Pen Portraits: what happened next
Pen portraits of post-graduation life, as submitted to the 69th Association newsletter over the period 1994 - 2011
Gordon Wood (engines) - April 2002
My first posting was to Church Fenton ASF, servicing Meteor 7 & 8 and later 12 & 14 and during which time I experienced the excitement of a hanger fire and the subsequent dragging out of the aircraft, even those on jacks. Whilst at Church Fenton I put to good use my training, in the Halton Military band and joined a small dance band on lead trumpet and helped to form a station voluntary band. I also started serious cycling, joining a cycling club in Leeds.
I made Corporal in late 1955 and in early 1956 decided that I needed some excitement in my life so I volunteered for overseas and as a reward was posted to Nicosia and a two and a half year spell in Tech Control. There were plenty of things going on what with the EOKA conflict and the Suez war. In March 1957 I was sent to Habbaniya for six weeks to temporarily fill a vacancy caused by the untimely death of a sooty killed in an accident. I enjoyed a couple of trips into Baghdad and the weather was quite good also.
Whilst at Nicosia I helped to form a voluntary band and I first started playing trad Jazz (I had bought my first record when at Halton and got hooked on Chris Barber). There was a jazz band in need of a trad trumpet player so I was roped in. Mid tour I returned to UK to get hitched and went back to complete the tour unaccompanied. I journeyed back from Loin-lasso' to Southampton on the Dilwara (her last voyage) and that put me off sea travel for life.
A posting to Honington followed where I spent nearly six years on Valiants (in charge of the jet pipe bay) and Victors (in the engine bay). Whilst there I was made Cpl Tech, Sen Tech and passed Ch Tech after a few ballards and trips to Weeton (good old Blackpool). I even made up a book of all the engine tasks to be asked and this proved to be in great demand. On the music side, I played in the station band, a local 14 piece dance band, a six piece dance band, a pit orchestra, the Bury St Edmunds symphony orchestra and the Riverside Jazz Band in Cambridge, I also managed to sit in with Acker Bilk twice which was a good experience.
In late 1964 I was posted to Scampton on to Blue Steel, firstly on the drying out plant, then Tech Control and finally setting up the missile tech library. The Q-BS-E course at Watering was quite interesting. When Blue Steel was terminated I moved on to the Vulcan servicing squadron and took part in a few exercise Micks, Micky Finns and took an ECU to Offutt doing an overnight recovery and waiting two weeks to get a flight back!! Music was confined to Station Band and many engagements. I got unmarried 1968 and remarried 1969. From 1966 to 1969 took HNC Mechanical with endorsements after a 12 year lay off.
I volunteered for secondment to the Royal Malaysian Air Force in early 1970 and went to RMAF Kuala Lumpur in August 1970 on to No I Squadron. I worked mostly on DHC-4A Caribou (Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasps). Two-monthly trips to forward grass airstrips in charge of ground crew provided nice breaks and flying on the jungle supply drops was quite hairy assisting the AQMs.
I was also on the first Caribou to land on the island of Phuket off Thailand and almost got to Bali when the RMAF sold their old Twin Pioneers to the Indonesian Air Force but the Indonesian authorities didn't want any seconded people on board. It was also nice to fly down to Changi occasionally in the Station Flight Heron and Dove. Thanks to a very co-operative leave clerk at MINDEF I was able to take all my leave and accumulate it and had 18 weeks leave on return to UK in 1973.
1973 Honington beckoned a second time and I had a Married Quarter before starting work but I had so much difficulty adjusting to the English weather that I asked for an inside job and was put in Engineering Control. Once again I was in the Station Band before I started work and had plenty of engagements to keep me occupied.
In mid 1974 I decided to take the 22 year option and took a resettlement course in Tech Authorship at Romsey and at the same time we decided to emigrate to South Africa. I left the RAF in December 1974 and we flew to Johannesburg in January 1975 to an interview at Atlas Aircraft Corporation. I got the job and worked with quite a few ex-pats in the Technical Publications Department. It was not long before I came across the Golden City Jazz Band who were on the point of firing their trumpet player so I stepped in and played with them until I left Joburg. One important gig we did was for Celebrity Tennis at Ellis Park where we met and chatted to Ringo Starr in the dressing room. (A really funny guy).
Job wise I went to Tech Author at Galion Ltd and then back to Atlas as a Tech Writer with the South African Air Force before finally moving to Cape Town in December 1977 for a job with Plessey Mechanical Division.
I had a couple of spells at Plessey before moving to the newly built Nuclear Power Station just outside Cape Town as a Technical Editor, eventually heading up the Tech Pubs Department. (A contract writer who joined us from UK was John Sparrow, 62nd entry, who was in the Engine bay at Honington while I was there and had swapped over to the Army Air Corps and retired as a WO1I).
During the 18 years I was in Cape Town I played for the Riverboat Jazz Band doing about 2,000 gigs, the highlight of which was being invited to Palm Springs to an International Jazz Festival in December 1992. We were the first band from South Africa to go over to that festival and during the performances over six days we were joined most of the time by Chris Barber who was the overseas guest star. He also arranged accommodation for us for a week in New Orleans.
While in New Orleans we managed to get sit-in sessions with some of the resident bands on Bourbon Street and for a trad band it was an unforgettable experience. Back in Cape Town yet one more first for the band was doing a one hour TV show on Jazz in South Africa.
We decided in mid 1995 that when our youngest son matriculated we would emigrate back to UK and were very glad that both our lads were educated in SA with their strict discipline. Yorkshire beckoned on our return and after a spell in QC on PC Boards I moved to Linton on Ouse to work for Short Brothers on the Tucanos where I met two more 69th sooties, Ray Jones and John Elliott and all three of us were working in the same hanger.
I also had a mild heart attack the day after I finished the Tucano engine course, so I had a few weeks rest. I managed to get a job playing for the Yorkshire Post Jazz Band for a while until I was accepted for a contract Tech Author job with Westland Helicopters in Yeovil, writing first on the Sea King and then on the EH 101 Merlin.
After a year there was a management purge on contract staff (a regular phenomenon at Westland) and I found myself jobless. So now I am a part time taxi driver in Yeovil to keep me occupied and I go occasionally to sit in with bands that appear locally.
I am very grateful to RAF Halton staff for giving me a good technical training, good academic training and excellent musical tuition.
- RAF Halton and the Brats
- The Aircraft Apprentices Scheme
- Clubs, Societies and Sports at Halton
- RAF Halton's goats
- Tributes to Halton and the Brats
- The 69th and the Apprentices Network, 1951
- The Presentation of the Queen's Colour, 1952
- Summer Camp, RAF Formby, 1953
- The 69th and the Queen's Coronation, 1953
- The 69th's Graduation Review, 1954
- The Senior Entry - a graduate's letter, 1954
- A full list of 69th Graduates
- Halton days: stories from the 69th
- The 69th's Burmese Brats
- The 69th's commemorative window
- 69th Entry Reunions