If properly orchestrated it could make the opening of this forthcoming Olympic fest go with a bang! And the EU would have to pay for the reconstruction of the Kent/Essex coastline although I have heard that there are those who say that nothing but good can come from the Richard Montgomery removing large stretches of both coastlines. Indeed, they see it as an improvement!
Resmoroh

4-Minute Warning

The NATO Civil Defence Committee used to meet twice a year. Interminable squabblings over the precise wording of STANAGs, etc, – many will know the scene. The meteorology for the major annual exercise was decided upon (why I was there!). The Winter Meeting was always hosted by the UK (assorted Danes, Noggies, Cloggies, etc, would fight over which weekend it should be depending on which of the UK soccer team(s) they supported was playing in London!!). And whether there were sales in Bond Street that the delegations’ Sunray’s Moonbeams could attend. The Summer Meeting was usually hosted by one of the European countries in rotation.
One year we were in France. As part of the Host Nation social events the French organised a visit to Moet & Chandon at Epernay. Absolutely superb lunch in the M & C boardroom. Then a visit to The Underground Cellars. 20-million bottles of champagne! One of the UK delegation (who’s name escapes me!) opined that this was the best place in the world to be in when the 4-minute warning siren went! There were, I seem to remember, nods of approval from all!!
And you thought delivering A Bucket Of Sunshine was difficult!
Resmoroh

Pete,
The sight of Staish, running down the Ops Block corridor in the Cuban crisis, dressed in his Best Blue (but with his pyjama trousers sticking out of the bottom of his Best Blue trousers) is one that I shall not easily forget. I, too, considered building a nuke-proof shelter but it was only when I got on the Home Office Civil Defence Committee that I realised that the 4-Minute Warning really meant that you could have just one , slowly savoured, glass of that very expensive Red Screech you’d been saving before you became vapourised made the whole thing nugatory!

And Oxcart,
No, I am not considering writing a book. There are bits of any such putative tome that would cause many (who knew what was actually going on at the time!) to fall about immoderately. However, I am now of advanced years and I simply can’t be bothered with all the legal niff-naff and trivia that might result from any such publication. Interminable arguments from retired Very Senior Officers saying “I never said/did that”, and retired Very Junior NCOs saying “Yes, he bloody did!”. You may get the scene!!!!
After the next prog, however, I may be persuaded to put one or two facts down on paper/email. They will have limited circulation!

And Chox,
They (the “Ubendum Wemendum” brigade) still – like good engineers – hit V-Bombers with bigger and better ‘ammers. The Valiants leaked like sieves. The Engineers tried their hardest to cure the leaks, but to no avail. They simply put 40-gall oil drums under the worst leaks to catch the drips ‘cos PSA were complaining that the jet fuel was eating the hardstandings away! Good thing for us Met Men. We had to keep The Bare Earth Patch clear of vegetation – but without digging it up. A surreptitiously purloined pint (in the middle of the night) from one of these drip cans, and poured over the Bare Earth Patch ensured that nothing ever grew there. What it might have done for the Met readings is not known!

And Oxcart,
You can see the problems!

HTH
Resmoroh

Pete,
rather than treating us as a Third World Country
Proves the USA can get some things right!! It’s how the Brits treated 25% of the world’s surface area (and the populations therein) in the 18th, 19th, and a good bit of the 20th, Centuries.
Countries don’t fly their aviation hardware around the place for the benefit of a few air-show enthusiasts. It is either to display a political power-option to the lower orders (countries!), or to encourage recruitment. In the case of the UK neither, currently, applies – and is unlikely, ever, to do so again!
It might appear – to the outside viewer – that there are too many people in the UK, with too much time on their hands, and too much disposable income, which might suggest that the current recession, and ongoing Afghan folly, is a mere figment of the media’s imagination.
As an ex-Service Man, we need, I would suggest, to reduce the number of corteges passing down Wootton Basset High Street rather than complaining about the lack of hardware at some piffling commercially sponsored airshow junket.
Or have I – and/or you – got our priorities wrong?
I wait to be enlightened – I really do!
HTH
Resmoroh

I was involved with the UK nuclear deterrent in three different phases. You can have no idea how difficult it was to get the Valiants across the N Atlantic at 40,000 ft in the early/mid-50’s. We, in Met, were practically making it up as we went along (just look at the normal commercial transatlantic crossing heights at the time!).
Then, at the height of the Cold War, we knew that if we had to deliver the Bucket Of Instant Sunshine then ‘our’ crews were on a one-way ticket. AND, even if you lived (as I did) only 15 miles from a V-bomber airfield, you knew that when “they” replied you were toast. But you couldn’t tell anybody that.
And later, when I was the Met Man on the Home Office Civil Defence Cttee, one learned just how little could be expected to be done for the vast majority of the population in a post-detonation environment. And (as a Reservist) I asked this Brigadier at a nuclear briefing “What my Unit would most likely be employed in?”. I expected to be told that we would be involved in some hairy meteorological enterprise(s). Not so. “Guarding Tesco wagons and shooting civilians, until you succumb to radiation sickness” was the somewhat chilling reply! But you couldn’t tell anybody that! Just remember that when you get shots or stories on the programme.
The technicalities will be fascinating – but there were people involved, don’t forget that!
HTH
Resmoroh

Loose Head, Hi (and/or anybody else for that matter).
Does anybody have a good contact in the Irish Air Corps on historical matters? I should point out that my interest is in some detail(s) before the Irish Air Corps (or, indeed, even the Irish Free State – as it then was) was invented!!
But if you don’t ask then the best is that you’ll be told to go forth and multiply. Been told to do that by some very Senior People – and often!!
TIA
Resmoroh

Appointed by that famous ex-Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon – say no more!
Biog (such as it is!) at http://www.industry-forum.org/biography.cfm?speakerid=27.
There is an old Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times”. I feel that the historical aviation world may be in for some very interesting times indeed!
The good Dr Pleming will recognize a soul-mate!
Being old and retired as I am rarely has any perks, but not being involved with this lot is one of them!
Regretfully
Resmoroh