to his face. The little guy ran. After about a second the big guy removed his hands from his face and we could all see there wasn't a mark... Then we smelled the CS gas... Panic... Dragged the two barmaids over the bar and evacuated the place... It was aired out in about 5 minutes and we were back to business... :cool:

Those were the days... :D

At first I thought the quote, which has been removed, was refering to I want to Join the RAF :}

But there is only one beach in Maderia and the sand is too soft.

BATCO

Agh.... :sad:

I remember when...

...the "HMS Fearless scrapped" thread was actually about HMS Fearless. ;)

Addis Abba - Op Bushel 10985

Seeing The Yetteis perform in the Hilton
Having a party in one of the rooms to help them celebrate a very succesful show :eek:
Party went on very late....
A knock at at the door....
Dave A***n opening the door and saying to a short bloke in a dressing gown "sorry not invited"
Realising that the dressing gown wearer was the DetCo with hotel security behind him
DetCo deciding the party was over
Us going 2 floors up and continuning the party until curfew ended at 0600
Hitting the pool at 0601
Going to bed not long after
Woken at 0800 to be told that we were "contributing" a days allowances to charity

Was a good party though!!

Found out later the floor we missed out was holding the aircrew bowling championships with marrows and melons "borrowed" from the loddy display.....!

I remember those now missing pubs from Lincoln High Street.

The Queens Hotel where the Fred the barman had a daily intake of 20 pints, every day.

The Cornhill, falling down those stairs on Market day.

Cornhill Vaults, as above.

The New Market, next to the indoor market and opposite the chippy.

The Lion, meeting place for everybody on a Saturday.

The Swan, with those plenished brass table tops.

The pub next door to the Swan, name escapes me, but it served Holes Newark Ales, no wonder it closed.

Not forgetting of course all of those now seldom seen beers they sold.Tartan,Double Diamond,Kingpin, William Youngers 1/6d, Youngers Heavy, Shipstones Bitter, and others now lost in alcohol induced alzheimers.

Going on task to Leuchars in 1987
Getting to the B&B at about 0900
Wondering what to do for the rest of the day
Discovering the Scots had bars open all day.....
Discovering that St Andrews had students.....:E
.
.
Eating hot Jock pie straight from the bakery late at night
Saying I remember this part is not strictly true

Remember the pies very well. Bakery was at the top of my road. The smell of freshly baked bread at 2100hrs was amazing.

Sad to say the bakery has gone. Now a block of flats :sad::sad:

dkh51250, thanks for the memories, especially the Mucky Duck (The Swan) used to serve fantastic Chicken & Chips in a basket, the Vaults if I remember had a radical idea to stop people getting drunk by serving beer in half pint glasses (actually I am sure they used to be plastic as well), and then couldnt understand the increase in drunkeness as people swallowed two half pints quicker than one full pint so actually ended up drinking more in a shorter time. They also they could not grasp why two people would turn up and order 4 half pints at a go.

Don't forget the ones that changed names or changed clientele, the Cheltham Arms now has a fancy name that escapes me, but has at one time been Lincolns druggie hangout and the Green Dragon was a good pub to meet and pick up the local talent, but it ended up as a gay pub for a while.

Union Jack or should that be Jock, no idea of the score against the springbocks, but I do know todays score against the Aussies

Arthur (or should that be Martha?:E)

Noting with amusement that you are an angler, you certainly bided your time before reeling me in - well done England and France for turning the RWC on its head today! And no, I'm not so sure that Scotland will manage to join the club tomorrow .... It will also be interesting to see what spin the "British" PM, Mr Gordon Brown-Trousers puts on England's win - especially if Scotland don't make it!

Enjoy the semis.

Jack (never Jock)

When Marham village had 3 pubs!
Bernie the SWO would check each one to see if his lads were OK!
Marham had no WRAF blk
Saturday night rec buses to KL

Witt SWO getting locked up by civpol for fighting. Early 90s.

:D

When you had the authority to lock somebody up in the Guardroom for insubordination or disobedience without 'senior' approval and the threat of getting sued
When ext 252 was the SWO's or Guardroom's phone number
When bicycle sheds actually protected you from the elements when having a shag after a NAAFI dance:cool:
When H&S, EO, DM, PC, IIP, NAS, CNW, was a million miles away
When it was better than working for a living!

When "Pay 2000" was a concept, rather than an instruction fed into the JPA uber-server.......suffixed by "and fcuk the rest of them" :}

...when you earned your B-cat route by getting your checker gubbed and laid...

...(female) batties that brought you hangover-strength coffee on a saturday morning...and offered 'sympathetic relief' if you hadn't pulled the night before...:ok:

...dining-in night shenanigans, when the (blue-suit) mess manger would encourage or even help you set up the flour-bombs/trip wires/top-table spray-pipe/exploding plants, rather than today's (civvy) variety that invariably try to hinder such practices...

