1967 to 1971.

By Barry Close.Instruments.

No photo of Barry available.

I drove from BK to St Mawgan in my old A 35, what a journey; as I was booking into the Sgts' Mess I met Ken Brown who had also just arrived that day, he too had been posted on promotion.

While we were waiting for Married Quarters (about 2 months) Ken and I explored Cornwall; we visited just about every village in the county. St Mawgan was the home of MOTU (Maritime Operational Training Unit) and the Sgts' Mess was full of young aircrew, generally making a nuisance of themselves, so we went out most evenings and weekends. Kris Penny was also at St Mawgan, at that time still a Jnr Tech, he was in Married Quarters in Padstow so we visited him there one evening; perhaps it was seeing us as Sgts that spurred him on to become aircrew!

Eventually I was allocated a married quarter at St Eval; what a dump! St Eval in the winter seemed to be covered in a perpetual mist. During the winter Newquay was about a 30 minutes' drive away whilst in the summer it could take over two hours and, even then, you would have a hard time finding somewhere to park. I did not enjoy St Mawgan very much; I was in charge of the Instrument Section and I was also appointed as the Command Autolycus Instructor as it went with the job. Autolycus, for those of you that don't know, is a piece of equipment that detects the presence of diesel fumes - such as a submarine using its snorkel.

I decided I had to escape so I volunteered for overseas; a few months later my posting came through - No 2 Air Trials Unit at Edinburgh Field in South Australia. A month or so later a letter came from Edinburgh Field families' officer giving us the address of our soon to be new home in Elizabeth, an outer northern suburb of Adelaide, he even suggested when I should send my deep-sea boxes. We were due to depart at the end of September so, as we packed our deep-sea boxes, we included our winter clothing.

A month before we were due to depart I received a signal stating that the accommodation situation had deteriorated and that I was to come unaccompanied. My wife was not happy and neither was I; she decided she was going to write to her MP and I helped her to write the letter. My wife had a cousin in Sydney, he was also my best man at our wedding, who had gone to Oz a year earlier, so I wrote to him and asked if he could arrange accommodation for us in Sydney; he replied saying he would so I took his letter to SHQ and it was arranged that we could all travel; I would take two weeks leave and then travel to Edinburgh Field on my own, at least we would all be on the same continent.

On the journey out we met another man and his wife who had experienced the same problem; he knew someone in Edinburgh Field who had found them private accommodation and suggested that, after my leave, we all went to Elizabeth to stay with them until we got a married quarter, or private accommodation. He worked in Air Movements and said he would organise it all.

My wife's cousin met us in Sydney, he couldn't put us up himself as he and his wife lived in a one-bed flat but he had found us a bungalow near to Manley Beach. He collected us every morning, my wife and children stayed with his wife and he took me with him to his work; he was delivering goods to delicatessens and said it was a good way for me to see Sydney.

My friend from Air Movements was as good as his word and the air tickets arrived for our trip to Adelaide; we were met at Adelaide and taken to his house in Elizabeth which is very near to Edinburgh Field.

The next morning I was collecting my arrival form when I was told that the CO wanted to see me; he was not a 'happy bunny'. He told me that because of my wife's letter to her MP there was a parliamentary inquiry and it would make things easier if I would apologise on her behalf. I told him that not only would I not apologise but that I agreed with everything she had written; then, to add insult to injury, I added that, in my opinion, any apologies should be coming from his side of the desk. At this point he lost the plot, turned purple and told me to get out of his office and that he hoped never to clap eyes on me again.

No 2 Air Trials Unit was, at that time, conducting trials on the cluster bomb, operating three Canberras and three DC 3s, two of the most reliable aircraft ever built. There were 18 instrument fitters to look after these 6 aircraft, 3 RAF and the rest were Aussies; it was a ridiculous situation and I couldn't help but wonder what on earth I was going to do with myself for the next few years.

Edinburgh Field was also a recruit training unit for the RAAF; everyone had to wear name tags and the instrument section was where they were made so I put myself in charge of making up the name tags; it kept me busy. Other people were obviously concerned about the manpower situation and it was announced that there was to be an establishment review. I hadn't even unpacked my deep-sea boxes when I was declared redundant and posted to Changi.

Normally, when posted to a new unit, one would go onto the married quarters 'unfrozen' list, points being awarded according to rank, length of service and number of children; 'unfrozen' meant that one's position went up or down the list according to the arrival of others with more or less points. Eventually one reached the top of the list and then, when the next married quarter was allocated, the name at the top of the 'unfrozen' list moved to the bottom of the 'frozen' list. Once on the 'frozen' list no one could join it ahead of you so eventually, in your turn, you were allocated a married quarter. When posted between commands overseas the rules changed and you went straight to the bottom of the 'frozen list'; they kept us in Oz until a married quarter became available in Changi. My posting to Oz lasted just 6 months.

