RAF High Wycombe News

Review of the Year 2024

2024 was all about eras. New ones. Old ones. Strange ones. A general election win brought Labour to power and an old name from the past in Donald Trump shook up US politics. Any Taylor ‘Swifty’ fan is not worth their salt if they didn’t get a ticket to The Eras Tour…..Those old enough to remember Oasis the first time round revelled in catching a glimpse of a couple of wrinkly Mancunians if they were willing to spend hundreds to get a ticket to their gigs….

Rain nearly stopped play this year, but the Paris Olympics still went ahead all the same and oo, la, la did we cheer… 2024 saw the earth experience its most intense geomagnetic storm since 1989 causing huge disruption to telecoms across the world… (but at least we could get wifi on our phones). A new lung cancer vaccine was discovered and ‘Inside Out 2’ became the highest grossing animated film since ‘Frozen II’ earning $1.462 billion (that should buy a few cakes at the office Xmas party…!) The word of the year was officially ‘brat’ and a banana stuck to a wall made $6.2 million in the name of art. The mind boggles. The Eurovision Song Contest had its first non-binary winner and we said goodbye to double Oscar winning actress Dame Maggie Smith and One Direction’s Liam Payne…..

So, as 2024 was a leap year, let’s leap right in and wade through what happened to us on our fantastic RAF High Wycombe Station……

Charity

Our amazing, but decidedly crazy former Station Warrant Officer Mrs Burdett took to the skies to wing walk for RAFA. (If you’re thinking I can barely get in a plane let alone stand on one in force 10 gales, then we are with you!!) Four of our cadets did us proud by putting the pedal to the metal and cycling for twenty-four hours in our gym to raise £1500 for the James Thornton Young Achievers Foundation. Well done Flight Sergeant Collins and team!

Flt Sgt Collins, Cpl Temple & former SWO Mrs Burdett

Our Thunderbolts gamers took to their seats to do a 24-hour challenge not once but twice this year. Their efforts to raise money for Mental Health Awareness, the RAF Benevolent Fund and Diabetes UK brought a tear to the eye. Well done for notching up nearly £1000 for great causes. If you don’t know what Helldrivers 2, Call of Duty or Rocket League games are, you are in good company…..!

The Thunderbolts!

Ultra fit Cpl Temple stretched himself even further with doing as many 4.2 mile laps in twenty-four hours as he could. He managed fourteen and still had breath to tell his story! Hope the jelly legs were worth it…!

As if they were not sweet enough those incredible ladies from the Defence Cancer Support Network helped stage a brilliant coffee morning in aid of Macmillan Cancer Research. If you couldn’t bake to save your life you could always buy some and donate – which you did in droves. Another few hundred pounds for a great cause…..

Macmillan Cancer Research fundraisers
& The Thrift Shop ladies with 'Biggles'

Our wonderful Thrift Shop ladies took a trip down to Hampshire to see how ‘Biggles’ – the dog that we sponsored through a donation of £5000 for Hounds for Heroes. Altogether now, ahhhhhh!

If it wasn’t for you our charities would not have benefitted so handsomely. Thank you for your generosity!

Events

We proudly saluted old comrades on Armed Forces Day and mingled with our hundreds of supporters at the Annual Formal Reception. D-Day 1944 celebrated its 80th anniversary, and we had the pleasure to interview 102-year-old WO Malcolm Cloutt who flew troops over to Europe on that fateful 6 June.....

The late WO Malcolm Cloutt (top), the Annual Formal
Reception (middle) & Armed Forces Day.

It was a bullseye for Cpl Warhurst when she scooped the Darts Ambassador award at a gala dinner...and children from Danesfield School were invited to tea at 10 Downing Street with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak....And our Station Commander planted a plum tree in the name of sustainability to be enjoyed by future generations..... Eighty-seven year old RAF veteran Brian Hanks proved that the power of the pen is mightier than the laptop when he started a long distance pen pal relationship with our RAFA Kidz at Medmenham….There were 6000 reasons to celebrate when our RAF historian and all round stalwart Mr Brown welcomed the Station Commander as the 6000 visitor to the hallowed ‘Bomber’ Harris room since visits started in 2015.……

Darts champ Cpl Warhurst, Danesfield School visits No 10
& pen -pal Brian Hanks

By Royal appointment our PA to the Chaplain in Chief, Mrs Brown was one of 150 recipients of ‘Maundy Money’ who received the token from none other than HM Queen Camilla at Worcester Cathedral….There were bouncy castles, cake stalls, face painting, live music and animals galore at the annual station Family Fun Day (it is hard to believe that we actually had a day that was sunny enough!!) It was a brilliant day for the CO’s It’s a Knockout (Around the World) Competition Cup! Themed events took eight teams of mad people around South Africa, Egypt and Antarctica doing everything from collecting gold coins, catapulting wet sponges to being covered in foam to win coveted points.....

'Bomber ' Harris room reaches 6000 visitors &
Mrs Brown visits the Queen for Maundy Money

We entered a new culinary era as the Defence Catering Strategy took hold in our Messes across station and a whole new world of food was introduced to some hungry souls.... (all we need now are waiters and dining is complete....!)

Fun & frolics at the Family Fun Day

Four fit gunners, 3200 miles, one ocean and an eight-metre-long boat...yes, it was the highlight event of the year – the Atlantic Challenge. Organised by our very own Cpl Binns, the men endured the relentless monotony of doing over 1.5,000,000 oar strokes over 61 days across one of the toughest oceans in the world. They lost food and weight but never the hope that they would succeed. We salute this monumental achievement! Are we tempted to follow suit?...Nope....

