About a million years ago, way before Pontius even went to flying school, I was a fresh-faced. naive, and very innocent young airman about to get sent out into the big wide world to defend Queen and Country.
The photo above was taken at RAF Swinderby.
Well, after a brief-ish stop at RAF Cosford, then SCCRAF Hendon, then DCC Whitehall, then a few weeks at the Royal Tournament, I found myself in the deepest, darkest depths of the Dutch/German border.
I was stationed at RAF Bruggen where I learned to spend almost all of my time between the Combat Operations Centre and 14 Squadron Ops.
Although I have forgotten none of this (for better or for worse), my memories were recently refreshed when I discovered an old MOD public information film.
As a means of documenting what routine life was like at RAF Bruggen, the film is pretty accurate.
As a description of what the sharp end of The Cold War was like, it’s very good.
Anyway, here it is. I’m not in it because, as you’ll hear, 14 Squadron were on detachment to RAF Decimomannu in Sardinia, where life was exactly as you’d imagine 🙂
Ahhh, happy days.
Maybe.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…