On arrival at Changi I was posted to 205 Sqn; back on Shacks so I was well chuffed. I was the only instrument tradesman living in AMQs, in fact there were only three people from the squadron doing so. My neighbours were all WOs, most of them working in FEAF headquarters. I rapidly came to the conclusion that living on camp came at a high price as I was frequently called out; it was quite amusing at times as very few land rovers ever appeared on our road and when they did all these WOs would come out to see who was being visited; they seemed very put out when it was always me. My arrival on 205 Sqn came at an opportune moment, the squadron had re-equipped with Phase 3 aircraft and I was the only instrument fitter with knowledge of the new equipment, none of the others had any Shack experience at all.

In the UK each Shack Sqn took its turn in providing SAR cover but in the Far East 205 Sqn had to provide it at all times. We had one aircraft based at Gan and normally it was serviced by the Gan ground crew, the air crew rotating every 2 weeks. We had two aircraft on permanent SAR at Changi. When VIPs were overflying the area we would deploy to either RAAF Butterworth (Malaya) or Hong Kong.

During the monsoon season it was quite common for floods to occur in areas around Changi preventing most of the Sqn from getting to work on time; this was when I would be called out. I was also the only Sqn Sgt living on camp (if I remember correctly) so I found myself doing a lot of the SAR detachments, especially the short notice ones; I was usually NCO i/c as well. The worst part of the job was trying to keep the other ground crew in line, especially in Hong Kong with all its various distractions; most of them were OK but there were always a few who would get into some sort of trouble. One particular trip to Butterworth was memorable for a slightly different reason: I was having breakfast in the Sgts' Mess when the aircraft captain came in and told me that a flight was cancelled because two of the aircrew were in hospital having been involved in a fight with locals in Penang; apparently they had wandered into a brothel thinking it was a nightclub and, when they declined the services on offer, the minders took offence and set upon them with staves; exit one flight engineer and one navigator.

There were other more normal detachments: Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines to name but a few. I also went on an Oz. one, to RAAF Richmond which was just outside Sydney. At that time 205 Sqn had the habit of 'zapping' all foreign aircraft, and vehicles, they came across with little red Shackletons; they never went anywhere without a stencil and a red aerosol paint can. The Aussies came into work one morning to find all their Orion P3s and their vehicles 'zapped'; they replied the next night by 'zapping' all our aircraft with kangaroos, obviously thinking that doing so evened things up. They were very pissed off the next day to find that all the kangaroos had a ball and chain around their ankles. The lads also sewed several sheets together to make one large one and on it painted a large red Shack with the words "205 Sqn says Hello to Sydney"; this was then mounted on Sydney Harbour bridge, surely one of the greatest 'zappings' of all times. Unfortunately the locals took offence and the detachment CO had to tell us to desist, however he was smiling as he said it. I missed out on both New Zealand and the Philippines; I think my boss felt I was doing enough with all the SAR detachments.

One Crew returning from Gan must have dozed off and then, when someone woke up, found that the aircraft was only a few hundred feet above the sea (they were not allowed to drink while they were on SAR but no doubt, when the relief crew had arrived, they most likely had a few beers to celebrate their last night there). An incident report was raised and I discovered that an autopilot fault had been reported during the detachment; the Gan ground crew had replaced the junction box. Unfortunately they hadn't set it up properly and even the independent check hadn't picked up on it; this particular autopilot, the Mk 9, had not been taught in training schools for several years, having been superseded there by the Mk 10. Obviously the Gan crew were not competent regarding the Shack auto pilot but I didn't want to drop them in the proverbial so I went and had a word with the Sqn Eng Off (this one was one of the good guys). Our main worry was that if an official enquiry ensued Transport Command would very likely tell us to look after our own aircraft, we were hard pressed as it was without having a permanent detachment in Gan.

I took the unusual step of writing to the NCO i/c Inst at Gan explaining what had happened and suggesting that he thought up some way to get his guys some training, either at Changi or at Gan. A week or so later I was on my way to Gan for a seven day detachment; I don't think I bought one drink during the week, they were very appreciative. I had never done an unaccompanied tour and it was quite an eye opener; every time a VC10 came in the TAF crewroom emptied, everyone sprinted to get the best positions near the passenger steps so they could get the best view of the females leaving the aircraft. For the next hour that was all they talked about and then, when the aircraft was due to leave, there they were again; it took me quite a long time to get the instrument guys focused on autopilots once again.

Like all good things my time in Singapore came to an end and I found myself posted to RAF Cosford as an instructor; it was an unexpected posting as I had been hoping for Nimrods.