...bosses that instigated or ordered piano-burning, instead of vetoing same...

...Stn Cdrs that could see the funny side of finding their car upside-down in their parking slot...

...Spraying a fine mist of water under the locked door of your mate's room whilst he is on leave, then using the 'blow' end of the cleaning-cupboard hoover to deliver generous helping of cress seeds all over his carpet...

...when presenting yourself and cheque-book to (smirking) mess manager was more than enough to atone for the above, rather than yourself and hat to (irate) PMC...

...when using ingenious and hastily constructed straw contraption to 'steal' beer from the mess bar pumps after the shutters had come down for the night (with full intention of reimbursement the following Monday) didn't lead to lengthy and probing RAFP inquiry...

Them were the days...

:E

I congratulate you on your imaginative use of CmDS (Cress Munitions Delivery System). A similar twist would be to unscrew the back of someone's telly and insert a couple of frozen fish..

I knew somebody who did something far worse.....chap about to set off for 4 month det in MPA, rather foolishly left his (unlocked) suitcase in the mess foyer whilst awaiting wheels to BZZ. Said wag thought it'd be a great wheeze to empty an out-of-date tin of anchovies into said suitcase, in the full knowledge that it wouldn't be opened again for around 24hrs whilst in transit to MPA.
His description of the ensuing smell which permeated every item of his clothing (and, I'm led to believe, the whole accom block) was nauseating enough in itself...:}

And then there's the 'CS tabs in the cigar lighter' trick...

Veteran's weekend in Blackpool, June 2008.
 

Ok, we can shuffle the tables about and make a long row.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/l...re/7214708.stm

And say, I remember when..

And can you imagine the scene the morning after? The gutters full of 55 year olds and the air still heavy with the sound of old scores being settled the night before.

THWACK! "Thats for that time in 1978, you bast:mad:rd, when you swapped your minging gas plug with my shiny one."

Finningley.................1985-1991
 

...........You could catch a blue bus from outside the camp all the way to Donny for just 10p (Salutation, Baccus, et al not forgetting the Halcross for last one before the last bus)

Taceval. As an SACW receiving an extra Duty Chaperone for getting caught by the sector rosser with 2 pillows and a pot noodle in my 14 day kit bag

Staying on the bus until the next stop to avoid the SWO who was hiding behind the camp gates with his big stick (I'd rather be late for work than face him!!)

The horrible lady in the NAFFI shop who wouldn't cash a cheque for more than a tenner!!

The milk man giving me a lift to work on the back of his float, and letting me take a yoghurt and bottle of fresh orange as I dismounted

The Pigs Bar at 5pm.......

The Cpls Club bring an erk 12 O'Clock once a month

Painting the stones white and the grass green for AFIs

Standing on gate guard with a pick axe handle

WRAF Admin

10 Main Street.......

Sneaking round the perry track to Finningley village chinese takeaway

Finningley Airshows

Sausage rolls from The NAFFI Wagon

Never seeing the FS unless it was for a bollocking

A gash trip in a Jet Provost (with a state 1!!)

Nijmegen training, which involved walking to and from Flt Lt Dick Wrights house,(in the middle of nowhere) why I don't know??

Aircrew feeder leftovers every morning

A Stn Cdr who used to pop in for a brew (Gp Capt Pitchfork)

GREAT..................thanks for the memories Finningley, my first and best posting to date:) :ok:

Stanley - 1984 (sorry for the banter):

• F4 QRA from the tin strip
• The Life of Brian
• The Coastel (aka The Sperm Bank)
• Tea and toasted tea cakes at San Carlos with the Army's finest
• Blazing Darts
• Minefields
• Boxing Day races at Stanley, sitting on the Sqn Landy bonnet with a G&T
• Settlement visits on a Q1 off
• Jim Davidson's show

The pigs bar opening at 10am.
Having 3 or 4 pints before we started work on the line and no one batting an eyelid..
The line shift times morning 6am - 12pm.
Afternoon shift 12pm - er sometimes 1201 if foggy. Usually 5pm mon - thursday. Friday normally 12pm - 2pm unless you were on towing, then normally the local lads would do it for you if you wanted to travel home.
I have to pinch myself sometimes that I actually did those shift times..

The Malcom Club RAF Wahn. Endlessly playing 'Don't Be Cruel' on the juke box to a lovely WRAF girl who'd dumped me for a 'Snowdrop'. B*****D!

The people who were trying to blow us up spoke the same language.

Mally Club Gutersloh. Sunday papers with a hideous hangover.

Stn Cdrs had time to know their people.

"Fun" was allowed.

A crash was a crash, nothing more. Lots of free beer and tales of daring do.

At least six 4 tonne trucks would make a detour to Martkauf between the main gate and a deployed flying sites.

Take one fuel bowser, mount a jet engine on the front with the jet pipe facing down and forward. Call it "Snow clearing"
POSB
Fulton Block at Cosford

Sorry if it's been mentioned before but I haven't read everything:

Taceval at Lossie, commencing at 17:30 the same day as the annual raft race! Most of the station was out of their trees!

