Marching up and down that hill twice every day! Assuming the distance from the old workshops to
the block was around a quarter of a mile and taking into account holidays, weekends and time spent at the airfield, we must
have covered something in the order of....125 miles.
added by Dave Papworth 18/02/2002
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The Summer of 1976! God that was a hot one. Early starts and trying to keep awake in
the early afternoon in classes.
added by Dave Papworth 18/02/200
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The Nijmegen March! Class 2 completed this in July 1976. This was a road march (in Holland)
over four days, 25 miles each day, wearing 25Kgs of weight. Considering the heat, we did well to all get round it.
I also completed the march a further twice, 1979 &1980 during my time at Odiham. Visitors to the Apprentice museum
can see the class 2 team medal.
added by Dave Papworth 14/05/2002
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Alistair Raffan - Always a cheerful "bit of a laugh" type person. I remember an incident at Swinderby
where we were having a morning kit inspection. Our DI stopped at Alistairs kit and told him that his shoes weren't fit
to be seen for inspection. The DI then picked up the shoes and lobbed them out the window, where there landed perfectly
side by side in the soft mud below.
added by Dave Papworth 14/07/2003
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John Peel – An odd
place you might think to give a mention to John Peel who died on the 26th Oct 2004 but his death rememinded me
of the times spent listening in to his evening show. Back in the our training
days Radio One was king, commercial radio was only just emerging, stereo broadcasting hadn’t been around long and I
rarely watched the TV. So I used to
often spend a late evening laying on the "the old pit" listening through the headphones on my recently aquired Hi Fi to the
John Peel show in glorious fade free stereo. (The BBC at that time was slow on the uptake and didn’t
seem to appreciate the value of putting R1 on permanent stereo FM, R1 and R2 shared the FM stereo frequency, R1 was however
broadcast in stereo at night so this was the time when one could really appreciate it).
Anyone recall those "sight
and sound" concerts the BBC occasionally put on? (The sound was broadcast in stero over the radio at the same time as
the pictures were transmited).
added by Dave Papworth 27/10/04
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Spending hours queing up to use a phone, something I used to do quite often after training as well!
While buying my first house in 1984 making calls to chase solicitors etc was a nightmare, I had to ask for time off work then
go in search of a phone box, now it's so much easier, just whip out the mobile!
added by Dave Papworth 22/11/04
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Alistair Graham, who sadly passed away in his sleep in Sep 2013 - While at Halton he met his wife Phyll and used
to visit her in her barrack block. One day he got caught sneaking out and made a run for it. On being told to
stop by an irate WAAF Sgt, he did exactly that and was put on a "fizzer" (charge). I believe the result was a "mk 1
rollocking" as Phyll and he were engaged at the time. Alistair spent many years in the RAF going on to transfer
to aircrew and later gain a commission.
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