A Brief History
The 88th Entry was formed on the 20th January 1958 when 270 lost soles from all the far reaches of the UK were joined by potential apprentices from Burma and Venezuela at RAF Haltom that was to become our home for the next 3 years.
We spent the first six weeks in what was known as the Initial Training Flight of the the 3 wings of Halton before graduating on the 9th Feb to allocated flights and Squadrons where we received a Colour disc to fit behind our berry badge indicating respective Wing allegiance. This six week period was to break us in gradually by testing our fitness, ability to follow drill commands and clean bed space and ill fitting uniforms that only seamed to come in 3 sizes small large and what the ....... The ability to find the mess was useful although standing in a queue seemed unnatural to what we soon learned was a perk of Senior entries and as Rooks we Knew our place.
It was amazing to see the range of food that was on offer and Mushrooms that only had stalks was often a talking point. One day looking at what appeared to be a brown lumpy container that appeared to be moving I enquired " What is it" to be told "Sh.. but its well cooked." There are lots of stories to be told about ITF which we hope to publish in later when Ken Pegden has finished collating them.
We spent the first six weeks in what was known as the Initial Training Flight of the the 3 wings of Halton before graduating on the 9th Feb to allocated flights and Squadrons where we received a Colour disc to fit behind our berry badge indicating respective Wing allegiance. This six week period was to break us in gradually by testing our fitness, ability to follow drill commands and clean bed space and ill fitting uniforms that only seamed to come in 3 sizes small large and what the ....... The ability to find the mess was useful although standing in a queue seemed unnatural to what we soon learned was a perk of Senior entries and as Rooks we Knew our place.
It was amazing to see the range of food that was on offer and Mushrooms that only had stalks was often a talking point. One day looking at what appeared to be a brown lumpy container that appeared to be moving I enquired " What is it" to be told "Sh.. but its well cooked." There are lots of stories to be told about ITF which we hope to publish in later when Ken Pegden has finished collating them.
The next 3 years are a blur and as soon as Ken has finished collecting our tales of woe, Sporting achievement and romantic involvement and other tight scrapes on motor bikes I will check and see if they can be published without potential legal challenge.
But in the mean time here again is the RAFs version of our graduation of those 219 that survived from the Initial 270 on a cold December day 1960 before joining our allocated Units at RAF bases thought the UK on 9 Jan 1961.
But in the mean time here again is the RAFs version of our graduation of those 219 that survived from the Initial 270 on a cold December day 1960 before joining our allocated Units at RAF bases thought the UK on 9 Jan 1961.
click on button below to to view a brief report of our graduation .
For names and contact details of members yet to recive last posting contact Nick Nichole 88th Secretary. 01778345 or E mail mjenick@aol.com
If you have any comments on website are additions or corrections Contact Tony Jones 01407 710656 E mail a.jones88@btinternet.com