Taceval at Lossie the year or two later when all the jets were on bolthole because the runway was being replaced. Allegedly the scene at the guard room was a classic
DiStaff: Right, start generating aircraft!
Ord Sgt: Could be a long trip Sir, the nearest one is Waddington.....

Ogre, "Taceval at Lossie, commencing at 17:30 the same day as the annual raft race! Most of the station was out of their trees!"

I remember that Sunday very well. OK I wasn't at the raft race but I was playing cricket on base against a local visiting team of civvies. We were winning as well. How to explain to them that they had to leave..... Got to work to find that I was one of the only sober people there, Bu**er.

Who would imagine that they would pull a Taceval on the weekend of the raft race? Damn Russkies!

Mind you it was beaten by being Taceval Pt 1'd on 7 occasions within 11 days when I was on a "Repair" (anag) Sqn at BZN in the late 1980s.:yuk:

Mac

Batmen at Thornëy who would ask on Sunday morning, "Tea for 2 sir?
Batties at Cottesmore who could give light relief whilst serving tea in the morning.
An accountant meeting the aircraft at Luqa ready to issue an 'easy five' on the paybook.
When it was impossible not to get laid in Seoul.

Being ordered !! to drink beer by my German Navy boss on 'A'Sqn at TTTE.
Avoiding a liney bath as I'd helped get the beer for a block party.
Watching Liney's and Adminer's having a punch up.- Liney's won 10-0 !
Being able to TACEVAL your flt cndrs MQ.
When the threat of seeing the MT Flt Sgt made sure I did the DI's on ATC'S rover !
When I could fall asleep on a gate, near Bury St Edmunds, with an SLR, and 20 rounds, for 20 mins and get away with it.
When the only computer's on station were in the nav's bag.
Flight planning cricket was the only game to play and doing a CALF amendment meant getting a day off from my oppo.
Smoking the Staish's fags at his cricket match, and drinking his beer.:D:D

Not when I was there TG. Hairy great brute of an ex-Liecestershire miner he was. made a mean cuppa and pressed a good suit though.

He's probably referring to the self same batty Pontious. I heard some weird stories from Cott!! :eek:

Torksey I believe.:}

Aged 16 going through Swinderby and not needing to shave once.
Having a fight in the Block with a Plod recruit and winning.
Meeting same Plod recruit as an A/CPL and being charged by him (he had a father after all .. who knew ??)
Lincoln Brayford branch of Natwest
TTF at Shawbury, the Ellie and Castle.
When the Car Park in front of the JRM at Kinloss was a Tennis Court.
Bodysurfing Teen Wolf style on the ATC Sherpa round the ISK northern loop.
Metpads for the hourly weather on the switchboard.
Rimming the evil Flt Sgts mug on many an occasion, same Flt Sgt later had a heart attack and got a Congratulations card from the Assistants .. :(
When Air Traffic Assistants at ISK wore DPM jackets and peaked caps to work.
When the obnoxious holding Plt Off ordering me about as I was trying to file a flight plan was told by SAOC to make his own tea because "he (the SAC (me)) doesnt make tea for people with less promotions than him" .. thanks Drew .. :ok:
Nearly crashing the Ops Corsa on the ISK loop road, where 34,42 and 47 were stored at the time .. and I didnt even have my driving licence.
ISK detachment folders .. pain in the a**e to make up.
Phoning for slots through Veule.
When getting an extra DCS (!) for a favoured crew was not a problem.
Popping into Inflight after the Capercaillie Club Naafi bop, seeing your mate and getting fed.
Having to help him make up the doggy boxes for said feed.
Volunteering for RAFG and being asked which camp I wanted.
Getting to Wilders three weeks later, not making it into work the next day.
Getting to Wilders aged 18 and not remembering much for the next two years.
The arrival doo at the Bird Room.
All the dutch women in the Bruggen Bop.
The nights in the Deafin Inn.
The First Post and its bowling Alley.
The block BBQ where we had to start burning furniture .. Burgers that tasted of Pledge.
92 Sqn Lineys letting me marshall a toom in and out of the complex.
92 Sqn Lineys in general.
The attitude of the F4 aircrew, mad as badgers.
Running around the F4 desk changing from TRA to TRA and suspecting they crew were doing it just to keep me busy !!
Then going onto the Transit desk and screwing up the prenote for C-IN -C RAFG going somewhere .. interesting interview with the Boss.
Why is the word Bandbox familiar ??
The last (and slowest) Battle Flight scramble.
The End of Meda Wake .. 13 Oct 91 .. still have the stein.
The Harem .. waiting for the shift change.
The Brittania stewardesses on the trooper flights.

When above all else getting the job done and having fun along the way were a way of life.

(After Wilders the service was never the same for me)