I’ve just read the first many pages of the Report. Having been in Air Ministry/MoD both as a Civilian, and wearing RAF Uniform (both, at the same time, for 2 decades) I will read the rest of the Report but, regrettably, can forecast what conclusions (in detail) it comes up with. Mr Haddon-Cave will be lucky if he ever becomes a Judge. His Report has damned Politicians, the Sir Humphrey’s, and Military Officers, in MoD, and the employees in firms employed by MoD to sort out the Nimrod problem. This, I think you will agree, is making more enemies than any single QC should be reasonably expected to deal with. He is a brave man! He, and the Oxfordshire Coroner (for his resistance to sweeping some of the damning technical details ‘under the carpet’), must be publicly acclaimed for their diligence.
This, however, gets us no further forward. The policy of “Withdrawal From East Of Suez” was predicated by lack of cash – so be it. If the UK Govt (of whatever political colour, I emphasise) wants to be a big player on the international stage then it has to provide the money. This might be (dare I say it?) provided by disestablishing several thousand Outreach Management Co-Ordinators – or have I hit a nerve?
HTH
Resmoroh

Bentley, Hi,
I regret that my time at Waterbeach was all too short and that I did not make the acquaintance of the said “Twinkle Toes”. I avoided the Queen’s Birthday Station Parade (sleeping off nights!). I was quietly minding my way to the NAAFI when I got clobbered for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Birthday Parade. Luckily, I’d been at Square Bashing (Hednesford) with a bloke who was now in Stores. He had (being in receipt of a few beers) furnished me with a number of Uniform Deficiency Chits. Deficient 1 x Rifle Sling meant you couldn’t possibly go on Parades!! The SWO and the Discip Sgt were out for me. Two days later I was summoned to SHQ where informed that I was going to El Adem for the last 18 months of my National Service. Those 18 months were, variously, the most boring, exciting, interesting, etc, etc, of my Nat Svc career. I could fill a book but it would only bore 99.736% of this Forum’s readers/correspondents.
Good days
HTH
Resmoroh

And the “tossers” on the local council will realise – to their great relief – the enormity of the opposition to their scheme(s) unless ‘aeroplanes’ is/are correctly spelt! You play into their hands!!!!!!!!!!!
Resmoroh

Reidygiant,
I have found a Ronald Alfred Webb. He may be (or not!) your man.
Enlisted in RAFVR (non-Officer number 653984) from civilian life in Mar 1938. Slight problem with his quoted birth date!! If true then he would only have been shaving twice a week!! He would have had to lie to the Recruiting Officer like the clock on a cheap Far Eastern microwave oven to be let in!!!
On 8 Feb 45 he was Commissioned (from Warrant Officer) as a Fg Off in the Admin & Spec Duties Branch.
On 16 Oct 47 he is granted a Commission as a Fg Off in the RAFVR(T).
You can follow his career in the London Gazette by searching for 56515.
HTH
Resmoroh

JDK,
I regret your decision. Your erudite comments on this Forum have been, for me, of an exemplary content. I will miss them. I hope you may reconsider.
However, you – and, I suspect, a lot of other people – are making the assumption that AS is totally and utterly blameless with regard to his original Banning Order (subsequently re-enacted after a two-year lapse of administrative control/bungling). There are those who would argue with this latter approach. They are reading this Forum.
Further, those who are casting nasturtiums on “middle level civil servants’ should be aware that the administrative foul-up that has occurred on this forum would not have been allowed to happen – at least not in my Bailiwick, and on my Watch!
Rgds
Resmoroh (Rtd Middle Level Scientific Civil Servant, and Rtd RAF(Reserve) Senior Officer).

PS My goodness. Toys are being thrown out of prams/cots with gay abandon – as I forecast. Let us – Ladies & Gentlemen – have a little more decorum, and a little more regard to the reason(s) for this Forum. The requirement is for the exchange of technical information. If a Member decides to use the Forum as a Sounding Board for his/her personal, political, opinions then fair enough. But if Key, and/or the Mods, decide that (s)he has overstepped the mark then (s)he gets binned. Pity we don’t have Court’s Martials. Then all the point (political or not) could be aired and a decision arrived at. Currently, it seems that there is a proliferation of globular playing objects being propelled in an upward direction! I would back my LL(S)CS against your Stamfordian administrative staff at any time! Or does this mean I am likely to receive the dreaded Banning Order??

Tomorrow I have to go to my regular Eye Clinic appointment (date/time given since 6 months ago). I expect to be shufti’d at around midday!
I understand that The Webmaster/Mistress of this Forum is to have returned from his/her Leave of Absence. Such LoA having, possibly, been dictated by current political problems with respect to You Know Who?
We may, therefore, expect a pronouncement from On High tomorrow?(or not?)
I cannot take my lap-top into Eye Clinic! (there are too many wiggly-amps running about which interfere – so they say – with their shufti-scopes).
Do you think it is worth while my alerting Eye Clinic to the arrival of such a pronouncement, and to broadcast it over the Public Address system?
Or has this whole problem got out of hand, and one might be deafened by the noise of toys being thrown out of cots/prams (as appropriate).
But at least it’s fun!
Resmoroh

And IF(!) there are legal proceedings going on in the background then M’Learned Friends may have advised against issuing any public statement of any kind!
It may come as an enormous shock to some to learn that the Law Of The Land – and its operation by M’Learned Friends – is not, primarily, for the benefit of the historical aviation fraternity!
Resmoroh

And don’t forget the Forgotten Ordnance in the Falklands.
Our Argentine colleagues scattered anti-personnel mines around like a medieval farmer sowing corn. The problem was that they took the ‘keeper rings’ off them! These ferrous rings enable the mines, subsequently, to be found, retreived, and defused. The AP mines in Falkland (forget who made ’em – I think they were Italian in origin) were almost all of plastic construction. Very difficult to locate – other than by stepping on them!!
Then there’s the other Falklands Forgotten Ordnance. Many of the citizens of Stanley (and its surrounds) cooked, and heated their homes, with self-cut peat blocks in those days. Just prior to the surrender, a number of our Argentine colleagues had pressed 0.45 inch pistol rounds deep into the peat blocks such that they exploded when put on the fire.
Oh, and don’t forget the human faeces liberally smeared over the walls of the ATC “tower” that we took over at Stanley Airport – but whether that can be defined as ‘ordnance’ is a matter of debate.
I consider it despicable, even 30-odd years later!
Resmoroh