With all the moving from flying unit to flying unit came the regular shelling out for new badges and the bribing of my wife to sew them onto my flying suit.
Northumbrian Universities Air Squadron
Untitled by Stephen Wilson, on FlickrMy generic name patch for post-Finningley training leading to the much derided Team Tornado badge awarded on graduation from the Tornado Trinational Training Establishment at Cottesmore. The F104 pilots used to unpick the ‘No1 in NATO’ bit.
Untitled by Stephen Wilson, on Flickr617 Sqn went for the separate brevet and used the RAF’s Tornado patch which we were given on graduation from TWCU which I rather liked although it didn’t really catch on.
Untitled by Stephen Wilson, on FlickrThen there were specials for Green Flag and the Toronto Airshow.
Untitled by Stephen Wilson, on FlickrThe Tornado Weapons Conversion Unit at Honington was 45(R) Sqn in my day. The Weapon Instructor badge was created after I left but they still sent me one.
Untitled by Stephen Wilson, on FlickrWhile at TWCU I got to 1000 hours Tornado as well as running air combat training at Decimomannu and accounting for a lot of rounds from our Mauser cannons.
Untitled by Stephen Wilson, on Flickr16 Sqn at Laarbruch also went for the separate brevet. One name for home, one for detachments. The tradition of Wiz as a nickname in the RAF originates with Private Eye’s use of the name ‘Wislon’ for Prime Minister Harold Wilson back in the day. For some of us Wiz stuck. (My use of the personal ID Wizzair on forums predates the airline by the way).
Untitled by Stephen Wilson, on Flickr16 Sqn was where I did my only Red Flag. Our Cold War role involved lobbing LGBs from a very early stage in the potential conflict.
Untitled by Stephen Wilson, on FlickrNext, as part of the Laarbruch Standards & Evaluation team my pilot and I had a war role as the supernumerary crew for XV Sqn.
Untitled by Stephen Wilson, on FlickrBut when the Gulf War broke out all the big boys went east while four Sqn Ldrs (2 pilots, 2 navs) were kept back to continue training the crews who were not yet combat ready. All activity concentrated onto one HAS site and the crews were formed into flights according to their squadrons: II(AC), XV, 16 and 20. I was made OC 20 Flight and had to buy yet more badges. Fortunately I could repurpose my old TWCU name patch.
Untitled by Stephen Wilson, on FlickrMy final two tours were on the ground. As a staff officer at Strike Command I had a secondary role in our NATO headquarters ‘UK Air.’ Finally at Marham I ran the Intelligence & Mission Planning Squadron and was considered to be part of the Wing recce effort.
Untitled by Stephen Wilson, on FlickrThank you if you got this far and I do appreciate all your good wishes and kind comments.
Steve W
