The 81st Entry
RAF Halton Aircraft Apprentices
Sept 1955 - July 1958

ISSUE No. 3 - MAY 2005
81st ENTRY NEWSLETTER
Editor: Mike Stanley

The Further Adventures of......... by Mike Stanley 681312

"Wise without Eyes".......but thick as a plank with!

After the Lord Mayor's Parade of RAF Germany came the Cludgie Cart of RAF St Athan. I spent the next 4 1/2 years mostly bored out of my skull. Stuck in the station armoury, doing the annual servicing on 100's of .303 Lee Enfield Mk 5 rifles , with a break from that de- leading the 25 metre range was not the reason I had joined the RAF.

On the plus side I got married , started a family and eventually passed my promotion boards so when I was finally posted away , in September 1965, I had reached the Olympian heights of Sergeant.

I had decided that I wouldn't sign on again [ it was them rifles that did it]. About this time( 1964/5) it was not automatically granted to extend one's service. Blokes( especially armourer SNCO's) were often told to re-apply , and in fact it was suggested to apply 3 years before your time was up .My previous service at RAF St Athan hadn't encouraged me to sign on, and, if I put my hand on my heart , I felt that I would not be accepted anyway . I preferred to jump before getting the push!

I had decided that after I left the RAF I would join GPO Telephones, not as a lowly technician on a weekly wage of £11, I was a £1000 a year man and couldn't accept a lowering of my status! . All I had to do was gain the Telecommunication Technicions Certificate [ City and Guilds ] which would allow me to enter as a Technical Officer , higher pay and status than a technician . I knew that the local technical college in Cardiff trained the GPO's budding technical officers. My 2 year accompanied tour to Aden would give me time enough to complete a correspondance course in the subject and with my last year back at RAF St Athan ,and day release at the college, I would be well placed to pass the certificate just before I left Her Gracious Majesty's employment. With my future sorted I jetted off to Aden {Brittania'ed off actually}

I was posted to 37 (MR) Sqdn at RAF Khormaksar, who flew Shackleton Mk 2's.{ aka 20,000 rivets flying in close formation}.This was what I had joined for ; working on aircraft , with a real job to do. Although the squadron's primary task was Search and Rescue the situation in Aden, and up in the Radfan mountains, put us in a war zone and the Shacks' carried, at different times depending on the role they were assigned 2x 20m/m Hispano cannons with 600 rounds ,12x 1000lb bombs , sonar bouys , 48x 20lb fragmentation bombs , 4.5 " flares ; in fact it was plumber's heaven! I flew with the aircraft when they did firing practice and bombing practice, I went on detachments to Sharjar and Dubai ; Salalah , Iran,and Kenya, and although I didn't go with the squadron to Madagascar I do have the visa in my passport.

The only fly in the ointment was the internal security situation in Aden . My wife and daughter, living off camp in Ma'alla where I eventually was allocated a hiring , had to stay cooped up in the flat for many days , while I went off on detachments. Eventually the situation got so bad that the families were sent home and I moved on to the camp . In some ways I was glad that they had gone back to UK, my wife was pregnant with our son and Aden wasn't the place to be at that time , bombs and grenades going off and bullets flying .I was due to leave Aden on the 5th September 1967(!) and 37 Squadron was to disband on the 6th September( I hadn't realised how indispensable I was to the squadron) As it turned out I didn't get away until the 6th as the civvy air- trooping aircraft had gone u/s in Nairobi and we had a 24 hour delay. When we learnt that some of the cabin staff had helped in an engine change ( another Britania), the engine fitters on board spent the whole flight listening and looking at the engine in question.

So September 1967 and back ,in quarters , at RAF St Athan. With one thing and another I hadn't progressed too far with my correspondence course, but no matter I thought, I will get day release at the technical college and catch up with what I had missed .
WRONG!!!

Thinking back I must have been a bit of a wally( I heard that!). I should have checked that I would be able to sit in on classes at the Tech. before I left for Aden. The course run by the college were geared for the block release of GPO telecommunication apprentices ; they did 6 weeks of tech and 6 weeks of on job training over a 3 year apprenticeship, taking exams at the end of every year .

The option of me taking evening classes wasn't feasible .Firstly Doctor Beeching had axed the very useful train service from St Athan to Cardiff and there were no buses to get me to Tech in time for the class ( nor to get back!). Secondly to gain the full technician certificate I would have to take (and pass) 15 ' tickets' in the year!! So that was the end of that .

Never mind there were plenty of other courses I could attend. That looks a good one... a cramming course to take the Civil Service Entrance exam for Executive Officer,.................. I'll have some of that!. " That course is reserved for commisioned officers " said the education officer " but I can get you on a 3 week brick laying course at Aldershott " I've nothing against brickkies but it wasn't quite what I saw for myself . I eventually went on two courses , ' Introduction to Computer Programing'. One at Bristol Univesity on Fortran programing and one at Hull University on Algol programing. So I can put down on my CV ' Attended Bristol AND Hull Universities;' unfortunantly it was only a weekend at each!

I swopped my correspondence course for one with a computer environment and started looking for gainful employment, Two firms were looking to take on trainee computer programers, one was the British Steel Corporation, that had a steel plant just down the road at Newport, and the other was Plessey ,which didn't.

It was Plessey that had the pleasure of my company and when I left the RAF in November 1968 I started work at RAF West Drayton , just over the road from Heathrow , as a trainee computer programer working on a MOD contract dealing with radar data processing for an air traffic control system . Some of you may have come across Linesman? Well don't blame it all on me!

to be continued.........................

Mike Stanley