Stonebridge is what was called,
So back in the day, we got messages
on, like, tickertape with little holes
We'd have a bank of machines, massive,
with a bank of machines down one wall
So all these ticker tapes
and we'd have to take the tape
And then and it was basically
or this unit
to this RAF station or this unit, and
So it would come in to us,
and give it to somebody else,
So that's what was one of the jobs we did.
And we also used to type messages
Create these tapes.
So a message might come from, I don't know
RAF Cramwell going to
Belize, RAF Belize or
Goose Bay in Canada.
So we would be doing all of that.
Then at the same time,
would have its own communication center,
comms and messages coming in
Either typewritten,
or all it wouldn't be regular actually.
The time typed and then created into tapes
and sent to wherever they were going.
So yeah, we did all that.
But the thing about it was the,
where we would work
It was 12 hours on 12 hours off,
and so there was a group of us
and we would be like a little family
And everybody knew everybody.
And we used to have lots of fun and,
I mean,
the work was pretty boring
So I did that.
And then when I went to Germany,
which were in a massive room, again,
When you could,
sitting in front of a VDU visual
and typing in messages
But electronically.
So then I went back to Stanbridge,
and then I went on, I went to Gibraltar.
I was a flight watch, which was inside
the Rock of Gibraltar,
And, there at flight watch I’d man
woman the radios.
And we would talk to incoming aircraft.
We didn't do the,
What we did was we would pass things on
for the weather,
And I remember Americans would always ask,
where were the best places to buy cameras
Hi there ma’am.
No regular procedure. So,
so I did
I never, used Morse code in anger.
I never used it.
I wasn't,
wasn't running Morse code circuits.
So it was, speech in Gib, and
the type work and
but I think the thing about it was that.
You were doing something worthwhile.
And, of course,
And I was at Stanbridge
So all the messages people backwards
to Ascension, the Falkland Islands
and all of that were coming through us.
So, you know, you felt part of it,
you felt that you were making
to the defense of the country.
So but aside from the job, I mean, it
just the whole way of life,
And just being, I
don’t know, I suppose, all being in
the same boat, really