Those magnificent men and their Atlantic effort!

The Royal Auxiliary Airforce reached its centenary in 2024, and RAF High Wycombe were front and centre to pay homage. A packed calendar of events began in January with Wing Commander Hall running 10ks each day for 100 days to raise money for the RAF Benevolent Fund & RAuxAF.

HRH Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester and
the locomotive renaming

Our little soldiers at the local RAFA Kidz and Danesfield Schools did us all proud by colouring, painting and glitter-balling their way to producing some brilliant pieces of artwork to support the RAuxAF celebrations.....And the crowning glory (pardon the pun) was having HRH Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester rename a 1946 locomotive ‘Royal Auxiliary Airforce’ for the duration of the steam season.......the icing on the cake of a very busy year of events......

Royal Auxiliary Airforce reaches 100 years old

Visits

Mysteries were solved this year when Meinir Morgan uncovered a long-held secret that her Aunty Lynne had held for seventy years – that she had worked directly for our ‘Bomber Harris’ in the RAF High Wycombe telephone exchange back in 1943.... A couple of livewires in the shape of Jenny & Pat – two stewardesses who worked at our station in mid 1960s – made an emotional return after fifty-nine years to a place that held so many memories.... (aren’t the ladies in the modern RAFA pleased that they do not have to wear regulation bloomers anymore!!!???) To celebrate his 80th birthday Ian Mackinson returned to High Wycombe where he had once been a boy entrant to regale us with stories of how disciplined life was back at the station in 1963....

Ian Mackinson (top, now and as a boy soldier in 1963), 
Meinir Morgan & family (left) and Pat & Jenny

Interviews

Always wanting to lift the lid on the stories of those we work with, your intrepid MCO was again bowled over by those who agreed to face a barrage of questions that landed on those brave enough to occupy my interviewee chair..... We found out that the sight of blood does not phase our Station Warrant Officer, Mrs Ward, and both AVM Appleton & WORAF, Mr Subramaniam originally wanted to be barristers..... And as a lad growing up in Northern Ireland, Air Marshal Smyth never knew what an Air Marshal was, let alone ever dream of becoming one, and for Air Marshal Lloyd it is not about reaching the destination, but the journey. I heard all about the power of model making for good mental health and the dark days when being gay in the military was taboo and fighting injustice. The rich tapestry of lives that criss-cross High Wycombe is amazing and what a pleasure it was to include all these tales in our Station magazine ‘Wycombe World.’

Sports

Yet another jam-packed calendar of sporting events including the much-anticipated RAF High Wycombe Station Golf Championships in Hampshire where we were lucky enough to bag a few awards..... We learned from Sqn Ldr Hawkins that horses eat for twenty hours a day, sleep for four and cannot be sick and that dressage is basically ‘dancing like a horse.’

Horse champion Sq Ldr Hawkins & the Golf Cup winners

Those intrepid ladies who form the RAF High Wycombe Netball teams stormed to the final of the ‘Aki 7s’ in Akrotiri but were pipped to the cup by Brize Norton in a thrilling final. Well done ladies....... Competitors for the 2025 Invictus Games in Canada descended on High Wycombe for a publicity shoot. The skill, courage and endurance of these people is legendary, and we wish great things for them...

RAF High Wycombe Netball team & the Invictus
Games competitors​​​​​​

We Will Remember Them

Services at All-Saints Church, the local Walter’s Ash Community Centre and a 1 Site Remembrance Muster reinforced our respect for the many thousands of souls who made the ultimate sacrifice to keep us all safe.

Services of Remembrance in and around High Wycombe

Over twenty-five of our military personnel took part in five Remembrance videos centred on well-known war poems last year. This year I wanted to invite the younger generation to give their recollections of Remembrance. Cadets from 332 (High Wycombe) and 871 (Penn) Squadrons gave heartfelt tributes to the fallen in our Station video. Continuing the theme of youth, the cadets also read a poem penned by your MCO entitled ‘I Cried Inside for My Mother’ about a boy soldier going to meet his fate on the battlefields. Seeing an idea on a page come to life is one of the most humbling projects I have ever undertaken, and I thank the cadets for their help.

Watch the video at: RAF Cadets Remembrance video & RAF Cadets reading 'I Cried Inside for My Mother.'

It's Christmas!!!

December came far too quickly and before you knew it silly season had begun. Those cheeky HIVE staff were off to a flying start with assembling food parcels for our many deployed personnel. No one gets forgotten at Christmas is the team motto!!

The Turkey Games winners (top)
& Christmas food parcel preparation

We said hello to a number of new veterans at the annual Veteran’s Christmas lunch at the Warrant Officer’s Mess and heartily sang many a Christmas carol to get everyone in festive mood……… And there was plenty of gobble, gobble when some very brave competitors threw some feathers in the ring to undertake the Turkey Games organised by the gym. It was no poul-try affair, neither. Pity there were no prizes…..people travelled far and wide (on the gravy train of course) to get there….!

The annual Veterans Christmas lunch, the winning
RAFA Christmas card & a man in a turkey suit!!

By the time you get to the end of this story more events will already have been scheduled for January. No time to catch your breath…..the calendar is full and RAF High Wycombe is looking forward to a great 2025. Happy New Year everyone!!

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