The Freedom Years

There's a Royal Navy recruitment video around at the moment that when I saw it made me stop and think. Whoever thought up the 'Made in the Royal Navy' tagline deserves a pat on the back. It was certainly true in my case, and I expect there are few armed forces people who would disagree. It made me think about who I might have been had I not had a sudden change of mind and gone down the planned career route instead of the one I actually took. I may have been a successful artist, graphic designer, art teacher or may have left art college and been forced into some other pathway.  Would I have stayed in Lancashire or moved away in the pursuit of a better job in another part of the UK? Who knows.  I do know however, that joining the WRNS at age 17 had a significant impact on my confidence, self esteem and ability to challenge myself. I doubt very much I would have had the opportunities to experience a fraction of what I have over the years years had I not ...

There were a handful of times when I found myself the victim of circumstance and in trouble while I was in the Navy. My Dad was a policeman so I knew better than to get in trouble intentionally, but for some reason trouble turned up and I found myself ‘In front of The Joss’. The Royal Navy is policed by the ‘Reggies’ – or Regulators as they are officially known. Not the best liked bunch and some were downright horrible – putting it mildly. The first time I was in trouble through no fault of mine was during basic training at HMS Daedalus in 1981 and involved a local resident’s garden. One night four of us were coming back from having a drink at the Swordfish and walked through the roads leading to the main gate as usual. We heard some others laughing and carrying on but thought nothing of it as they were in another road to us. We slowly wandered through the gate, showing our ID (as you did). Next thing the Duty Chief tells us to go into his office. Rather bemused, and...

There was a time when the pubs only opened from 12.00 until 3.00 and then 6.00 until 11.00pm so unless you found somewhere to go that stayed open later you were fairly limited to the amount of alcohol you could consume in a public place. So when May 8th came around every year, there was great excitement in the air station for what is known as   Helston Flora Day – a day of Cornish traditions such as flowers and greenery bedecking the buildings, dancers in ball gowns and top hats and musicians dancing gaily around the town, in and out of houses and generally acting a little odd by modern standards. Shenanigans started very early in the morning and went on through the day. The main attraction for us naval folk however was the fact that the pubs all opened at 10am and pretty much stayed open until midnight – with just a couple of hours mid-afternoon for the landlords to stock up their bars and replenish their supplies of plastic pint glasses. It also meant we could relocate ou...

Five baby Wren Air Engineering Mechanics arrived in a sunny little place called Lee on the Solent on a Sunday afternoon in early July after five weeks basic training at HMS Dauntless .  That would be Pam Walker from Norton in Teesside, Mo McCleave from Scunthorpe, Arlene Cook from Devon,  Karen Oversby from London and of course little old me from the sticks in Lancashire. Me, Cookie, Karen, Mo (hat), Pam. Pam, Mo and I were already good friends, finding we had a lot in common, humour, northern, confident and looking for fun and adventure amongst others. Arlene was very quiet and kept herself to herself a little and Karen, who supposedly had a rich boyfriend with a flash car and couldn't wait to go home to see him, was not at all interested in tagging along with us.  As it happened she only lasted a couple of weeks at Daedalus before mysteriously 'leaving'.  It was pretty obvious even to us that she wasn't cut out for Navy life. So after getting ins...

The Fleet Air Arm of the 1980's used yellow tractors to carry out a variety of jobs on air bases, such as moving aircraft around, collecting parts and stores and towing the 'Houchin' used to start the aircraft to save the internal battery. Because there was a lot of responsibility when towing around large lumps of metal costing huge sums of money not everyone was able to do this job. On each squadron there would be several tractor drivers, at least one per watch. I was on my first squadron - 771 Search and Rescue at RNAS Culdrose when I was told I had to report to the Aircraft Handling section for tractor training. At the time I didn't drive a car, although I had done some driving with my Dad just before joining up so it was a little scary coming to terms with dual gears and big bouncy tyres. I spent a few days practicing driving in different conditions, round bollards and at different speeds before starting to use the towing arm which was then attached to an old Wes...

The trouble with school is that you never fully appreciate it until you no longer have it. It was around this time that I realised I probably wasted a good few years of valuable time and education looking out of windows at the playing fields, thinking about boys and having fun with my friends. "Easily distracted" and "Doesn't realise her potential" were words frequently written on my reports. Oh well, what to do now? The option of going to art college was fading as another idea formed. No matter that I had spent the last two years building a portfolio of artwork, the new idea seemed much more exciting. It all started in the last few weeks before study leave. I found myself in the 'careers corner'. Definitely a corner, and also under the stairs to the first floor. Not exactly a place I'd spent much time, as I thought I knew where my future lay. To this day I do not know why I picked it up, it was one of those times when a book leaps out at you. 'R...