Another passing out parade and we went forth with another rail pass on to “Artificer Training Penultimate stage” this was real field training with the big boys.
I travelled from the very north of the UK to my new base at almost the southernmost point of the UK. Another concrete ship which specialised in the training of newly minted officers in the art of rotary wing flying, helicopters pilots to be. The base was also the home to three regiments of Royal Marine commandos and occasionally members of the elite SBS would grace us with their presence.
Initial training was on the Hiller helicopter for both tiffies and officers learning to fly, there were certainly big boys toys but easy to handle as just 2 people could manoeuvre them to and from the hangars by simply raising them on to wheels and pushing them!
Quite easy to learn the basic skills of maintaining and learning ground test basic skills and relatively easy for officers to learn to fly rotary wing aircraft before moving on to the front line in such as the Wessex with a commando unit or the Whirlwind for some that went in to SAR (Search and Rescue).
One of the things that stuck in my mind from those days was what some of the officers pilot trainees did to relieve the stress and tension. They knitted! Generally just a few lines of nothing in particular but some become quite adept and were producing wearable items.
As with the trainee pilots I was soon to move on to the big stuff, the Wessex, in fact as back up maintenance crew to some of the Royal Marine Commandoes fleets of Wessex helicopters. This is where training really took off as often we were put on war footing. Training thank goodness but nevertheless quite real and intense.
Three highlights I guess.
First and only ever trip to sea on a ship/boat. We had been sent down to check out the engine of an MTB (Motor Torpedo Boat) but it turned out we were to paint the engine room which we duly did. That evening we went out for drinks and too many glasses of scrumpy later returned to the MTB. There was no plan to go to sea but apparently the MOD (Ministry of Defence) wanted a water sample from further down the coast so during the early hours of the morning we cast off in search of the water sample. The excess of Scrumpy kicked and most of us spent the rest of the mini voyage in the heads (toilet) being quite unwell. Not a very auspicious occurrence for members of the Royal Navy elite Artificers!
Second would be my appearance as a drummer with the “ships” orchestra for a one week performance of the “Death of a Salesman” the musical version. A very interesting experience and my one and only foray in to the world of entertainment.
Thirdly I met my first wife to be.
