HERITAGE MEDALS in Australia: CONTACT ME BEFORE DEALING WITH THEM!

26Sep63-23Mar65	2 School of Technical Training - RAF Cosford
24Mar65-14Sep65	2 Air Navigation School Hullavington
15Sep65-Feb66	RAF Hullavington (2ANS went to Gaydon)
Feb-25Mar66	RAF Northolt
26Mar66-22Sep68	Joint Air Traffic Control Centre - Paya Lebar, Singapore (Accommodated at RAF Seletar)
Apr68	Exercise - Malaya
23Sep68-4Oct70	Brigade Air Support Operations - RAF Tangmere
8-29Jan69	Driver Training - RAF St Athan
Feb69	Exercise - Denmark and West Germany
28Apr-20May69	Parachute training (Course #705) - RAF Abingdon
22May-14Jun69	Exercise - Greece
Jun-Jul69	Exercise - Libya
Jul-Aug69	Desert Survival training - Libya
Aug-Sep69	Operation Spearhead - Northern Ireland
Jan70	Exercise - RAF Driffield, (parachute insertion)
Mar70	Weapons/Fieldcraft training - Lydd Ranges, Kent
19May-13Jul70	Exercise - Malaya
Various	Exercises by the dozen on Salisbury Plain
5Oct70-22Jul71	6 Signals Unit - RAF Gan, Maldives
Apr71	Far East Air Force Operations Centre - RAF Changi, Singapore
23Jul71-20Sep73	Supply Control Centre - RAF Hendon
21Sep73-31Jan74	RAF Akrotiri - Cyprus
1Feb-17Nov74	1153 Marine Craft Unit - Limassol, Cyprus
Jul-Nov74	UN duties after the Turkish invasion.
18Nov74-9Apr75	12 Signals Unit - RAF Episkopi, Cyprus
10Apr75-30Jun76	Central Flying School - RAF Little Rissington
1Jul76-6Aug78	Routing Information Cell - RAF Rudloe Manor
Jul77	Exercise - RAF Chilmark
Jun78	Skill-at-Arms practice - RAF Sealand
Jun-Jul78	Skill-at-Arms competition - Bisley
7Aug78-4Aug80	RAF Aldergrove - Northern Ireland
Sep78	Cryptography course - RAF Stanbridge
Jun79	Skill-at-Arms practice - RAF Sealand
Jun-Jul79	Skill-at-Arms competition - Bisley
Jun80	Skill-at-Arms practice - AAEE Boscombe Down
Jun-Jul80	Skill-at-Arms competition - Bisley
5Aug80-2Feb81	Tactical Air Operations Centre - Belize
Dec80	Jungle Survival training
3Feb-9Dec81	Operations (Electronic Warfare) Squadron - RAF Wyton
22Apr-29May81	Telecomms Controllers' Conversion course (#1) - RAF Cosford
19Nov-9Dec	Airmen's Command School course - RAF Hereford
10Dec81-11Oct82	6 Signals Unit - RAF Rudloe Manor
Jan82	Cryptography training - RAF High Wycombe
12Oct82-10Apr84	RAF Unit Goose Bay - Labrador, Canada
Nov83	Arctic Survival training
11Apr84-30Apr85	Tactical Communications Wing - RAF Brize Norton
4-11Jun84	Weapons/Fieldcraft training - Lydd Ranges, Kent
9-13Jul84	Unit Emplanement Officer course
9-26Sep84	Exercise - Denmark
1May85-14May87	Maritime Air Telecommunications Organisation - RAF Gibraltar
Dec85	Communications exercise - HMS Warrior
15-16Nov86	SSVC Projectionist course
15May-25Nov87	81 Signals Unit Detachment - RAF Bampton Castle
Sep87	Class 1 HGV training

1963-65

On 26Sep63 Darby joined the 50th Entry of Boy Entrants at 2 School of Technical Training RAF Cosford as a trainee Telegraphist. His training was without incident — except for two periods of jankers! — and he had his job as a DJ at Radio Cosford to take his mind off his obvious lack of skill at reading Morse code!

1965-66

A posting to 2 Air Navigation School followed passout in Mar65.   On 15Sep65 2ANS moved to RAF Gaydon, and Darby was posted from 2ANS to RAF Hullavington, and ended up being the sole occupant of Signals Traffic.  One day a Warrant Officer from Signals Command turned up and took away all the classified books.  When asked what was to happen to him, bearing in mind that there were only about six weeks to go before his posting to Singapore, the WO asked:
  "Anywhere in mind?"
  "Well sir, I have some mates at Northolt."
  "OK, you're posted to Northolt."
Those were the days: a WO having the power to authorize a posting!

