Page 47 - Demo

43told him he could smoke and to use a cup as an ashtray, but I pointed out that we were leaning against a load of flares so be careful. He was very worried about that and was also very reluctant to put on a headset that we provided. I said that he would go deaf if he didn%u2019t, but he refused in case he overheard something secret! He was also amazed when one of the signallers gave him a cup of tea and he didn%u2019t have to pay for it. How times have changed. Our main job on the squadron was driving the crew coach to take crews to and from the aircraft plus any other gash job that came up. One day a crew was detached to Bodo for the weekend at short notice. It was not a very experienced crew and so the Flight Commander decided that a more experienced AEO would have to go with them. This was on a Friday and the AEO was stood down. I was sent round to his quarter to tell him he had to go and to report to Operations later that afternoon. He was out when I got to his house and so I gave the message to his wife. She was furious and said they had a party organised that weekend. She then chased me down the path with a broom! I was sort of attached to the A Flight Commander Benjy Hives%u2019 crew. A really nice chap and I think a baronet but not overly efficient. The flying program for the week was put up on a big planning board but aircraft unserviceability%u2019sand other problems meant it was liable to change. One week the Squadron decided not to rub cancelled sorties off the board but just to add to them. By the end of the week the board was unreadable, and the squadron had only flown very few of them. It wasn%u2019t long before I went and saw the Wing Commander and asked to be posted to an air experience flight where I could at least do some flying in Chipmunks. He did me a great favour by saying that first I must do my B exam and when I had passed that he would see what he could do. The B exam was for promotion to Flight Lieutenant, and I was in no hurry to do so as I had only just become a flying Officer and would have 4 years to wait before being promoted anyway. As it was and with nothing much else to do this