The Personal Page
Just a few details to fill in the gaps
Then: 1970
Having joined as a callow youth of 17 years never having been beyond
my home town of Dundee, apart from 3days at 16MU
Stafford at the now long defunct Youth Selection Centre, going to Hereford
was a huge step for me as it probably was for most of the Entry.
The fact that I and the vast majority of the Entry survived the year
of training was very much down to the good offices of people like Sgt Gordon
Burns who was the NCO i/c Nicolson Block and Sgt App Felix Manners (the
first real 'black guy' I had ever met).
The friendships formed during that first year would appear to the
casual observer to be fleeting and temporary, but I would like to think
of them as enduring and lifelong despite our paths never crossing again.
One of the aims behind this webpage is hopefully to make contact
with all those friends from the past.
After passing out from Hereford I was posted to RAF Colerne located
on the top of Bannerdown Hill just outside the city of BATH. Colerne was
the major servicing base for the Hercules fleet which was based (and indeed
still is) at neighbouring RAF Lyneham. This was just the beginning
of my enforced love affair with the 'HERC' most of my time at Colerne was
spent on P.O.L. with short bursts in SCAF and Despatch. Regretfully Colerne
was closed following a Government review and I found myself posted 10miles
"up the road" to RAF Lyneham, more damn HERC'S, yes! lots more. These two
main tours were interspersed with good and bad detachments of varying lengths
to places as diverse as Abingdon and Singapore, I'll leave it up to you
to guess which one was good and which was not. As a last tour of
duty I chose to return to Scotland and finish my service at RAF Leuchars,
a station that had one huge redeeming plus point. NO DAMN HERC'S !! plus
it was only 5 miles from my home town. My last day of service was on the
25th October 1982.
Now: 2001
Since leaving
the service I have had a variety of jobs mostly using the skills learned
and developed during my years in the RAF, however for the last four years
I have been working within the local franchise of Amtrak Express
Parcels. I am married with four children ( three girls & one boy) ranging
in ages from 25years old to 9 years old. I have returned to live and work
in my home town of Dundee.
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