Arriving at RAF Northolt in Feb66 he spent three weeks working in the telephone exchange with a load of women (not half as much fun as it sounds!), but then escaped to Signals Traffic for the remaining three weeks of this short posting.

1966-68
Singapore

His first overseas posting was for 2-1/2 years in Singapore: he lived at RAF Seletar and worked in the Joint Air Traffic Control Centre at Paya Lebar Airport.
In Apr68 he went on exercise to Kangkar Kahang in Malaya with members of 6 Tactical Signals Unit. (Photo)

1968-70
Denmark

Whilst in Singapore he'd heard about the Brigade Air Support Operations (BASO) Parachute Team at RAF Tangmere and decided that he wanted to have a go at that, so he applied for a posting to the Tactical Communications Wing (TCW) and reported to BASO in Nov68. This caused a bit of a hashenay because normally one had to serve at least a year on TCW before being considered for parachute training: there were only nine members of the team at any one time — a sergeant, two corporals, six airmen — and competition for these posts was fierce; during the five years or so that the team existed only about thirty members were awarded parachute wings — although at least two Walter Mitty types, P F J T***** and M W D***** — claimed to have qualified when in fact they did not. D***** was seen wearing wings to which he was not entitled at RAF Brize Norton in 1985!
7/6d (37.5 pence) a day parachute pay was well worth having in those far-off times; an SAC's £10-a-week basic pay was enhanced by another £2/12/6, or 26 per cent. In 2008/9 para pay is £5.20/day, a mere 7 per cent of the £75/day some SACs are getting!

Before he could undertake parachute training he had to qualify as a driver, so in Jan69 he went to St Athan for a course.

Then he deployed on exercise to Flyvestation Skrydstrup in Denmark.
After a few days his section drove down to the West German village of Langwedel, where they operated for four days before returning to Denmark and thence to Tangmere.

On 28Apr69 he began parachute training at RAF Abingdon, and was awarded his Wings on 20May. (Photo)

A few days later his section flew into Thessaloniki, Greece. (Map) They spent a couple of days on the beach at nearby Mikra before moving up to the Bulgarian border for the exercise. After that they spent a few days at Kavala where Darby took part in a multi-national flypast in a 72 Sqn Wessex helicopter. Finally they moved back to Mikra for a couple of days, then home.

July saw Darby flying via Malta to RAF El Adem in Libya for a three-week exercise: in August he went back, again via Malta, for ten days on a desert survival course.

In Jul69 some Royal Signals personnel from 216 (Para) Sig Sqn at Aldershot had been posted onto Tangmere's 244 (Air Support) Sig Sqn and the BASOs, who until that time had been an independent communications team, were attached to them to form Echo Troop.
On Darby's first day back from the desert survival course the 'phone rang: two men were required for duty in Northern Ireland, and were to be on the move within fifteen minutes; RAF and Irishmen need not apply! There were only three men available (the others were sunning themselves in Anguilla and Antigua) and one of these was Irish, so fifteen minutes later Darby and a signalman were on their way. They flew in an Andover from RAF Benson to RAF Ballykelly and spent the first night at RAF Aldergrove, driving to Thiepval Barracks at Lisburn to take up their duties on the following day.
Accommodation was very short, and Darby and Brum were installed on the ground floor of the WRAC block, which they had all to themselves until some infantrymen arrived a few days later.
(Darby lays claim to being the first member of the RAF to be sent to Northern Ireland as a direct result of the recent troubles, arriving before any RAF Regiment or squadron personnel.)

By the time they returned to Tangmere his leave year had expired without a single day taken, and in those days if it wasn't taken it was lost. Not a minute begrudged though; he'd joined up to travel, and certainly did that in 1969.

Things quietened down a bit after Northern Ireland, and his last interesting exercise was Bersatu Padu, a SEATO job in Malaysia, where he worked out of Kuala Dungun. (Map)

1970-71
Maldives

From Oct70 to Jul71 he was on his second overseas posting, at Station Signals RAF Gan (Maps) in the Maldive Islands.
He took up sub-aqua diving, on a couple of occasions diving with the singer Joe Brown who visited Gan during a Combined Services' Entertainment tour. (Photo)
In Apr71 he was detached for a week to the Far East Air Force Operations Centre, at RAF Changi in Singapore.

1971-73

His next posting was the Supply Control Centre at RAF Hendon, where he was on shift for a while, later going on days in charge of the Commcen, a job that he took over from a sergeant though he was still an SAC!

