29 years ago today...

[Boxadog 2000]

Go on give us a laugh show us your first in Uniform photo

[Gromit]

Go on give us a laugh show us your first in Uniform photo

They're 'filed away' Bob.

Mind you, I...

a. Was lot slimmer then
b. Had hair (on my head)
c. Was even more devastatingly handsome
d. Had a far healther liver
e. Could run a 1.5 miles fitness test in around 8 mins

How things change.

[boxerscott]

Huntingdonshire? (ex) Educational place of the mighty Oliver Cromwell, Constituency seat of the adulterer pm John Major? Beautiful River Ouse? Lived there for a few months of my infant life, ran away and shat my pants on a visit to Alconbury ( USAF fighter bombers making a lot of noise) to the disdain from an angry young Raf Dad, oh happy memories

[Yogi Bear]

Nice one Richard. Congratulations!

7 yrs, 2 months and 2 weeks for me. Not that I'm counting!

Cheers

Ali

[McBoxer]

Mind you, I......could run a 1.5 miles fitness test in around 8 mins

Congratulations, Sir
(is it Sir? or Flight? or another RAF rank that makes no sense to poorly educated Army types....)

8 mins is pretty quick for a PFA - did they have your name down for a PTI course?

[Gromit]

Thanks chaps

McB - I was just a lowly Chief, sadly. Joined in '84, was at Cranwell 84-86 then at Uxbridge from 1986 to 2010. Applied for a posting back to Cranwell back in 2000(!), even turning down promotion to FS as it would've meant staying at Uxbridge. Frustrating as I'd have been a WO by now...ah well!!

Think my 1.5 miler was itro 8'20" - was a bit of a racing snake back then. Er...like I am now...er...not!

[Al]

Richard, what do(did) you actually do?, Cranwell, Uxbridge, Musician=Raf/Regiment Band or Discip/GD possibly, then the Chief bit confused me as I thought only techie trades had Chief rank.
I always thought Chief or WO were the best ranks to be, as a chief you can still be a bit hands on but get less crap and admin than a FS but you get the same pension and as a WO it is basically your train set to run as you see fit.
`86-2010, thats a long time at one camp, I did 15 yrs at St Athan and although a great place to live and I enjoyed most of what I did, I felt a bit removed from the rest of the RAF if that makes sense and It wasn`t until I went to Cosford and started travelling around the flying units that I felt part of it again.

Al.

[Gromit]

Hi Al - yes, joined the Mob as a musician. Was all ready, at the age of 18, to go off to Music College/University but where we used to live in Cambridge there was a retired Sqn Ldr over the road from us. He mentioned one evening that the RAF took musicians so whilst at first baulking at the idea (more like 'eh?') I began to come round to it - especially as it meant me being paid. I kicked the uni/college thing into touch and joined up.

I was Principal Clarinettist with the Central Band from 1989-2010 and count myself extremely fortunate to have held that position as it's probably 'the' seat that every Clarinettist in HM Forces would want to occupy. The Central Band is widely recognised as just about the finest military band in the world - ok of course I'm biased, but ask any other Forces' musician in the UK and they'll tell you that.

We fought hard to keep the Chief rank - we lost JT but didn't replace it with SACTech. CT was kept as we had to keep a rank for those holding the position of Drum Major (ie the guy who leads the band on parades and gets to shout at people). It's also held as a specialist performer rank ie for those who hold principal positions within the band. I agree it's one of the best ranks going - enough clout to rattle cages (and bang on the Boss's desk when needed!) but not so much responsibility to make life too stressful. FS in the band is a horrendous job - you're basically running the whole show and get sh*t from above and below. The pot of gold though is of course the promotion to WO.

[Al]

No wonder you thought you had the best job in the world, good for you.
Good luck with "retirement" hope you find something than comes close to that. Hope we can have a beer at a Boxertrix bash at some point.


Al.

[el-nicko]

Well it is true that variety is the spice of life. I, myself have done lots of different things to earn a crust. But, probably, the most unusual job I've ever held down (back in the 70s) was re-recording the audio track on imported VHS Italian porn films. Sitting, with a female colleague, in a darkened pre-view room for eight hours a day, re-placing the over-excited dialogue of the (unnecessarily but characteristically) voluble Latino performers on the screen with a variety of simple grunts and groans from the rather extensive repertoire we'd developed was the most boring thing I've ever done. Funnily enough, I suspect one particular contributor to this, our little forum, may have become unwittingly over-familiar with our work.

[dave the german]

Nick, did you add any personal grunts to the repertoire? Just asking like

[el-nicko]

Ha ha Dave, as you've probably guessed, improvisation and embroidery are my greatest talents.

[tanneman]

'Squeal like a pig, boy'

Oops, wrong movie then. Have you heard tortoises mating?