I'd been in the RAF about
and I got a posting to Benson.
And I was going from Canberra,
which was a very modern,
English Electric aircraft,
The RAF's latest transport,
a brand new transport aeroplane
It was just the newest one in service.
And a squadron was being
105 Squadron, to fly the Argosies.
So the ground crew and
being trained pretty much
We were there for about
while all this training
Pretty much straightforward.
I get to know the people
But we also know that
once enough of us are trained,
we are going to take
of the squadron and fly them
Now the Yemen is a
It has a bad reputation then
and it has a bad reputation now.
It's hot and dusty and
But for us, it was an adventure.
So we go on our aeroplanes.
We sit in the back as passengers,
And they fly us in,
Now the part of the Yemen
It's a British protectorate,
but it also has the biggest
called RAF Khormaksar.
Now RAF Khormaksar
12 different types of aeroplane,
were based at RAF Khormaksar.
11 of those aeroplanes,
were made and designed
So it's a completely
to the world that we are
cannot build a single
And the one aeroplane that
was an American DC-3.
We were living in,
well there was no
so I was living in a
single-story barrack room
with 60 other guys, okay?
No air conditioning.
The thing about having no
is it's not a big deal if,
you have a fan above
and when you've seen
you only see them in the Middle East,
they're moving very slowly.
Because if you turn that fan up
You will be so cold,
So air conditioning was not
And in terms of when we're on the
or when we're servicing
the hangars are big
an aeroplane was broken,
they could actually bring the
The tail could stay outside, but
could come into the hangar.
They used to leave the
and the prevailing wind would blow
a cooling breeze would constantly
So it wasn't uncomfortable actually
The nice thing for me about
Everybody there was new,
places in the RAF to join
So all the ground crew were new,
and what that helped me to do
one of the bigger problems I had
and that was making friends.
It took me 18 months there,
so 3 years after I'd joined the RAF at 18.
It took me 3 years before
I don't think anybody was
it's just that I was unknown.
I didn't communicate,
and I was the wrong colour.
Over a period of 3 years,
I was learning how to
and I had learnt how to
Once I knew how to make
suddenly I made loads.
