!954 - 1958 anyone at West Kirby, RAF Locking, RAF REU Henlow, RAF Compton Bassett, then back to REU Henlow over the 4 years - love to hear from anybody
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Hi Bob Interesting to hear you were a DI at West Kirby when i was there in 1954 - those early times were dreaded by the New Intakes, I have good memories even now after all this time. However - I was in `C` Squadron then, I believe it was also called `Smuts` or have I mixed up stations I was in ? Did you ever come across Cpl Villas (my DI then) also Cpl Cox (he terrified us all) and Sgt Sneddon - he was senior DI. thaniks for your reply although we didn`t know each other. Hope all is well with you and life is good in Spain. I`m married (now coming up to 88 on the 24th Jan) but we are both ok - Cheers David Rolfe - We live at Bridport in Dorset. Check my photos
Hi Dave The names you mention seem to ring a bell --But as you may remember it was a large place -- some 4000 personnel if I remember---I was kind I tucked them all in bed at night !!!! -- looking back it seemed strange that at times I was training age groups from 18 to 25 and I was not even 20. But what we went through at RAF Uxbridge for 8 weeks -- well -- there were 10 of us to a Sargent -- we breathed by numbers ! There were some 30 of us at the time and by the end we marched like robots -- The discipline would kill half of the young people today . The other strange thing was that when I was demobbed my girl and I wanted to get married and I had to have my Father sign a form giving me permission as I was not quite 21 ! yet I trained lads how to kill and stick a bayonet in folk --- Ah memories
All the best Bob Jarvis
All the best Bob Jarvis
Well Bob `Thanks for that` You know quite well that getting on this subject we could talk for `years with memories` I can definitely appreciate what your training must have been like a Uxbridge, we `ERKS` at Kirby only got a bit of that. Nice to hear you were not one of the `Rough Ones` ha ha, our DI was also good but Cpl Cox was a terror. I actually signed on for 4 years, couldn`t get the particular trade I wanted unless I did, I was probably conned !! - lived at Reading then. As you say it would do a `power of good` for some of our youth these days to sample a few weeks of a DI, I remember it well. Once you got over the AC2 period things became better - I could say a lot more of `how I managed` to get out of various chores/meetings etc. At the end of the day `I would not have missed a moment of those 4 years` - I had some fantastic times and was very lucky with living with some fantastic guys during the billet years. - I`ve led a most `active and eventful life` since then. Cheers Bob
I`m happy to stop now Bob - but if you want to ask/talk anything more I will be happy to come back and continue talking. Kind wishes (poss for now) David R.
I`m happy to stop now Bob - but if you want to ask/talk anything more I will be happy to come back and continue talking. Kind wishes (poss for now) David R.