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256gas field kitchen that was very powerful. After a few years we were told that none of us was qualified to use it and so the expeditions stopped. What the powers to be would have thought of the MRT%u2019s bomb I dread to think. This was a gas fired thing that was actually supposed to be used for melting tar for road repairs. It was a ferocious beast.I think that the course I went to Kenya must have been the course that graduated while I was OC. This meant a fairly formal lunch with the student parents. They of course were very proud that their sons had now passed our course flying jet aircraft. We would make polite conversation to them and the QFIs would usually do a box 4 flypast. The students would contact Squadrons all over the RAF and put on an informal flying display. The Station Commander would make some kind of a speech as did the Squadron Commander. This was me. I can remember standing up and saying, %u201cThere are 2 groups of people sitting here today who are amazed that they are here. The first is all the students who have overcome all hurdles to get here. The second%u201d, I paused, everyone wondering what on earth I was going to say. %u201cThe second is me. I am a Spec Aircrew Squadron Leader who is supposed to be filling a non-executive roll, just flying aeroplanes, not commanding a Squadron%u201d I went on to say how hard they had all worked etc in a more conventional way. At some point I glanced across at the Station Commander who was looking absolute daggers at me. However, I think we all ended friends. I think the QFIs and students thought it amusing and once the parents had it explained to them they were all very nice to me. My time as Squadron Commander ended sometime in March 1989. Pilots who a few weeks earlier I had been flying Squadron Commander checks on now flew supervisory checks on me. I had managed not to have written any confidential reports on any of the Squadron QFIs and so it was quite easy just to move my stuff into the QFI room. The older QFIs started calling me Chris again and slowly over the next few years