Page 80 - Demo

76ler say that with a qualified pilot flying. I think that he was a bit scared of the Shackleton.I very nearly hit him once. Gabby and I were in the bar having a drink, when he came in with Sqn Ldr Parry Evans, one of the flight commanders. Gabby got up to leave and Dewer said something to the effect that was I going with her for a bit of the other. Dewer was of course drunk but I felt the remark regarding a female officer was beyond the pale. I walked towards him and Parry Evans realised what I was about to do and got between us. He said something like, Its Ok Chris, I will take him to bed. Just leave him.He was replaced by Wg Cdr Wild. He was a navigator and a real breath of fresh air after Dewer. For the takeover of the Squadron, he spent a week in Wg Cdr Dewer%u2019s office going through the paper work. At the end of that week, we had a barrel of beer on the squadron. At some point I needed to get past him to refill our crews%u2019 glasses, another copilot%u2019s duty. I said %u201cExcuse me please sir%u201d and was amazed by his reply, %u201c no problem Chris%u201d. He had learnt all the officers%u2019 names from a photo before he saw us. He also knew the key NCOs as well. He invited all the officers for drinks in his quarter a couple of times a year. There was a barrel of beer for the chaps and Guinness and cider for the ladies. Of course, each crew more or less stayed together so he mixed us up by moving into a room with several of us there, blew a whistle and told some to go and swop over with others somewhere else. On a squadron we all knew each other but you might not see other chaps very much and so this was a way of bringing us together more as a unit. The Flight Commanders had told us young chaps that when they left that was the signal for us to go too. However, when that happened, we thought that there was still plenty of beer left and so we stayed. The conversation moved onto food and I think the bosses wife Flora asked if anyone