Page 242 - Demo

238Then in December 1988 the work at RAF Leeming was finally finished and the team moved back there and an Officer from Leeming became I/C. I had enjoyed being with the team and was proud to have worked with such a great troop of men who really had the can do attitude. Apart from the aircraft accidents we had done various searches for missing walkers and I had spent time liaising with various police forces which was always interesting. Some of us had done the coast to coast walk as an expedition on the grounds that it gave us more knowledge of ourarea and me knowledge of how fit my sergeant was. He routed himself over every hill either side of the main route and caught up with us at the end of the day. And we even had a Royal visit. I had the task of showing Princess Margaret some of our drills and techniques.A week after I had handed over the team and they moved into their new super accommodation at Leeming the Lockerby disaster occurred. I sat at home knowing the team would be involved and wondering if I should go. However, I had handed all my kit in and turning up would confuse the chain of command so I stayed at home. In fact, that afternoon they had invited the Station Commander and various other people to share a barrel of beer to celebrate the opening of their accommodation. Just as the socialising started the call out whistle was tannoyed. They all thought it was a joke at first but then realised it wasn%u2019t. The young MTdriver rushed to the garage part of the building and heaved the up and over door up. He then raced into the cab and reversed out. Unfortunately, the door had gone up, hit the top and then bounced down. A 3 ton Bedford is heavy and powerful and made short work of the brand new door. When they got back a few days later the Station Commander said in view of what they had been through it would just be repaired and nothing further said. I did visit the team just once more. Spoiler alert: that was to thank them for looking after my aircraft that was in a field on the Yorkshire Wolds