The Freedom Years

I've never been one to let the fact that I don't know anyone or what to expect hold me back. One of the perks of being an only child I suppose, you have no choice but to go out there alone and my parents certainly weren't the mollycoddling type. So being on a bus full of total strangers from all corners of the UK didn't bother me much. I was the kid who went off and found an adoptive family to hang around with when on holiday rather than play on my own. These girls became my adoptive family on June 1st 1981 as we drove through HMS Dauntless main gate. Dreary. That's what it looked like to me. In desperate need of modernisation. At the time I was unaware that come the end of 1981 the camp would be decommissioned and basic training would be moved to Plymouth alongside the lads. I have searched for a photo of the camp online but can't find one anywhere that shows just how much it resembled a wartime camp. Around twelve single story wooden huts in 'H' shapes...

After completing all the necessary application procedures, including an aptitude test which surprisingly identified a hidden talent for technical things, my plan to join up as a MT Driver (because I would get to take my driving test)went out the window when the Chief Petty Officer decided the WRNS needed me as an Aircraft Engineering Mechanic - or WAEM as we were known. Have to admit it had a lovely ring to it when I went home to tell my parents and friends what I was going to be doing. "Hello, what do you do for a living?" "Oh I'm a Naval Aircraft Engineering Mechanic" See what I mean? Especially when you're a seventeen year old blonde girl! Then it all went pear shaped. I received a letter telling me I had passed the recruitment process for WAEM but unfortunately there were no places available at present and if in 6 months time I still wished to continue then I should contact the careers office. My world crashed. I was terribly disappointed. I'd expect...

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...