Details:
RECOLLECTIONS OF AN AIR FORCE SOLDIER by DAVID THORNTON: ISBN
0-9529301-0-2: Non fiction; self-published; A5 size; 220 pages with twenty-one
black and white illustrations. CONTACT: The author, by e-mail at:
FIND OUT
ABOUT THE MISSING CARTOON
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Royal Air Force Regiment
SERVICE CLUB
"Proud of
our Corps". "Proud of our Association".
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Recollections of an Air Force Soldier:
This 220 page book is a personal account of the authors life in the Royal Air
Force’s “private army” - the R.A.F. Regiment - during the late
1950’s. A time when compulsory National Service (conscription) for
eighteen year olds was still in force, - three years before they were
considered responsible enough to vote - and at the height of the bloody
‘troubles’ in Cyprus. This true story will appeal to all
ex-servicemen, no matter which uniform they wore, and is certain to bring back
memories of ‘service life’ - both good and bad - to anyone who has
served in the armed forces. Funny, wistful, sometimes shocking, and often
explicit, it tells of one individuals time in the Services; together with some
well researched detail about the politics and background to the
‘problem’ of Cyprus, a problem that, sadly, is still unresolved more
than forty years later.
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There can be no doubt about it. We were altogether a
thoroughly "Blue" family. My farther, my mother and the three eldest of their
four children, had all worn the blue uniform of the Royal Air Force with pride,
clocking up some fifty-odd years of service between them. Now with the
prospect of being called up for National Service myself, as the youngest
member of the family. I would soon have to decide whether or not I would
continue the tradition, to make it a "full -house"; or go for something
different!
Father had made a smooth transition as a fighter pilot from
the khaki or the Royal Flying Corps to the blue 'maternity' jacket of the Royal
Air Force, having been present at its birth on the first of April
1918.
During the second world war, mother had decided to do her bit, and
had volunteered for the WAAF, doing her "square bashing" on Morecombe Sands,
and then becoming a 'pool' driver in the difficult days of shrouded head
lamps, white painted mudguards and the blackout.
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My eldest brother, Edward, the only one of us
(apart from my father) who was in the least bit interested in flying, had
gained his white Officer Cadet tabs and had got as far as his first solo
as a trainee pilot, when they managed to keep him occupied for a while longer,
the RAF eventually sent him off to University.
My elder brother,
Chris, had always been mad on the Navy and loved ships and boats with the
same all-consuming passion that father had for aeroplanes! Unable to achieve
his ambition because of the slightest hint of colour-blindness, he had enlisted
as a Boy Entrant - came out and went back in again, to join the Marine Craft
Section, ending up as coxswain on Air Sea Rescue launches.
Jean, our
sister and the eldest of us, had joined up at seventeen, and been
commissioned into the WAAF where, as a Section Officer, she had worked on the
early RADAR installations. Two years later she had met her husband, a Royal
Naval pilot who, tragically, was killed on active service only a matter of days
after they were married.
The extraordinary fund of service
stories that the family has amassed over the years, on which we were
brought up, and to which we had all contributed in turn from our own
experiences, are almost unbelievable; some of them funny and some sad.
Most of them of course, totally incomprehensible and quite meaningless to
anyone who hasn't served in the Forces and might not appreciate that rather
special, but very necessary, quirky sense of humour that was born out of
Camaraderie and sired by Adversity, in all it's various forms.
Allow
me to quote a couple of examples. CLICK
HERE
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DAVID THORNTON
THE BOOK |
Copyright©
Notice:
Permission has been granted for www.rockape.org.uk to publish
extracts from the book. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
or transmitted by any means whatsoever without prior permission, in writing,
from the author.
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