The Freedom Years

When I joined the Navy I joined up as an Air Engineering Mechanic (AEM). This was due to 'apparently' having a high score in the technical section of my aptitude test. My original choice was to be a driver or photographer. I was unable to do photography from initial training as it was one of those categories that you had to 're-cat' to after serving a few years. For the first six years of my service I trained as an AEM, worked on air stations and generally did a good job. I say 'good' because I certainly wasn't a natural at solving technical problems and being a tractor driver meant I spent a lot of time doing other things. I did what I was asked and to the best of my ability - although my wire locking was pretty high quality! Around the five year mark I started to think about changing my job. I was working at HMS Daedalus in the training school and knew a couple of Wrens who worked as Education and Training Support Assistants. Their job was to design...

During Basic Engineering Training at HMS Daedalus, Lee on the Solent, Hampshire (Nov 1981) we were required to go on 'Exped' to Bathesda in North Wales. It was all part of the team building/endurance and character building hoops we had to jump through. Had I known about this earlier I could have postponed joining up so that MY 'exped' fell in one of the warmer months of the year. However, November was possibly better than January so hey ho. Our class went off along with a class of 'Tiffs' on a rickety Pussers Bus. We didn't know any of the 'Tiffs' (Artificers) so had plenty of time to get the usual banter going and make new friends. There were just two of us Wrens, my best fried Pam and I and we suffered the sexist jokes in good humour, insisting that no way would we be doing all the cooking and cleaning! Our home for the week was a 'cosy' little stone cottage. By 'cosy' I mean it had a roof, four walls and a fireplace. Downsta...