1973-75
cypflag

His third, fourth, and fifth overseas postings now followed in quick succession: on 21Sep73 he was posted to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, but stayed there for only four months ...

... then, on 1Feb74, he moved over to the Air-Sea Rescue boats of 1153 Marine Craft Unit at Limassol: that was a great job, and included duties with the United Nations in the aftermath of the Turkish invasion.
He was involved in a few rescues, notably one when the Turkish Air Force sank one of their own navy's destroyers, the Kocatepe: some 80 survivors were plucked from the sea and taken to Princess Mary's RAF Hospital at Akrotiri.
In the early 1990s he contributed anecdotes and photographs for use in Keith Beardow's book "Sailors in the RAF: the Story of the Marine Branch of the Royal Air Force", in which he was described as the only ex-para ever to serve in RAF boats. (It later transpired that that was not the case).

On 18Nov74 he was posted to 12 Signals Unit at RAF Episkopi as a corporal.

1975-76

Returning to the UK in May75 he became NCO i/c Commcen at RAF Little Rissington, a beautiful spot in his home county of Gloucestershire, but on 1Jul76 the station was handed over to the Royal Irish Rangers and renamed Imjin Barracks.

1976-78

As a result Darby was posted to 6 Signals Unit at RAF Rudloe Manor, where he stayed for two years as NCO i/c the Routing Information Cell; another job that he took over from a sergeant.
During this posting it turned out that he was quite a good shot: after years avoiding "Annual Musketry Training" he represented the station in the Skill-At-Arms Meet at Bisley in 1978, being a member of the team winning the Small Stations' Cup. (Photo)

1978-80

In Aug78 he was posted again, returning to Northern Ireland as NCO i/c RAFCommcen Aldergrove. He expressed surprise that there was no shooting team at this of all stations, and the CO, Gp Capt R C Olding DSC ADC, told him to go ahead and set one up: he did so, and represented the station at Bisley in 1979 and 1980.

1980-81
Belize

This was followed by his sixth overseas posting, as NCO i/c Tactical Air Operations Centre Belize, from Aug80 to Feb81. (Photo)
A cracking time, with plenty of flying in RAF and Army helicopters, and weekends in Chetumal, just north of the border in Mexico; and La Ceiba and Utila in Honduras. In those days — before the Spams went in and ruined the place — few mainland Hondureños spoke English, whereas those of Utila and the other Islas de la Bahia did, most of them being descended from British pirates.
In 1980 he spent a week at the Jungle Warfare School training with men of the SAS Regt on a jungle survival course, and this was followed by a week in Mexico City over Christmas. (Maps)

His next post, from Feb81, was RAF Wyton where he served as NCO i/c Comms in the Electronic Warfare Squadron: in Apr and May he was back at Cosford on the first Telecoms Controller conversion course. (Fulton Block, now office accommodation, was still billets then, but any former Boy Entrant seeing the floors would have wept in disbelief at the state of them!) (Photo)

Shortly after his return to Wyton he was told that he had been selected for promotion to sergeant, and in Nov he went to the Airmen's Command School at RAF Hereford for three weeks.

1981-82

10Dec81 saw him back at Rudloe Manor as a sergeant.

1982-84
Canada

No rest for the wicked though, and in Oct82 he took up duty on his seventh overseas posting: this time as SNCO i/c Telecoms at RAF Unit Goose Bay, Labrador. He took the opportunity to visit Toronto; Halifax and Dartmouth in Nova Scotia; and Montréal. There was trail-biking and boating in the (mercifully short) summer, and ski-ing, skidooing, and curling during the winter. (Photo)
He also got a chance to take the controls of a Canso (a PBY Catalina built to RCAF specifications) for 15 minutes during a trip in a Canadian Fire Service aircraft.
Although the Goose Bay posting was initially for one year Darby had extended to eighteen months on request from Records. At the end of that time they asked him to extend again but one can have too much of a good thing, and he declined.

1984-85
Denmark

So in Apr84 he was posted to the Tactical Communications Wing at RAF Brize Norton. He suspected that this was the result of upsetting someone at Records, who had failed to ensure that there was a sergeant trained and cleared to take over from him at Goose Bay. And as will become apparent, he was right!
But orders is orders, so off he went to Brize.

He went on only one decent exercise during this posting — at Karup in Denmark — and was chuffed to NAAFI-breaks to be offered a move to Gibraltar after completing only one year of a two-year tour. Incidentally, one of his subordinates on TCW was Jnr Tech John Nicol, later shot down in Iraq as a flight lieutenant navigator, and now a successful author and broadcaster.

