My first real military aviation experience

My first flight ever was in a Dan Dare 727 back from Naples.
My second was a left hand seat in a Walter Wessex HC2 as a member of the RAF.

I suppose you could say that my first military aviation experience was the ride the Army Reserves were giving in a UH-1H at an open house for the local reserve unit when I was a sophomore in high school, but as it was open to the general public I don’t really count that.

To me it was my junior year in high school, when our HS Army JROTC unit was out for a “field weekend”, and in the middle of us running a navigation exercise we were bounced by a pair of Army AH-1s at ~200′ AGL. We were called back to the base (actually a local National Forest campground with a nice large meadow) just in time for a pair of CH-47 Chinooks and an OH-6 Cayuse to land in the meadow, with the Cobras hovering to “cover” the landing. The Cobras then landed and we got to talk to the crews and look over the aircraft with them.

That was the spring of 1979… that fall we went out to the local Army reserve training area with the artillery unit (105mm howitzers) from Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City, Utah and learned how to set up and break down the guns to/from firing positions. We had expected to spend the whole weekend there, and watch some live-fire, but the Army had different plans.

The next morning a batch of Chinooks appeared and landed, and we had to load everything inside… then they took off and hovered while the Reservists slinged up the guns! As I was the senior cadet present, they left me to “supervise” the loadings, so I was on the last Chinook to lift off… having watched them take the guns away.

We flew about 80 miles to the west to the Dugway Proving Grounds, where we set up and fired the guns. They split us up among the gun crews, and during the firing, between all the gun crews, we cadets actually performed every job except setting the fuzes on the shells. Even that was actually covered… they were under orders not to let us set the fuze timers, but I was screwing the fuzes in the shells while the Tech Sgt set them right in front of me, and he explained everything he was doing… and showed me step-by-step.

That evening the trucks showed up, and the next day we drove back to Fort Douglas, where the buses to take us back to our school were waiting.

Here are two photos I took that day.

We took both State and Regional championships my Senior year in Small-bore Rifle Indoor shooting (.22 cal) and in Exhibition Drill With Arms.

And yes, those are real M1903A3 Springfield 30-06 rifles in the Drill Team photo, with the original wood stocks. We always prided ourselves on being able to throw and spin those throughout the whole routine, while many other teams used “drill weapons” (with plastic stocks & sheet-metal-over-wood barrels).

The Drill Team photo has me in the front row on the viewer’s left, and I’m front row viewer’s right in the Rifle Team shot.

My first flight, military or otherwise, was on a Southern comms Anson from, guess where, Roborough, 1956, when with 335 ATC squadron, Plymouth (the one with the Seafire!)
But the military flight that sticks in my mind was a few months later. Night flying from Lindholme in a Lincoln. Glowing exhausts from the Merlins and a fantastic view of the Humber estuary at night.
Happy days!

Regards
Bill

I was in the RAF contingent of the school CCF and had been on a few Field Days and a couple of Summer Camps when in 1960 or 61 we spent a week at Middleton St George.

We were taken in groups out to the North Yorkshire Moors and had to find our way back to base. All but one group were safely returned leaving one lot well overdue. I was a Flight Sergeant and as the Under Officer was not bothered one of the matey instructors offered me the second seat in Meteor T7 ( I think it was ) to go and stooge around the Moors to find the lost party. I was in my element, weaving around the hills and valleys!! And we did find them – miles from where they should have been and trekking in the opposite direction from back to base. A pity my dreams of flying for real came to nought!

First

One year into training as a boy entrant at St Athan and one boreing saturday afternoo three of us were walking about the camp and heard airoplane noises from the airfield near our classrooms.On investigating we found thre “Ansons “giving air experience flights to ATC cadets ,we thought this was a bit off as we were already in the mob so we approached the officer in charge and he very kindly let us go on the last flight.I can remember the three of us cheering like mad as the wheels left the ground and we roared(!!!)off to west of the camp and ended up circling Port Talbot steelworks and then all three ansons started to engage each other as if they were fighters!!What an experience ,on our return we could not stop talking about our afternoon to friends who were so jealous!!Still got one more flight two weeks later !!
Next was a MK3 Shackelton followed by a MK1 and then a Lincoln !!Great days !!!

🙂