Pen Pals required at RAF MPA (Falklands) for school
 

My (ex-AGC) wife teaches English at GCSE level here in UK. Her school is looking for personnel at MPA to establish correspondence with so that the kids can practise letter writing. The school has already set up a link with Op Herrick through one of the teachers whose daughter is out there. They don't have any contacts in MPA.

Could anyone help? After recent local recruiting by AFC Harrogate, the kids are Army & Air Force barmy!

If all else fails, I expect we could try writing to the PRO I suppose.

Try going through the BFBS. They have a station on the base.

Great idea if it helps kids with their reading & writing.

I spent a most enjoyable 4 month sojourn in MPA on the RAFP Dog Section. Tradition had it that in your first week, you wrote a letter to your hometown local news rag, from a lonely single guy away from home, looking for female penpals to correspond with, the resultant replies usually included a piccy, frequently in a state of undress. The best respondents were kept, the "less attractive" were displayed on the "Grot Board."

Shameful behaviour really, but I wouldn't have been the only one that followed up on a few contacts when I returned :E not that that would be appropriate in this case.

P1

pohm1, having established that you did mean Mount Pleasant, you might find this link interesting;
Ministry of Defence | Defence For... | The Service Community | Overseas Posting | British Forces South Atlantic Islands | Children and Families

A letter to the Headmaster/Mistress (delete as appropriate) might open a useful opportunity for both groups of children.

On 1435Flt we used to write to ladies after forces men in the RAF News, as the Flt mascot "Fg Off Sammy Seal". If they asked what Sammy's interests were we would put down fishing, swimming, beach holidays and fine dining in seafood restaurants! Some of the replies were very funny indeed!

Anyway, back on thread. I'm sure that the guys and girls that form the Falkland Islands Air Wing would be delighted to help out, but Bravo Zulu's idea would be best for the actual letter writing - child to child.

LJ :ok:

I have personally flown that seal, just checked my old logbook!

Many thanks for the ideas. The kids are making a display in the school with maps, photos etc and their first contact in Afghanistan is a RAFP female corporal dog-handler.

Will look at the link, but school wants serving personnel to write to first.

There is a school on MPA for service kids. Mine went there for 2 years and they are up to about age 7ish I think. Probabaly the best POC.

My first FI tour was at Cara Cara radar on West Falkland in 1983. We used to get bag loads of letters from women looking for penfriends. We used to empty the bags onto the floor and just grab handfuls each. Some of the letters sent by the lads were hilarious and some of the replies were XXX rated. Great fun.

overstress,

Tried to PM you - can't. I might have an 'in' if you like; a mate is a teaching asst at MPA.

Duncs:ok:

'scuse the obvious question but doesn't MPA stand for Maritime Patrol Aircraft or am I missing something in house? Just an innocent question please enlighten without recourse to silly jibes.
ex MPA crewman

Pip

MPA in this context is Mount Pleasant Airfield

RAF Mount Pleasant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

MPA
 

Thanks for the explanation, nearly got close to it once but had to RTB - lack of rations!!

Duncs, sorry you couldn't pm me, I'll send you one. Had a look at my settings, don't know why it didn't work.

Sorry about the confusion with MPA the airfield as opposed to the class of aircraft. Will modify thread title.

And there was me thinking this may be another Nimrod thread :E