1985-87

Darby arrived at Gib (what a filthy dirty place that is!) on 1May85 to take over the post of SNCOi/c Flight Watch/Maritime Air Telecommunications Organization. Fortunately the border with Spain had been reopened to vehicles, so he was able to spend a lot of off-duty time in Spain, some in Portugal. And it was only half-an-hour in the hydrofoil to Morocco, where some of the beer was surprisingly good! During this posting — his eighth and last overseas — he carried out secondary duties as the Sgts' Mess secretary and the treasurer of the Sea Angling Club, and did a bit of scuba-diving and sailing.
However, he saw that the writing was on the wall and decided to get out: he applied for a Premature Voluntary Release but a FS from Records (who admitted that the 1984 posting to TCW had been bloody-minded!) rang him at work one day and persuaded him to give notice instead; it would look better on Records' — uhm — records!

He returned to the UK in May87 and worked as a Duty Signals Master at 81 Signals Unit, RAF Bampton Castle, until his demob on 25Nov87 after almost twenty-five years service and twenty-one postings, eight of them overseas.

1987-2002 Darby did an HGV1 course courtesy of the RAF and the taxpayer, and got a job driving as soon as he left the mob: he gave it away after a week because it was impossible to maintain schedules safely and legally. Although he wanted to return to his home town of Lydney in the Royal Forest of Dean there was no work available, so he accepted voluntary exile at Wakefield in the frozen north (for the cheap housing) and began doing odds'n'sods of security work in the Corps of Commissionaires. In Aug88 he joined the Inland Revenue in Bradford, later moving to the Wakefield office, but on 14Oct02 he decided that he wasn't going to stay in a job he hated just so that he could pay the mortgage on a house he didn't want to live in. So he sold his house and classic cars (Photo), and resigned from the Revenue.

2003-8

After four months house-sitting for a mate in Staines, near London, Darby flew to Australia, arriving on 20Apr03, Easter Sunday; five days later he was on parade on ANZAC Day! Until 31Jan07 he lived on the banks of the Maroochy River, at Bli Bli (Maps) on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. He spent much of his time on the water, using his tinny to get to the pub most days! (Photo)
In Dec06 The tinny was sold as Darby was preparing to depart Australia to live in Malta, and on 31Dec he found a buyer for his caravan; said buyer offered him a campervan as part of the deal, so Malta was moved to the right.

[ van ]

He spent the next five months driving around Australia (to be the subject of a separate web page in due course), covering 20030 miles. He returned to the Sunshine Coast in mid-Jun07 and took up lodgings in Marcoola for two months, returning to the UK (via Taiwan, Abu Dhabi, and Austria) on 15Aug to house-sit for his mate again.

During his extended holiday in Australia he visited New Zealand; Fiji; The Philippines; Singapore; Malaysia; Viet Nam.

He moved to Buġibba, Malta, on 10Apr08.

Volunteering in the UK

In 1988 he joined the Royal Observer Corps, serving initially at Darton (later badly vandalized) and then at 20/66 Post Upton (actually at Badsworth) until the Corps was disbanded in 1991.

He was one of the 3000-plus men of the Women's Royal Voluntary Service: at first pushing a goodies trolley around the wards at Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield, then as a Meals on Wheels driver.

He joined the West Yorkshire Police as a Special Constable in 1991, but disillusioned by the abysmal standards of the overwhelming majority of regular officers he resigned in 1994: it appeared that only the Specials were actually interested in enforcing the law! (Photo)

Volunteering in Australia

Two months after arriving in Australia he became a skipper in The River Watch & Sea-bird Rescue Service: but he gave it away after a year because the job became too much like hard yakka after a retired Sqn Ldr (RAF) became the Ops Officer and started throwing his weight around!

He became a Meals on Wheels driver on 11Sep03, delivering meals two or three times a week until 2Aug07. (236 duties covering 5038 miles!)

In 2004 Darby became a member of the Queensland State Emergency Service, in which he specialized in working at heights and as a Flood Rescue Boat cox'n.

Forces Associations

Darby joined the RAFBEA in 1994 and was the membership secretary from 1996 to 2002.
He is a life member of RAFA and The Parachute Regimental Assn. He is, or has been, a member of The Northern Ireland Veterans' Assn, The Returned and Services League of Australia,, The Air Sea Rescue/Marine Craft Sections' Club, The RAF Seletar Assn, The National Malaya and Borneo Veterans' Assn.

Other Associations

He became a Buffalo in 1976; in 1985 he became a member of The Institute of Leadership and Management; he joined Mensa in 1989; and he was made a Freemason in The United Grand Lodge of Queensland on 18May04.