Who we were:
The 120th Entry officially kicked off on 5 Nov 1971 with the attestation of 16 Aircraft Technician Apprentices and 6 Dental Technicians. The ATA's were all initially housed in the ground floor room of Comet Flight on No 1 Wing, so we wore the traditional Halton red hat bands, etc, along with our green woolley pullies and hairy blue trousers. One of our luckiest breaks in all three years was probably having Sgt Thomas as our first SNCO/DI (he probably hated drill as much as we did).
Thanks also go to CTA Steve Crump and a few other NCO's of the 117th Entry who oversaw our rookie year in a very civilised manner. We especially appreciated their occasional mercy runs to KFC or the Chinese take-away in Aylesbury. A great supplement to mess food and the beans on toast made by good old Fred in the NAFFI.
The following is a role call of the Aircraft Technician Apprentices, in approx order of bed spaces:
Nigel Buckland, Brian Randall, Peter Davies, David Eccles, John Elliot, Pete Flowers, Alan Fisk, Gerry Gibb
John Younger, Chris Swaine, Michael Stangroom, Steve Pittaway, Roger More, Tom Lisset, Paul Latham- Ward
(Joe Stotter also started with us but decided not to return after our first Christmas holiday)
Thirteen Aircraft Technicians passed out as Corporals in October 1974 and were all initially posted to RAF Odiham.
Two members (Michael Stangroom and Peter Davies) went off to Cranwell earlier in 1974 to "have their brains removed and spurs fitted", that's according to our Airframes Instructor, Chief Tech Ray Coutts.
Thanks also go to CTA Steve Crump and a few other NCO's of the 117th Entry who oversaw our rookie year in a very civilised manner. We especially appreciated their occasional mercy runs to KFC or the Chinese take-away in Aylesbury. A great supplement to mess food and the beans on toast made by good old Fred in the NAFFI.
The following is a role call of the Aircraft Technician Apprentices, in approx order of bed spaces:
Nigel Buckland, Brian Randall, Peter Davies, David Eccles, John Elliot, Pete Flowers, Alan Fisk, Gerry Gibb
John Younger, Chris Swaine, Michael Stangroom, Steve Pittaway, Roger More, Tom Lisset, Paul Latham- Ward
(Joe Stotter also started with us but decided not to return after our first Christmas holiday)
Thirteen Aircraft Technicians passed out as Corporals in October 1974 and were all initially posted to RAF Odiham.
Two members (Michael Stangroom and Peter Davies) went off to Cranwell earlier in 1974 to "have their brains removed and spurs fitted", that's according to our Airframes Instructor, Chief Tech Ray Coutts.